Bringing Back the 2000s — Dallas’ Newest Instagram Playland Aims for Nearer Nostalgia

Another new immersive art installation has popped up in Dallas. This time, it’s inspired by childhood memories from the early 2000s. Texas-native Steffi Lynn Tsai created the Museum of Memories as a flash to the past and perfect photo-op for all ages.

Open at 4428 Main Street, Suite 200 in East Dallas, the museum has about 15 photo opportunities with another on the way. You can pose in a cereal bowl filled with plastic yellow balls set up against a backdrop of photos from different 2000s cartoons.

There’s a room with a giant pink birthday cake, a girl’s bedroom with a giant diary and lava lamp, and a more interstellar room with clouds hanging from the ceiling. A mural referencing Kim Impossible’s “Call Me Beep Me If Ya Wanna Reach Me” takes up a wall. Another room is a playground with a basketball hoop and seesaw.

Tsai studied illustration at the Pratt Institute in New York and now works as a freelancer in the city. She painted most of the walls in the installation herself. With help from some of her childhood friends and brother Stefan, she’s created a nostalgic experience for everyone.

With the Museum of Memories allowing about 20 to 30 people in the space during an hour period, you get plenty of room to explore each backdrop and take as many pictures as your heart (and Instagram dreams) demand.

“Some people even bring multiple outfits to change into,” Stefan Tsai says.

Stefan also says that they’re working on a new room, more male-centric, with retro video game consoles and computer monitors. A lot of what the Museum of Memories has right now is definitely more feminine.

These interactive art installations are becoming a bigger and bigger deal with successful Dallas runs from Sweet Tooth Hotel, Psychedelic Robot, Rainbow Vomit and Candytopia (which is extending its stay through September 2.) And the popularity doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Another art playground, called 29Rooms, is coming to Dallas in August.

Tickets for Museum of Memories cost $25.