About

Founded in 2014 by Mariángeles Soto-Díaz, the Unconfirmed Makeshift Museum (UMM) is an artist-run project with a responsive, prismatic sensibility. It is organic and unfinished in its form of resistance, conceived as an art world intervention in a planned community and ur-suburb in Orange County, California, and elsewhere via its portable form. It provides a shifting platform for exhibitions and events, decentralizing the circulation of contemporary art practices and integrating their sensory, poetic, political, and affective dimensions. Made visible by irregular iteration over time, UMM is kaleidoscopic and puzzling. 

People and Partners

Artists

  • José Alvergue
  • Anke Becker
  • Linda Besemer
  • Aimée Burg
  • Jessica Ceballos Campbell
  • Kristin Cerda
  • Fabián Cereijido
  • Cognate Collective
  • Sydney Croskery
  • Matthew Deleget
  • Daniella Dooling
  • Diana-Sofía Estrada
  • Robby Herbst
  • Luis G. Hernandez
  • Alana de Hinojosa
  • Scott Ingram
  • Adriana Johnson
  • Emily Joyce
  • Douglas Kearney
  • Jessica Lagunas
  • Janice Lee
  • Kenji C. Liu
  • Esperanza Mayobre
  • Claudia Parducci
  • Nancy Popp
  • Karen Schiff
  • Lillian Schwartz
  • Jacobo Sefamí
  • Semi-tropic Spiritualists
  • Erika Suderburg
  • Astri Swendsrud
  • Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow
  • Stephen van Dyck
  • Laura Vena
  • Patricia Zarate
  • The Museum of Beyond

Institutions/partners

  • Getty PST Art
  • Independent Curators International (ICI)
  • 18th Street Arts Los Angeles
  • Edward Ogosta
  • Klowden Mann Gallery
  • Los Angeles Road Concerts

Youth Ambassadors / Questions Operations Managers

  • Silas P.
  • Jessica R.
  • Esme K.
  • Sonia K.
  • Leo K.
  • Liam M.
  • Anna Z.
  • Ash Y.
  • Atticus K.
  • Cathy S.
  • Kai S.
  • Luna M.
  • Raina Z.

Contact

If you wish to contact UMM or join the mailing list, put a white flag on your window. If that doesn’t work, please email hola [at] unconfirmedmakeshiftmuseum [dot] org.

Support

You may support UMM by making a tax-deductible donation via its fiscal sponsor, Fulcrum Arts.

FAQ

Q: Why the name? 
A: UMM came out of a need to re-imagine the idea of the solid, white cube museum with its museum-going-public, to make space for social practice and contemporary art embedded in the neighborhood and elsewhere in its nomadic form, made visible through word of mouth and iteration.

Q: Is Social Practice in contemporary art just another term for activism?
A: Sometimes Social Practice takes the form of successful activist campaigns, but ambiguity as an element in art making is often incorporated to inspire or activate communities.

Q: Are artists who incorporate Social Practice social creatures by nature?
A: Not necessarily.

Q: Who supports the Unconfirmed Makeshift Museum?
A: UMM is a labor of love and has yet to receive any grants, but donations are welcome and tax deductible via Fulcrum Arts’ Emerge fiscal sponsorship program, which offers organizations the ability to seek funding and provides guidance by an established non-profit.