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"9 New Super-Niche Museums\nThese public spaces explore British surfing, pizza, neon signs, and other seemingly random but highly specific topics.\nWhen we heard that the Swedish band ABBA got its own museum earlier this summer, we realized either that the bar for erecting public institutions was getting dangerously low\u2014or that we're running out of new museum ideas. In the past 18 months, we've seen more than a dozen honoring extreme marginalia open. Click through for an overview of these new spaces and what to look for at each.\nABBA the Museum\n\n Where: Stockholm, Sweden\n\n Opened: Spring 2013\n\n Skip the display of flamboyant costumes, countless records, and recording-studio replica and head straight for the interactive exhibit that lets you become the fifth dancing queen as you sing along with life-size holograms of the band (you can be recorded to share online if you dare). The museum, located in central Stockholm on the island Djurg\u00E5den, is actually a testament to all Swedish pop music with a Hall of Fame exhibit that highlights Robyn, Roxette, and the Cardigans, too.\n\n abbathemuseum.com\nThe Dinnerware Museum\n\n Where: Ann Arbor, Michigan\n\n Opened: Spring 2013\n\n Though the Museum of Food and Drink (MOFAD) reached its Kickstarter goal and will become a reality someday, right now it's still just an idea. Until then, you'll have to settle for the recently launched Dinnerware Museum, which showcases vintage pieces created from ceramics, glass, metal, paper, plastic, lacquer, fiber, and wood. The curators are keen to incorporate art and pop-culture references, like the high-concept radioactive dish set for those who dine by black light. The organizers are currently looking for a new permanent home in Ann Arbor.\n\n dinnerwaremuseum.org\n Foof (Museum of the Dog)\n\n Where: Mondragone, Italy\n\n Opened: Winter 2013\n\nItalians are gushing over their museum devoted to man's best friend\u2014the first of its kind in Europe. Visit and you'll see 35 million-year-old fossils, original artworks by Fernando Botero and Jeff Koons, and a collection of modern and ancient canine collars, among other things. There's also a large park filled with art and whimsically sculpted hedges for Fido (and you) to enjoy.\n\n foof.it\nThe Neon Museum\n\n Where: Las Vegas, Nevada\n\n Opened: Fall 2012\n\nDespite the fact that much of it looks and feels like a junkyard, the expansive, two-acre light showcase has been well received for exhibits like the \"bone-yard,\" where nearly 150 larger-than-life signs that once lit up the Vegas Strip (the Moulin Rouge Hotel, Caesar's Palace, Treasure Island, the Stardust) have been laid to rest, and a visitors' center housed inside the former La Concha Motel lobby. Pro tip: Neon's no fun in daylight\u2014go for the nighttime tour to see the collection the way it was intended.\n\n neonmuseum.org\nOregon State Hospital Museum of Mental Health\n\n Where: Salem, Oregon\n\n Opened: Fall 2012\n\nFly into the cuckoo's nest\u2014literally. This is where the 1975 film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, based on the Ken Kesey book, was filmed. Explore the lives of the hospital's historic patients and staff and view film artifacts that include the hydrotherapy machine, the day-room television, and the Chief's broom.\n\n oshmuseum.org\nGelato Museum Carpigiani\n\n Where: Bologna, Italy\n\n When: Fall 2012\n\nItalians have been enjoying their fancy ice cream longer than you might think. It was even served at 16th-century Medici parties. You can learn more about the dessert in this new space, located just outside the city of Anzola dell'Emilia, near Bologna. After an hour-long tour spotlighting the history, culture, and production of Italian ice cream, visitors get to sample modern versions of 19th-century recipes. Hard-core gelato lovers can even take cooking lessons at the Carpigiani Gelato University.\n\n gelatomuseum.com\nPizza Brain\n\n Where: Philadelphia\n\n Opened: Summer 2012\n\n\"It's a pizza shop that's a shrine to pizza,\" says owner Brian Dwyer of his hybrid restaurant-museum, where you can see the world's largest collection of pizza memorabilia, including vintage trinkets from Chuck E. Cheese and Pizza Hut and a collection of pizza-themed album covers and movie posters. Cheesy? Yes, but in a good way.\n\n pizzabrain.org\nThe Museum of British Surfing\n\n Where: Brauton, United Kingdom\n\n Opened: Spring 2012\n\nAlthough Hawaii, California, and Australia are renowned hot spots of surf culture, the sport has been popular on the U.K. coastline of North Devon for over 200 years. Art lovers will appreciate the collection of 50 surfboards, some made as long ago as the early 1900s.\n\n museumofbritishsurfing.org\nThe Mob Museum\n\n Where: Las Vegas, Nevada\n\n Opened: Winter 2012\n\n Here's an offer your Godfather- and Scarface-obsessed friends can't refuse\u2026located inside the historic former federal courthouse and U.S. Post Office. Before you accuse the museum of glorifying violent criminals, note that its stated purpose is to \"showcase both sides of the notorious battle between organized crime and law enforcement.\" What you'll see is a structure filled with one-of-a-kind artifacts (zoot suits, Bugsy Siegel's cuff links, Abercrombie &amp;amp; Fitch false-bottom briefcases for smuggling booze during Prohibition) and clever interactive exhibits (visitors can \"shoot\" a simulated Tommy gun and listen to real FBI surveillance tapes).\n\n themobmuseum.org"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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