Kurt Cobain’s Childhood Home Could Become a Museum
Smells like team spirit.
A Nirvana fan from Portland, Oregon is looking to purchase Kurt Cobain‘s childhood home through crowdfunding and turn it into a museum. The grunge icon’s mother listed the 1.5-story Aberdeen, Washington house last fall, according to Spin, for $500,000 – despite a valuation of less than $67,000 – so journalist Jaime Dunkle has launched a campaign on GoFundMe.com to raise $700,000 to purchase the home and for curatorial costs. The campaign has been live for 17 days as of Thursday and has raised $135 so far.
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“We’re making sure this house is memorialized by us fans so it doesn’t end up in the clutches of capitalist greed,” Dunkle wrote in her listing. “This museum will reflect the anti-commercialism spirit of Nirvana.”
Dunkle recently visited the house and took video of Cobain’s bedroom. She focused on the logos of hard-rock and metal bands Cobain allegedly stenciled on his walls, including Led Zeppelin and Iron Maiden, as well as another nod to the legacy of Robert Plant with the words “Communication breakdown!” There’s also a picture of some martial artists and more quizzical scrawling: a misspelled callout to malt liquor maker Schlitz, a “sperm fishy” with an arrow pointing at a balloon-like glyph, another misspelled tribute to malt liquor (“Old [sic] English 800”) and the words “affy bud.” She pauses at one point in the video to show the window Cobain likely looked out at in his formative years.
Rewards for donating to Dunkle’s push include a one-year membership to the museum for $15, five years’ membership for $50, a DIY shirt with Cobain quotes handmade by Dunkle for $100 and tickets to a sold-out Die Antwoord concert for $300. The highest pledge price, $1,000, earns the investor a lifetime membership to the museum, a T-shirt and a sleepover (presumably at Cobain’s house) after construction.
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The push to turn Cobain’s home into a museum follows several other events this year honoring the Nirvana frontman. Two Washington towns have planned days honoring Cobain’s legacy: Hoquiam, located four miles outside of Aberdeen, has planned a Nirvana Day for April 10th – the day the group is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – but Aberdeen beat it to the punch, holding Kurt Cobain Day on February 20th, the singer-guitarist’s birthday. Part of the town’s celebrations included the presentation of a weird crying Cobain statue.
“We have been remiss for a long time of not honoring him,” Aberdeen Mayor Bill Simpson commented, adding, “We hope this is just as big as Graceland eventually.”