The Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) will host an extensive exhibit focusing on the history of Pearl Jam later this year.
The exhibit, titled “Pearl Jam: Home and Away,” will include more than 200 artifacts from Pearl Jam’s vaults and will open to the public on Aug. 11, which is the day after the band will perform the second of two sold-out concerts at Safeco Field. Members of Ten Club, which is Pearl Jam’s fan club, will be able to preview the exhibit before its public opening on Aug. 8 and 10.
According to a press release announcing the exhibit, it will include “personal instruments, equipment, stage props, original typewritten lyrics and notebooks, original poster and album art and set lists” among other materials. Also as a part of the exhibit, fans will be able to take photos in front of giant “Pearl Jam” lettering mimicking the iconic cover of the band’s debut album “Ten.”
The band is notorious for keeping detailed records and archiving its career with extensive written and visual documentation as well as a massive catalog of audio and video footage. When Pearl Jam celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2010, the festivities, which were held in Wisconsin, included a pop-up Pearl Jam museum. It is expected that many of the artifacts and pieces of memorabilia that were shown there will also be on display at MoPop.
“This exhibition will give an intimate first-hand look at Pearl Jam’s journey from 1990 to the present and into the future,” Jacob McMurray, MoPOP’s senior curator, said in the press release. “From their beginnings as one of the originators of the ‘Seattle Sound’ and the grunge phenomenon, to their sustained global impact as one of the most popular and respected bands in the world, Pearl Jam’s story is still unfolding as they continue to sell out shows world-wide and use their stage to further social and political consciousness.”
When “Pearl Jam: Home and Away” opens this summer it won’t be the only exhibit focusing on an iconic Seattle band. Earlier this year MoPOP brought back “Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses,” one of the museum’s most successful and popular exhibits in its 18-year history. Pearl Jam and Nirvana were famously made out to be rivals by the media during the 90s and now the two will share space under the same museum roof.
Admission for “Pearl Jam: Home and Away” is included with general admission to MoPop and the exhibit will be in display until early 2019.
