The Museum of Desire is Melbourne’s Wildest Date Night

“I honestly think it’s one of Melbourne’s best date nights, if not Melbourne’s best date night,” says David Strong, co-founder of the Museum of Desire. An immersive, adults-only experience, the museum celebrates love – and lust – through art, technology and interactive installations.

Housed within a huge New York-style warehouse in Collingwood, the museum has more than 25 main attractions, an art collection and select vintage pieces. Popular installations include the Orgasm Harp, which creates wild sounds and projections when played with, and a “boobie ball pit” (aka Joy Room) to dive into, filled with – you guessed it – breast-shaped plastic balls.

There are also phonebooths with art collages of ’70s Playboy and Penthouse magazines, and European tart cards – original vintage business cards used by sex workers in Europe. Answer one of the phones and you might hear a positive affirmation or a suggestive pickup line.

Celebrating its one-year anniversary over December 5 & 6, the museum commemorates this milestone with a series of performances, art, sensual mischief and after-dark delights. Since opening, the establishment has welcomed more than 50,000 visitors. Not only is it a popular date spot, it’s also a passion project for Strong and his own partner, co-founder and director Correne Wilkie. 

“It’s been a wild ride,” says Strong. “We have both been working in arts and entertainment for more than 20 years, but this was a huge undertaking, it was a big leap of faith for us, as the founders we wanted to develop something truly unique for Melbourne.”

The couple were inspired to create the museum after seeing international arts venues that combined a gallery atmosphere with art, entertainment and technology, and noticing a gap in the Australian scene. As for its playful and provocative theme, that came from wanting to break free of tradition and taboos.

“So many artists I know have love, lust and eroticism in their work, and there are limitations on how that’s expressed in the traditional arts world,” says Strong. “There is an established link between sexual creativity and artistic creativity. And when you allow artists free reign, art inspired by sex can have some pretty amazing outcomes. So, we took that insight and invited Australian and International artists to explore that vision with us.”

The visitors’ enthusiasm is a reflection of Melbourne’s open-mindedness, playfulness and diversity. “What does it say about Melbourne? I guess it says Melbourne has a big love of creativity an open mindedness and is a little bit naughty. And importantly that Melbourne was ready for something like this. The response has been very strong, we have a real cross section of people coming through the museum,” Strong shares.

Couples who arrive for the one-year anniversary celebrations next week are certainly guaranteed both a naughty and artistic evening. Over two days, guests will enjoy a smutty storytelling performance by Ponydog Productions. “He does this experience live, where he gets the audiences to feed him inspiration, and he turns those into stories in the middle of the room, which should be really exciting,” Strong explains. “He also uses tarot cards as prompts as well, to build out the storytelling, which is going to be a really interesting performance.”

Visitors can also view Cast My Body, a live performance by artist Claire Tennant, who will create body moulds of people on both nights. There are also other permanent installations Strong recommends seeing, including a room where artists celebrate pubic hair styles and visitors are encouraged to draw the current state of their pubic hair. In the past year, Strong says more than 30,000 people have done a drawing of their pubic hair or lack thereof.

For couples who want to get especially intimate, Strong suggests trying the museum’s interactive questionnaire before leaving. “The other one that people love is ‘never, ever have I’, which is a questionnaire that people do at the end of the museum,” he says. “It’s about 60 intimate, cheeky questions. And if you do it with your partner or with a friend, you will know a lot about them by the time you finish.” 

To put it more bluntly, Strong says: “You won’t have sex at the museum, but you probably will afterwards.”

This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with Museum of Desire. You can now purchase tickets ($36pp) to its first birthday celebration – December 5 & 6 – via the event page.