Failures Wanted: Vancouver’s ‘Museum of Personal Failure’ Pop-Up Puts Your Worst Ls on Display

To err is human, sure. But failure? Human-er.

Failing is as universal as breathing. We all do it, whether we want to admit it or not. So instead of quietly spiralling over our missteps (or calling them “learning curves” to feel emotionally moisturized), there’s a pop-up exhibition in Vancouver right now that puts failure on a pedestal and asks you to look it in the eye.

The Museum of Personal Failure is open at Kingsgate Mall and it’s free to visit during mall hours. It launched January 24 and, thanks to popular demand, it’s been extended to February 9. 

The concept is exactly what it sounds like, in the best way: a museum-in-a-mall filled with artifacts of rejection, defeat and mistakes, all donated by the community and paired with notes from the people who lived them. Think of it as a public service announcement that you are not the only person with a broken heart, a broken plan or a broken “this will definitely work” delusion.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by @museumofpersonalfailure

The walls are lined with proof that life says “no” a lot: job rejection emails, abandoned creative attempts and projects that did not survive contact with reality.  There’s a dead aloe plant (a tiny botanical tragedy), a broken typewriter, an unsuccessful demo CD, even a dead tarantula submitted by someone who tried their best at caretaking and felt like they came up short. 

Other artifacts hit harder, in that quietly devastating way. A wedding dress/gown from a failed marriage shows up like a gut punch in fabric form. And one of the most striking pieces is a dress made from rejection letters, turning a lifetime of “unfortunately…” into something you can actually stand in front of and admire. 

There are also more local, only-in-Vancouver flavours of failure, including a failed bus stop idea near Kingsgate and a started-but-not-finished cedar hat weaving attempt that now gets to be art instead of guilt.

Accompanying each artifact is a note from the contributor explaining what happened, what they hoped for and what it felt like when things went sideways. It’s intimate, funny, brutal and oddly soothing. You’ll find yourself having that “wait, me too” reaction over and over, which is basically the emotional equivalent of finding out someone else also can’t keep basil alive.

The artist and curator behind this group catharsis session is Eyvan Collins, who came up with the project after going through a rough breakup and wanting a way to process failure without pretending it didn’t hurt. He put up “Failures Wanted” posters and asked people to submit their own artifacts. People delivered. 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by @museumofpersonalfailure

And yes, there’s something deliciously ironic about a wildly popular show about failure. A success story about personal defeat. It’s almost as meta as debating whether Alanis Morissette’s “Ironic” is, itself, ironic. (I’ll see myself out. Into the museum. With my half-written drafts.)

The Museum of Personal Failure is on now at Kingsgate Mall and runs until February 9, 2026.

WHERE: Kingsgate Mall (370 E. Broadway)
WHEN: Open daily until February 9 (during mall hours)
COST: Free