By Aileen Keown Vaux
On the corner of SE 47th Ave. near SE Harrison St. stands a pink and white residential home, with large windows that showcases a “Mini-Museum,” a homemade wooden box with a hand-drawn sign that sits flush with one of the windows. Over the years, the Mini-Museum has featured a range of exhibits from the Tucker-Golden family, including collage, fossils, wooden ships and frequently, dioramas of small cat figurines in peril. Started in 2019, when a then-14-year-old Maybe Golden wanted to share her ever-growing collection of homemade art, the Mini-Museum began, according to Golden, as a way “to inspire the local neighborhood kids to be creative.”
The Mini-Museum eventually evolved into a collective family effort to bring whimsy to the neighborhood. When Maybe moved out of the family home, the question of who should run the Mini-Museum fell to her parents, Harvey Golden and Kathy Tucker, art-makers in their own right. As Tucker said, “For a while I wasn’t sure what we would do. Covid took a toll on everyone. But people really liked the museum. When the person who put the Sidewalk Joy Map together contacted me, we recommitted to being more purposeful with it. Now we all contribute exhibits, but I think Harvey’s dioramas are the most popular.”
The Tucker-Golden family are no strangers to museums. Harvey, a kayak expert who, up until August 2023, also curated the Lincoln Street Kayak and Canoe Museum, likely inspired Maybe’s foray into museum development. “Harvey had [the] kayak museum from the time that Maybe was small, so I guess she wanted to curate her own,” recalled Harvey.
Giving parents and children something to talk about became another goal for keeping the Mini-Museum going. As Tucker said, “When you have a young child, the end of the day can be a difficult time for parenting. Harvey’s exhibits are great for the kids.” The Tucker-Golden family have an immediate way to determine how their Mini-Museum exhibits connect with the people of the Richmond neighborhood. “There is no sound-proofing to those windows,” said Maybe. “We’d hear every single thing people would say about [the Mini-Museum]…which was nice…because it is overwhelmingly positive.”
Local resident, Staci Morgan, recalled the first time she encountered the Mini-Museum. “Very shortly after I moved to the neighborhood in 2021 I was walking my dog and saw this little window with a nautical scene and called my mom immediately to tell her. She loves it too.” When asked how she thinks the neighborhood is impacted by the Mini-Museum, Morgan said, “I think the neighborhood benefits from the joy the Mini-Museum provides. For me, it’s a reminder to search for those whimsical moments during an otherwise ordinary day.”
Notably, Harvey’s popular dioramas feature small cat figurines that Tucker first purchased from the Goodwill. Maybe reflected that “There is definitely a bit of darkness to some of [Harvey’s] exhibits. I think it really started with ‘The Daring Rescue of Our Aviators in Mortal Peril.’ One of his earliest dioramas, it featured a model helicopter, suspended over a crashed aircraft bomber, all operated by an assortment of cats.” Harvey agreed, saying that “The dioramas are usually dramatic, with mortal tension and overwhelming ridiculousness. The situations vary, but there is usually a lot going on, with many levels of humor for a range of ages…becoming a driver for intergenerational dialogue.”
For now, the Mini-Museum stands as a living piece of art in a Richmond neighborhood where skeletons, street poetry and tiny libraries populate front yards with as much frequency as the iconic Portland rose bushes. When asked what he foresees for the future of the Mini-Museum, Harvey said, “We’ve lived in the neighborhood for over 25 years and have appreciated the whimsical aspects of many a yard and house. This is our way of reciprocating and keeping things interesting. We hope to keep it going as long as we live here, and as long as I can source enough cats to inspire me.”
Exhibits at the Mini-Museum are also regularly documented and updated on their Instagram account, @minimuseumofportland.
Harvey Golden’s Cat Figurine Diorama. Photo by Aileen Keown Vaux.
