Photography isn't just permitted in the latest museum to open in Toledo.

It's the whole point.

The AList Selfie Experience opens Friday in a first-floor suite of the former HCR ManorCare, now ProMedica Senior Care, at 333 N. Summit St. It puts Toledo on the map as the latest city to host a “selfie museum,” as the popular social media-oriented installations are known.

Strike a pose in front of a rainbow-striped wall at the latest iteration in Toledo, or smize in front of a cascade of jungle foliage or pink-petaled blossoms. Maybe pop your head into a faux-gilded frame, then work your angles on a regal red-velvet throne.

With at least 20 scenes set up, there are plenty of options to explore.

Selfie museums have been around since at least 2015, with New York's 29Rooms and the Museum of Ice Cream among the first to begin turning the heads – and cameras – of social media influencers and enthusiasts. These so-called museums curate a series of picture-perfect backgrounds, generally in distinct rooms or nooks, in which guests can pose and snap photos.

The Museum of Ice Cream is home to a pool of oversized sprinkles, for example, the scene of many a colorful snapshot on Instagram.

Selfie museums have taken off in the years since these experiences launched the trend, cropping up in a slew of major cities like Chicago, Las Vegas, Miami, and, a little closer to home, in Cleveland and Detroit.

So why not Toledo, too? Ambershaun Byrd wondered.

She spent an hour and a half snapping photos with her 21-year-old daughter in one in Atlanta in January, and came out of the experience confident that she could make it happen in her hometown – and that Toledo “could benefit from something like this.”

“We really need to celebrate ourselves more,” she said. “This is the perfect way to do that.”

Byrd brings a photographer's eye for lighting and photo composition to the AList Selfie Experience. She's the professional photographer behind Abyrdseyephoto Productions Photography, the small business through which she came into some grant funding during the coronavirus pandemic.

It paved the way financially for her to move ahead with plans for a selfie museum.

Early business strategy talks steered her toward a “pop-up” experience, which she's timing to catch the crowds expected to flood the city for the Solheim Cup beginning on Aug. 31.

She plans to keep it open at least through the end of September, she said.

The museum itself has come together quickly, with each of her scenes beginning to take shape just this month. She's brought on local artists to paint murals and plot out geometric patterns, and in other rooms and nooks was this week busily setting up the sort of shoots that are by now practically staples of Instagram: A rope swing hangs in front of a cloud-like batting and twinkle lights, for example. Or how about the aforementioned throne and flower wall?

She has a 360 Selfie Booth, which swings around a pedestal taking full-circle videos of guests.

There's a nod to the Europe v. U.S. rivalry of the Solheim Cup, a purple room that's an homage to Prince, and, in the bathroom, a bonus room with chalkboard walls.

(A sort-of homage of its own to the subgenre of bathroom selfies, according to Byrd.)

Corrine Moore and Darius Simpson are two of the local artists who have been hard at work on the selfie museum this week, Moore with a beach scene as well as a geometric design she plotted out in duct tape, Simpson with a mural stylizing the city's skyline.

The latter is among the first scenes a visitor sees upon entering; it's behind a couch that recalls the opening credits of Friends.

Moore and Simpson said they're excited to be involved in the project, and not only because of the visibility it will undoubtedly bring to their work as the background of innumerable selfies.

“Throughout [the Solheim Cup], people are going to come and engage with this space,” Simpson said. “They're going to post these pictures, and this is going to be a memory for them. To be a part of that is a deep honor, and I'm kind of excited to see what happens next.”

“I'm looking forward to seeing what we get, and everybody coming out and taking pictures,” Moore said.

Guests 13 and older have 45 minutes to explore the AList Selfie Experience, with the number of guests at any one time capped at 20. Byrd said she's able to accommodate small groups, and as well as professional photographers.

Hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, with extended hours during the Solheim Cup.

Tickets, $25, are available in advance online at bit.ly/2UrmFeR.

Byrd said she's encouraging local selfie-takers to come out this weekend and next week, to check out the space and beat the tournament crowds.

Downtown parking, she pointed out, is sure to be easier to find.

First Published August 20, 2021, 12:00 p.m.