Gowanus' Morbid Anatomy Museum Is Dead

GOWANUS, BROOKLYN — The Morbid Anatomy Museum, a local sanctuary for all things lifeless and a guiding torch in the night for freaks and artists standing their ground against real-estate sharks in the neighborhood, has closed after two-and-a-half years at 3rd Avenue and 7th Street, according to museum board member Tonya Hurley.

"A heartfelt thank you to everyone who has supported us in this endeavor," Hurley wrote on Facebook on Sunday night. "We are extremely proud of the groundbreaking work we've done and the incredible community we were so privileged to serve."

By Monday morning, the Morbid Anatomy Museum was listed as "permanently closed" on Google.

The museum had been having money problems, and needed to raise $75,000 during this month's annual fundraising appeal to stay open, according to a CrowdRise page set up to accept donations. (The page showed that only $8,000 had been raised by Dec. 19.)

"We’re proud of the award winning and critically acclaimed work we have done, and we are striving to keep the Morbid Anatomy Museum affordable and accessible to our passionate community and the general public," the fundraising page said. "Good press doesn’t pay the rent, however."

The Morbid Anatomy Museum hosted exhibits, lectures, readings, workshops and other performances at its dark and whimsical 3rd Avenue location — all of them tied to the intersection of art and science at the point of mortality.

"It's a place where you can go and sort of have an experience about death that isn't sort of structured by religion or fear," local author Stephen Asma said in a recent fundraising video (embedded below). "Instead, you have sort of an aesthetic experience — you can even call it beautiful."

The museum also made a name for itself with its summertime procession for Saint Florian, the patron saint of flooding. Participants would carry a papier mâché effigy of Saint Florian down 3rd Avenue, parallel to the famously polluted and flood-prone Gowanus Canal, in an effort to "draw attention to the predicament of this improbably gentrifying neighborhood and encourage new rituals to serve as a basis for a new community, all with a sense of whimsy and spectacle.”

We've contacted the museum's management for more on what will happen to its artifacts and traditions, now that the physical location is shutting down. We'll let you know what we find out.

In the meantime, here's more on the theory behind the museum, via a recent TED Talk from co-founder Joanna Ebenstein:

First reported by Bklyner. A hat tip to Gothamist. Lead photo via the Morbid Anatomy Museum/Facebook