The Museum of Ice Cream (MIC) will open its first permanent location in New York, after it launched its first location in San Francisco in 2016. The Museum of Ice Cream, founded by Manish Vora and Maryellis Bunn, is an experience-first brand fueled by the power of imagination and connection. 

The MIC was launched with its parent company Figure8. According to a press release, Figure8 raised a $40 million series a round of funding last week, and the MIC has acquired a site to open its first permanent location in New York, reported the Fast Company in an exclusive interview with the founders. 

The Museum of Ice Cream has also extended to a retail collection at Target, a makeup collaboration with Sephora, and, yes, actual ice cream, according to the Fast Company. The MIC's New York flagship location will be in Manhattan’s Soho neighborhood.

The Museum of Ice Cream,  is an inclusive and immersive brand, designed to captivate your sweetest fantasy and sugar-filled daydreams online and IRL. Founder and Creative Director, Maryellis Bunn, and a dedicated team of creators, designers, and producers created many experiential installations inspired by ice cream in Miami and San Francisco exhibitions. 

Image clourteys of the Print Shop

From installations that ignite all five senses to products that are made to inspire, It is an inclusive space for all people to imagine and to connect. The experience is designed to create colorful human interaction and out of this world day dreams.

"Our community asked for it," said Maryellis Bunn, co-creator and CEO of the Museum of Ice Cream. "They wanted a place where they can go to, not once, but to continue to come and visit us. 

"When we have these pop-up models, we’re not able to hold space for our community. So to be able to give them a place, not just programmatically, but also to have it be a place that’s theirs is so important to us."

Founders of Museum of Ice Cream, Maryellis Bunn (left) and Manish Vora (right). Image courtesy of IFF 

"Our ambition has always been to create spaces that can connect humans to humans, and humans to architecture. Our journey to get there has been to create, understand, and then recreate," Bunn told the Fast Company. "We create spaces, we understand what’s going on, and we get tons and tons of visitor feedback."

"So the goal has always been [to create flagship locations]," Bunn continued, "but we needed to be at the place where we had the right information and the right breadth of data to really create the products that we wanted to create but that the world needed."

Since Museum of Ice Cream's conception in 2016, it has catapulted a cultural phenomenon and ignited an entire experiential industry. The company has welcomed over 1.5M visitors to locations in Los Angeles, New York, Miami, and San Francisco. The brand launched an ice cream line sold at Target and created high-profile partnerships with Platinum Card by American Express, a makeup collection with Sephora, and a kids clothing line at Target.

"We created Figure8 to chart the future of how Millennials and Gen Z will want to  spend their time. Over the past 3 years building Museum of Ice Cream, we have learned so much from our guests and gained endless insight. Globalization and technology have made the world smaller, yet people are more lonely than ever," said Maryellis Bunn, 27-year-old Co-Founder of Figure8 and Museum of Ice Cream. 

"I want to inspire people around the world with what I call experiums, emotional and transformative moments and spaces for people to reconnect with themselves and those around them."

Figure8 currently has a team of 35 at its NYC headquarters and is growing its senior leadership for global expansion. Andrew Lumsden joins as SVP of Operations, bringing over 20 years of experience working with food, beverage, and hospitality brands including Zuma, The Ace Hotel, The Spotted Pig, Noho Hospitality and Stephen Starr. 

All images courtesy of The MIC unless otherwise stated.

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