Most neighborhoods don’t want a junkyard in their community. But
Broad Avenue isn’t like most neighborhoods, and the Junkyard Museum
isn’t like most junkyards.
The Junkyard will be an interactive museum using found objects and
architectural salvage to create climbable sculptures. Though the
Junkyard is located temporarily at the old Marine Hospital near the
National Ornamental Metal Museum, founder Lisa Williamson would like
the museum’s permanent home to be on Broad.
“I’ve been looking at Broad for a long time,” she said at a meeting
of the Historic Broad Avenue Business Association last week. “If it
were up to me, I’d put it there in a second. Everybody’s rallied around
me. … I already feel at home there.”
Though many children’s museums try to prepare children for
adulthood, the Junkyard — and museums like it, such as City
Museum in St. Louis — encourage teenagers and adults to be kids
again.
Williamson and the Junkyard board are in talks to lease the
warehouse on which the iconic Broad Avenue watertower rests, but
they’re also open to other spaces in the neighborhood.
John Weeden, the UrbanArt Commission’s executive director, thinks
locating the Junkyard in Binghamton would be brilliant. Lined with
galleries and home to UrbanArt’s offices, Broad is the city’s newest
arts district.
“It could provide an anchor for this area … as well as offer
incredible opportunities to local artists,” Weeden said.
The location is also in the middle of a residential neighborhood and
would be within walking distance of four schools.
Broad Avenue residents and business owners seemed to feel the museum
would be a good fit with the neighborhood, too. Most of the questions
during the presentation focused on suggestions for fund-raising and
ways to make the Broad location a reality.
“We heard Lisa was looking over here, and we jumped at it,” said Pat
Brown of the T. Clifton Art Gallery. “This is just what we need.”
Brown said the Junkyard could be a magnet for bringing new people to
the neighborhood: “This would redefine people’s perceptions of
Broad.”
