Museum of Make Believe : A Year to Remember
A glimpse into our first live event, “Make Believe at Muzeo.”
We started our journey on April 5th, 2020 when we officially announced the Museum of Make Believe. Now is a perfect time to step back and look at how far down the path we have travelled in the last year. First, we should tell you how the Museum of Make Believe came to be. Multimedia artist, Geoff Mitchell, grew up in the Deep South’s Gulf Coast with a long rich history of storytelling and on hot summer days, it was common to share local legends, tall tales and ghost stories. All of this narrative fueled his imagination and provided an array of subjects for his visual art that includes miniatures, paintings, music, short films, storybooks and more. What he loves the most about making art is that it carries on the tradition of storytelling and bringing out of the ordinary tales to life. He and his wife, Amy, founded the Museum of Make Believe as a place to keep this tradition alive. Amy has been a lifelong storyteller, creating new worlds and a cast of characters by putting pen to paper as soon as she learned to write, masterfully weaving ghost stories and fairy tales to accompany all of the artwork. Once the Museum has raised enough funds to create a permanent location, it will be home to creative visionaries and community leaders to help us preserve the timeless art of storytelling within a unique arts environment that is both enchanting and ethereal.
Geoff and Amy Mitchell, Museum of Make Believe founders.
We also want to share with you the story behind the silhouetted cat that is the foundation of our logo. He was once, quite some time ago, a real cat named “Oscar.” Upon learning suddenly and unexpectedly that Oscar had only weeks to live, Geoff set out to memorialize this special cat in a puppet figurine made from felt, fabric, ceramic, armature wire, and even some of Oscar’s real whiskers. It wasn’t made with an intention to exhibit it, but rather as an homage to Oscar, a place for his spirit to go. In 2018, a unique set of circumstances led to the idea of showing this puppet and a fairy tale story was written to accompany it, “Stardust” (a semi-fictional fairy tale that captures the spirit of why the puppet was originally made). Oscar became the centerpiece of that exhibit and later when we decided to create the Museum of Make Believe, it was only fitting that he would become the heart of our logo. And in this way, he remains here with us today.
The Oscar puppet.
We believe in offering affordable and entertaining storytelling experiences to our community. That really is at the heart of our mission and we don’t want to put that on pause while raising the funds for a physical location. To that end, we decided to embrace the intangible nature of not having a home yet and in the last year we created three free virtual storytelling events which gave a platform and voice to talented artists across the globe. We truly enjoyed being able to provide themed, lively, and charming experiences to people during a time of need…and it was wonderful to have people from all over the world attend. Even while not being open, we were able to grow and build an audience (today, on average, we have over 55,000 people a month visit our website). Just as importantly, they were really fun!
A short video inviting guests to our first virtual event, “Hallows’ Eve Curiosity Show.”
Amy, Samantha and friends, hosts for our “Christmas Fairy Tales” virtual event.
Our virtual event, “Sidecar Puppetry Revue” for World Puppetry Day.
We were thrilled when the day finally came to be able to have our first in person event! We partnered with the Muzeo Museum and Cultural Center in Anaheim, CA to host our one day-pop up event called “Make Believe at Muzeo.” Watch the video below to get a taste of how we transformed the 5,000 square foot main gallery into a vintage carnival complete with booths, activities, a stage show and more!
To date we have raised $21,434.16 thanks to our wonderful supporters! This will help us continue to fulfill our mission to preserve the timeless art of storytelling and to contribute to the community by offering a wide variety of artistic and storytelling opportunities. You can look for us at the upcoming Children’s Art Festival where we will provide a free “wishing chime” craft and story scroll. Also, we will be at the Anaheim Halloween Parade and Fall Festival to help create two days of family friendly spooky entertainment filled with plenty of tricks and treats. You can even see our colorful cavalcade of characters creating a spectacle at the parade representing the Museum of Make Believe. We will be announcing more surprises soon…including a glimpse into the museum itself! Any funds that we raise will help us provide more like this for the community and will also go towards our capital campaign so that we can soon open our doors and welcome you in!
Our free “wishing chime” craft for the Children’s Art Festival, August 7th.
Dreamers
To round out 2021, we have set a goal to reach 100 inaugural members (we call them dreamers). You can help us reach that goal and support our mission by purchasing a “Dedication Level” membership that shows your support and belief in what we do. You can become a dedicated dreamer here and help us reach our 100-member goal!
Special collectible “Oscar” ornament for 2021 charter dreamers.
When you join, we will send you a one-of-a-kind handmade collectible Oscar ornament. These are made for us by a talented pair of artisans in Italy. We feature more of their lovely work, including beautiful music boxes (see below), in our Emporium. If you are looking for more ways to support the Museum of Make Believe, you can find some really unique items for sale in our Emporium here.
We want to offer a big thank you to all of you who have dreamed with us in the last year! We look forward to what the future holds!
Thank you to our donors: Sue Pottenger, Judi Deen, Shelia and David Alexander, Pat Pinson, Jeffrey Miller, Larry and Judy Hicks, Chuck Liddiard, April Lo, Kathy and Bill Couture, Vida and Kermit Mitchell, Paula Laguette, Laura Mohr, Milton Hicks, Fontaine Goorwitch, Samantha and Nathanial Rowe, Keith Olsen, Josh and Dana Spears, Julie Schilling, Carl Sahlberg, Beauchamp Hebb, Murphy Monroe, Karen and Greg Nutt, Angela King, Nick Capaci, Paula, Cathy, Kelsey Irvin, Rosa Dominguez, Leonard Masino, Phil Moreno, Diane Brounestein, Carly Cost-Chretien, Carmen Alvarez, Shelley Avierra, Larua Galli, Louann Vu, Sky Rust, Tanya Springman, Gil Garcia, Michelle Kaim, Sarah Harris, Lauren Belcher, Todd St. Vrain, John Hurst, Erik Osborne, Scott Hoffman, Casey Pitts, Claire Cedeno, Myra Castro, Mike Masino, Deborah Roth, Clancey Moore, Tina Bui, Gustavo Carpio, and Peter Medez.
Thank you to our partners: A Whole New World of Parties, Bob Gurr, Good Stuff Coffee, Smith and Stone, The American Landscape, Wooly Mammoth Antiques and Oddities, Memento Mori, Twisted Heart Puppetworks, Tucson Ghost Company, The Museum of American Magic Lantern Shows, Gerald Dickens, Zealous Creative, Trick Studio, Bob Baker Marionette Theater, Atlanta Center for Puppetry Arts, Sacred Junk Bar, Anaheim Packing House, Mayor Pro-Tem Stephen Faessel, Ron Roberson (Media Operations for the City of Anaheim), Paul Kott Relators, the Anaheim Community Foundation, Miss Anaheim Beautiful, MUZEO Museum and Cultural Center, Buster Balloon, Lucky 13 Bakery, Anaheim Halloween Parade and Fall Festival.
Thank you to our wonderful Board of Directors: Kelsey Irvin, Samantha Rowe, Kathy Couture and Mike Lyster.
See you real soon!