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The fact that hemp and marijuana have always been a part of history is hard for some of society to swallow, but there are those in the industry who have a passion for educating and those striving to remove the stigma that has been drowning cannabis for years. Tre Bauer is one of those people, which is one of the reasons he founded the Hollywood Hemp Museum.
After the passing of cannabis activist and good friend, Jeff Clark, Bauer decided to open HHM, a museum dedicated to the history of hemp and marijuana in the entertainment capital of the world, Hollywood. With the idea of spreading the message and knowledge that Clark left behind, the Hollywood Hemp Museum was created and opened on July 21, 2017. Since then has been a prime spot for anyone seeking knowledge about hemp, cannabis and a lot more. Without giving too much away, the intimate space is loaded with cannabis and hemp related artifacts, articles, clothing and newspaper clips, as well as many original pieces that mark a specific time period or person and what moves they made in the industry.
Operations Manager Choo Choo explained how their collection continues to grow as the word of the museum’s opening spreads. Now people are looking to them to store or display their unique and history filled items, including the hemp museum in Amsterdam which is contributing two artifacts of their own. As their inventory expands, the opportunity for seasonal exhibits is inevitable. Which the museum plans to do on a regular basis in order to educate as many people as possible, keep things constantly interesting and everyone excited for what’s to come.
“I’m teamed up with the USA Hemp Museum and she has about 40,000 pieces, so we have more history than we know what to do with at this point,” Bauer said. “So we’re gonna be just constantly trading stuff out, but we also want to get more of the Hollywood and what’s up to date history involved.”
Because Prop 64, (the recreational use of marijuana) goes in to affect in Jan. 2018, laws, regulation and all kinds of things have been changing, but HHM welcomes that because included in the museum’s purpose is promoting the future of cannabis, so leaving out the moves being made would be conflicting to their mission. The past, present and future of cannabis should be important to anyone in the industry or thinking of diving in and this museum is a great place to start. Not only can you appreciate and admire everything, they have knowledgeable staff eager to answer any and all questions.
The moment you see the building, it’s obvious HHM has more to offer than just the history of the powerful plant as guests gazed upon the work of artist and photographers in the community. The exterior walls alone are decorated by some of the world’s best artist. For those of you unfamiliar with the graffiti world, it is uncommon for so many artists to come together on one project, but because of the unity within the cannabis community, once when they knew the cause, there wasn’t a question.
“I brought artist from all over the world just to do the building,” Bauer said. “In that community alone we had graffiti artist that would never even normally talk to each other, all working on a giant piece as a big community gift.”
They take pride in their neighborhood involvement; in fact, the museum is open to the public of all ages until 6 p.m. After that it’s a members only smoke lounge, however, they’ve created what they call “community days.” Basically each day is set aside for a certain event; for example, comedy shows, smoke sessions, pop-up shops and a variety of other things take place here.
“On Mondays we’re closed and Tuesday we have movie night and turntable Tuesdays with a little DJ,” Choo Choo said. “Every Wednesday we have comedy night, you can come see stand-up comedians and get some good laughs. Thursdays we have the “get together”, which is a networking date, with industry influences and coverage people, things of all kinds of media.”
There is so much more to Bauer, Choo Choo and the Hollywood Hemp Museum than what people probably expect, so I encourage anyone with a question about hemp, marijuana or the plant to look to them for answers. Plus their devotion to the community is not something we see a lot of these days- the things weed can do.
