The Bunny Museum 🐇
I miss a place I’ve never been
Have you ever stumbled upon a place that seemed like a dream? Somewhere that you’ve only conjured in your imagination without realizing that it exists in the real world? Of course you have. Everyone has at some point or another, especially with the endless image bank accessible by a Google search. We all fantasize about leaving home for a week, a month, a few years to spend time away from home to acquaint ourselves with a city or country (plural for both depending on travel plans) in order to taste and learn about the world beyond our immediate orbit. Or, there are places we imagine leaving our lives to build anew, Los Angeles has been the oasis in the desert for many. It’s a city for dreamers. For those with the desire to live under the sun the majority of the year, to live in a neighborhood they intrinsically identify with, or for the ones with stars in their eyes, it’s a multifaceted city with endless roads to follow towards your dream life.
LA holds a special place in my heart. It was where I would escape to in my early twenties for long weekends or weeks to spend time with friends, go to music festivals, and visit museums to see artworks I read about in person. With each visit I caught a glimpse of what my life could be like through the lens of my friends who made it their home, but it also assured me that I was built for a different metropolitan life. It’s where I would visit family members as a child. The way the wavy roads that clung to the Santa Monica mountains thrilled me, in fright and delight, as I sat in the car traversing the canyons with my grandparents. When we reached the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, my eyes were always transfixed on the homes that lived squarely between the road and the sea, each with a personality designed to fit the lucky owner. The highway facing facades could not be more structurally different than the cookie cutter homes that made up Las Vegas. Each new planned community in Vegas in the late 1990’s to 2000’s had about 5 styles of homes to choose from and would be built in alternated lots to create an architectural pattern that had a consistent rhythm. My young eyes were entranced by the different garages, motifs affixed to the facades of some homes (I faintly remember seeing a shell in bas-relief affixed to one of them), colors, and cars that lived the California dream. Now, a week after the multiple fires broke out across the city, those homes are a memory.
My heart aches for the destruction of this city and the livelihoods of those living there. All week long I’ve seen dispatches posted on social media from friends and acquaintances of the status of their homes, their safety, and what those of us far away can do to help. Below are a few sources to help those who have been affected by the fires:
A friend of mines family home was lost, to support her and her family you can find their GoFund Me here
47 L.A. County restaurants offering food and relief to fire evacuees and first responders
Rachel Davies has also created a Master List of GoFund Mes that is continuously being updated
As many times as I’ve visited LA, I never knew The Bunny Museum existed. Located in Altadena, it housed about 60,000 bunny objects. I am devastated to know that this treasure of a special collection was destroyed in the Eaton Canyon Fire. You can donate to help the co-founders Steve Lubanski and Candace Frazee rebuild their wide-ranging rabbit collection at their GoFund Me here.
Opened in 1998, The Bunny Museum originated in Steve and Candace’s home in Pasadena, where their collection grew as they gifted each other rabbit themed presents over the years. They relocated to Altadena in 2017 to display their seemingly countless objects in a larger space. Their collection was inaugurated with a plush bunny that was a Valentine's Day present from 31 years ago and was one of the 20 objects saved from the fire along with their two-real life bunnies and three cats. Rightly earning the title as “The Hoppiest Place in the World,” they have received awards for their expansive assortment of bunny plushies, antiques, and any objects featuring a bunny emblazoned on it, including multiple awards by the Guinness World Records.
On their website they have this wonderful list of questions you might have asked yourself and would have been answered if you were to venture into their rabbit hole:
“Bunnies aren’t just special for Easter.
Bunnies are a part of our everyday lives
from literature to film to advertising to slang.
Got dust bunnies in your home?
Remember rabbit ear antennas?
Do you know what a rabbet plane is?
Have you ever eaten a Welsh Rabbit?
Do you know what a dewlap is?
What’s a cecal?
Do you know that bunnies purr?
Can you see the bunny on the moon?
Were you born in the Year of the Bunny?
Why does a bunny keep on going and going?
Hop around and find out.
The Bunny Museum will inspire and instruct.
Collections like The Bunny Museum’s delight me in ways I cannot put into words. Some may regard it as kitsch, but kitsch items often leave a longer lasting impression than the esoteric “high” art that need context. Kitsch is for everyone. Just like dreaming of intangible places, we have all encountered unique objects in our family or friends homes that are as special as their owner. More memories are held in mundane objects that sit on our shelves than we give them credit for. I look forward to the day that my dream of visiting The Bunny Museum is realized.
