The Art Scent Museum
Founder and Perfumer Dawn Spencer Hurwitz
September 10, 2011
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The Art Scent Museum in Boulder, Colorado,
led by Perfumer and Founder Dawn Spencer Hurwitz,
is soon to become a reality!
“This project is something I have dreamt of doing for many years! Itʼs been very close to my heart and continues to be a labor of love”, says Perfumer Dawn Spencer Hurwitz, founder of the Art Scent Museum in Boulder, Colorado.
As an amateur perfume historian and lover of ancient, vintage and niche perfumery, Dawn Spencer Hurwitz has not only been fascinated by the masterpieces of perfume design but has been an avid collector of bottles and packages, artifacts (such as posters, advertising, catalogues, pamphlets, cards, etc) and especially the ʻjuiceʼ so as to understand all of the elements of perfumery. “I have an insatiable need to smell as many perfume designs
as possible; especially the great classics and long-lost masterpieces that one can usually only read about”, says DSH.
This ʻneedʼ first developed into a fragrance library as a reference for students and enthusiasts to experience the great perfumes but as itʼs grown, the concept of museum emerged. “I realized that I have enough materials to start a small museum and once it came to me, I couldnʼt let it go.”
That realization has led DSH to creating a small, jewel-box-like space in her Boulder-based design studio to house the new Museum. The space is hand painted entirely in gold and gives the sensation of walking into a sacred space, not unlike an Egyptian Pharaohʼs tomb. “It was important to make the space feel opulent and transcendent; it had to be a palpable feeling of specialness. It IS special to come here and experience these fragrant treasures
with us”, says DSH.
“We plan to have a soft launch this November as part of our annual anniversary / Holiday open house event”, says DSH,” with the official launch in the Spring of 2012. "Itʼs taken almost two years to fully catalogue all of our pieces and scent samples and we continue to receive donations of small collections to the museum and plus I am always on the hunt for
ever harder to find perfumes.”
Not only will there be perfumes on display, visitors will be able to schedule private time to smell the perfumes in the collection. “The Museum wonʼt be any competition for the Osmotheque,” laughs DSH, “but we will be one of just a handful of perfume museums in the US with the specialty that visitors can smell perfumes from our vintage collections and get a sense of the actual scents from decades ago.” (The vintage collections span from the turn of the twentieth century to the niche revolution happening today).
After the official launch there are plans for theme-based exhibitions, classes and a full online catalogue of the collections (probably listed at our newly formed blog:
If anyone is interested in contributing to the Art Scent Museum project, we are happy to speak with you. All donations of perfumes / perfume artifacts will be catalogued with your name and donation.
