MICRO is a

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

that builds six-foot-tall museums that are installed in public spaces such as in transit hubs, community centers, and hospital waiting rooms. Each museum explores a topic through interactive displays, such as holograms, videos, and 3D printed sculptures. MICRO currently has two museum series in public release, the Smallest Mollusk Museum, and the Perpetual Motion Museum.

History

MICRO was founded by scientist Amanda Schochet and advertising producer Charles Philipp in 2017, who also previously worked on the

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...

show,

The Amazing World of Gumball ''The Amazing World of Gumball'' is an animated sitcom created by Ben Bocquelet for Cartoon Network. The series concerns the lives of 12-year-old Gumball Watterson, an anthropomorphic blue cat, and adoptive goldfish brother Darwin, who attend ...

, as a post producer, puppet fabricator, and voice actor. Prior to founding MICRO, Schochet was a computational ecologist and researcher for NASA and the Smithsonian, while Philipp developed and produced media and advertising. MICRO’s first museum series, the Smallest Mollusk Museum, launched publicly in October 2017 and shares the history and science of

mollusks Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...

, a diverse group of invertebrates. The second MICRO Museum series, the Perpetual Motion Museum, is on physics and engineering, and explores the history of humanity’s efforts to capture and store energy. In 2020, in response to

Covid-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, MICRO developed a free educational guide called MICRO DIY, which allows people to build museum exhibits out of objects they find in their own homes.

Locations

Lincoln Medical Center Lincoln Hospital is a full service medical center and teaching hospital affiliated with Weill Cornell Medical College, in the Mott Haven neighborhood of the Bronx, New York City, New York. The medical center is municipally owned by NYC Health + H ...

, Bronx Family Courts,

LinkedIn LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Launched on May 5, 2003, the platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job se ...

Building,

Brooklyn Public Library The Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) is the public library system of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is the sixteenth largest public library system in the United States by holding and the seventh by number of visitors. Like the two othe ...

, Ronald McDonald House NY,

Bellevue Hospital Bellevue Hospital (officially NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue and formerly known as Bellevue Hospital Center) is a hospital in New York City and the oldest public hospital in the United States. One of the largest hospitals in the United States b ...

in Kips Bay,

Ace Hotel Ace Hotel is a chain of hotels headquartered in Los Angeles and New York City. Founded in 1999 in Seattle, it operates hotels primarily in the United States, with locations in Portland, Oregon; Brooklyn, New York City; Palm Springs, California; ...

, Rockefeller Center Concourse, the Brooklyn Navy Yards,

Pioneer Works Pioneer Works is a non-profit cultural center in Red Hook, New York City. The center builds community through the arts and sciences to create an open and inspired world. It encourages radical thinking across disciplines by providing practitioners ...

in Red Hook, and

Governors Island Governors Island is a island in New York Harbor, within the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is located approximately south of Manhattan Island, and is separated from Brooklyn to the east by the Buttermilk Channel. The National Park ...

References

External links

Non-profit organizations based in the United States {{sci-org-stub