Museum in Vancouver puts personal failures on display, encouraging people to move on

VANCOUVER — A dead aloe plant, an old wedding dress that symbolized a failed marriage and a rejection letter for a job application are all exhibits that are part of a display of personal failure at a Vancouver mall.

Eyvan Collins, curator of the Museum of Personal Failure, started putting up posters online last year, inviting people to submit items representing their failures as a way for him to cope with “big heartbreak” after two of his relationships ended.

People submitted all kinds of items, Collins said, which were enough to host an exhibition.

“I don’t know how they all would describe the experience of submitting, or what their reasons would be, but it’s been cool. I found it quite moving to have so many people assemble to make an art project together,” Collins said.

Each item is paired with a written explanation from the submitter, explaining why it signifies a personal failure.

One exhibitor submitted a long chain of printed job applications taped vertically down a wall, with a write-up reading: “sitting naked in my bedroom, just finished my 73rd Indeed application of the day. I hope I get struck by lightning.”

Another exhibitor submitted broken tie rod ends from a modified 2000 Toyota Altezza, a vehicle produced for the Japanese market.

Jennifer Campbell, who is Collins’s mother, submitted the wedding dress, which is more than 30 years old.

“Back in the day, you would save your dress, thinking you’d have a child who would use it. So, you paid a lot to a dry cleaner to put it in a fancy box and all that kind of stuff,” said Campbell. “And you kind of had this sort of fake fairy tale where you would plan to give it to your child.”

Years later, Campbell said she sat on the floor, opened the box from the dry cleaner and found the dress was totally different from how she’d pictured it.

Independent filmmaker Rheanna Toy said when she first stumbled upon the poster about the museum on Facebook Marketplace, she thought it was a joke. But she got in touch with Collins and is now working on a short film about the museum.

She said she found that everyone is “extremely proud” to share their failures with her.

“I mean, the reality is that failure does involve grief. It does involve feelings about yourself. But what’s interesting is that those feelings evolve,” said Toy.

“We’re all humans. We’re all just going along with the process. So just see how it goes, and you’ll be surprised how thoughts about things change throughout life,” she added.

Campbell said she told the curator that if somebody wants her dress at the end of the show, they are welcome to have it. And for anyone who feels the same way about their wedding dress, they are welcome to hang it up at the museum.

She said failed marriages are a difficult thing to go through, but now she has placed the dress in a moving box, meaning that it’s over and she has moved on.

Campbell also had some words to share with herself from thirty years ago.

“I want to say to be honest with yourself when things happen … Don’t worry. You’re going to be OK. In fact, you’re going to probably be better,” said Campbell.

The Museum of Personal Failure exhibition will run until Feb. 3 at Kingsgate Mall in Vancouver, allowing people to have a space to explore failures and hopefully finds hopes.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 25, 2026.

Nono Shen, The Canadian Press