LACMA’s Education department set a Guinness World Record! No, we didn’t eat an unhealthy amount of hot dogs, jump on a pogo stick for endless hours, or grow oversized vegetables. We did something creative and beautiful, inspired by LACMA’s collection, and included visitors of all ages, from all over L.A.
We made the largest bojagi ever recorded, at 215.584 square feet!
(A bojagi is a wrapping cloth from Korea that can be used daily to bundle your shopping items or for special occasions to safeguard love letters and legal papers. LACMA has several in our collection—the biggest being around 25 square feet.)
Tips to everyone out there who has dreams of making the Guinness World Records:
Do something that no one else has done.
Do something that is measurable.
Do something you love.
Be patient.
To achieve our largest bojagi feat, we first learned how to sew. Then we cut hundreds of squares of fabric, threaded dozens of needles, recruited 1,700 participants, and hired a professional land surveyor. We also had to find two unbiased witnesses. And we found patience. It takes a long time for Guinness to sift through the 50,000 applications they receive each year.
Textile artist Youngmin Lee taught us how to sew.
Every day for four months, with the help of visitors to the Boone Children’s Gallery, we pieced together squares of fabric.
The textile took on a Tetris shape.
And grew larger and larger every day.
Until we were done!
A professional land surveyor measured the bojagi. This element was key to our accomplishment! Want to know how we measured it? With a laser!
And then, nearly 18 months later, a big blue envelope came from England, our certificate inside. We got the amazing news that we are Officially Amazing!
And it all started with a work of art from LACMA’s collection. . .