The Show's Over--Now What?

What do you do when the lights come up, the curtain comes down, and your show's over? Or in the case of the artist, when the gallery needs its walls back? We've created a museum on Open Museum called Ephemera , dedicated to collections of works that were exhibited together in a gallery or museum at one time, but are now dispersed--at least in the real world. On Open Museum, the collections in Ephemera have a permanent, virtual home.

For some of the collections, the Ephemera museum is the only place the works will ever appear as a collection again. In 2008, the family of late, famed illustrator Trina Schart Hyman organized a show of her oil paintings at a gallery close to Hyman's former home in Lyme, New Hampshire. Hyman's family, friends and collectors from around the United States and abroad loaned the works they owned of Hyman's to the exhibit, which lasted for two weeks. When the show closed, the paintings scattered, but Hyman's images are still very much together in The Paintings of Trina Schart Hyman collection in the Ephemera museum.

Similarly, sculptor Scott Knorlein's zany installation of memorabilia from life in America, "Tales from the Blue Pedal Car," was exhibited for several months at a small Vermont exhibit space, and then dismantled. Components of the piece may be sold individually, but "Tales" will live forever in Ephemera in all its odd, fun glory.

One of the most heartening--and paradoxical--aspects of virtual exhibit space is that it offers transitory exhibits a permanent home, something that most bricks and mortar galleries and museums just can't do.

Come experience all the collections in Ephemera. You'll be glad you did!