Museum of Speculative Inquiry
The Museum of Speculative Inquiry
The Museum of Speculative Inquiry (MSI) is an interdisciplinary platform for artistic experimentation, creative risk, and the generation of knowledge through practice. It embraces speculation as a method, privileging questions over answers, process over conclusion, and imagination as a form of inquiry. Rather than presenting fixed narratives, the MSI approaches the museum as a laboratory where artists, scholars, students, objects, and audiences participate in the production of meaning through encounter, juxtaposition, and exchange.
Inspired by early modern cabinets of curiosity, the MSI brings together objects according to associative and sometimes unexpected logics. Housed within historic casework and drawers, objects enter into dialogue with one another, not to resolve the world into order, but to provoke new questions, connections, and ways of thinking.
The realization of the Museum of Speculative Inquiry was made possible through the generous support of Taylor and Molly Kirkpatrick. Additional support provided by Susan and Jeremy Shamos and Walter Arader.
Plan Your Visit
The Museum of Speculative Inquiry is located in the Mary Reed Building, 2199 S. University Blvd. The MSI can be found on the basement level of the building in room 001. Paid parking is available in the lots on the south side of the building.
Please note that a DU ID is required to access this building. To arrange access, please request a viewing appointment by emailing Lauren Anuszewski.
The MSI serves as a classroom during the academic year. During the fall quarter 2026, the space is open to visitors from 12:00–5:00 PM Monday through Friday and all day on Saturday and Sunday.
For visitors using mobility aids, a ramp is located at the southeast corner of the building. The elevator is located at the center of the building.
Now On View in the Museum of Speculative Inquiry:
Sympathetic Objects
Fall 2026–Summer 2027
Learn More
Explore the previous installation of the MSI, Naturalia
Learn more about the history of the space and historic cabinets of curiosity
