Why Do Instagram Playgrounds Keep Calling Themselves Museums?

When the Museum of Illusions opened in Greenwich Village last fall, it drew lines down the block to get in. Visitors flocked to photogenic exhibits that make it look like you have lost your head or can walk on walls. Following in the footsteps of other viral-experience purveyors like the Museum of Ice Cream, Museum of Pizza, and Color Factory, the Museum of Illusions’ takeover of a prominent corner building seemed to assert that the age of the pop museum—or “museum”—is only beginning.

The Museum of Illusions’ New York outpost was the second location to open in a burgeoning international franchise. MOI lists 18 current locations around the globe, with another 14 in the works, including in Chicago, Miami, Dallas, and Las Vegas. Unlike many of its predecessors in the world of Instagram-bait exhibitions, the Museum of Illusions isn’t a temporary pop-up—its locations are intended as long-term fixtures. The stately downtown NYC location, a landmarked neo-classical former bank, underlines that ambition.