Everything you need to know about the upcoming display of 250 iconic dolls
When you have a curator Barbie: Exhibition When she accepted this job in 2024, she asked herself a philosophical question: What is a Barbie doll?
Reply? He is a cultural icon, says Danielle Thom, speaking from Glasgow, where the exhibition first opened at London’s Design Museum before coming to Melbourne Museum in November.
“The Barbie doll is also something that influences design,” Thom says. “She designs and shapes the way children play and influences the world of design. Fashion designers and filmmakers have responded to the Barbie idea with their own applications.
“I was looking at the doll with these dual design influences, and the key message that emerged was this: The history of the Barbie doll and the doll world – fashion, homes and accessories: is the history of mainstream miniature taste because of the relationship between Barbie and popular culture.”
Prior to the publication of Greta Gerwig’s work, Thom was asked to curate the exhibition. Barbie It is a film made in 2023, but its subject has become a cultural phenomenon along with Christopher Nolan’s. Oppenheimer It helped create excitement. But one thing he didn’t take into account was how many children would visit the museum for the exhibit, which was designed more for nostalgic adults.
“In the original iteration in London, we created an exhibition for an adult audience; we did market testing that showed this was our market. Despite this research, we realized people were bringing their kids. So we had to think on our feet,” Thom said.
“We introduced a cart full of modern Barbie dolls, and people can borrow a Barbie, bring it to the exhibit, and return it before leaving… Not only children, but adults also love to play.”
Melbourne Museum has a history of hosting successful exhibitions of children’s toys and entertainment.
The museum organized an exhibition in 2022. more than a million Lego bricks and another one in 2018 Dedicated to the story of Myer’s Christmas windows. One of Melbourne Museum’s best-attended exhibitions in recent years was inspired by a movie: Jurassic World The exhibition attracted more than 422,000 visitors in 2016.
Visitors to the Melbourne Museum for the Barbie exhibition will be treated to a display with a “shiny and fierce” feel, just like the plastic doll and the dream house. However, Thom said that attention was paid to the materials in the exhibition, “the large graphics of the magazines printed on honeycomb-patterned paper… [which are] It needed to reflect how Barbies were packaged.”
The exhibition will feature more than 250 objects, including 150 dolls and a first-edition Barbie from 1959. The 67-year-old doll is hand-painted and wears a black and white swimsuit. Thom says similar versions of the doll have sold for up to $40,000.
While the exhibit draws heavily on nostalgia, Thom says one of his favorite parts of the experience was seeing how different generations interact with Barbie.
“You see that the grandparents and kids who visit the show all have different stories and memories about the different Barbies they see in the collection,” she said.
Barbie: Exhibition At Melbourne Museum from 28 November. Details:
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Kayla Olaya is a culture reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.
