Where Stories Come to Life: Inside Laguna Beach’s Museum of Make Believe

The Museum of Make Believe in Laguna Beach is a whimsical world where imagination, storytelling, and visual art come together, created by husband-and-wife founders Geoff and Amy Mitchell. Geoff’s background as a multimedia artist and Amy’s lifelong love of storytelling inspired them to create a space filled with miniatures, fairy tales, curious characters, and imaginative worlds that encourage visitors to escape the ordinary for a little while. When I first heard about the museum, I was immediately excited to visit and interview the people behind it—not only because I love discovering and supporting small, independent businesses, but because the concept sounded so unique. And yes, one of my first thoughts was, “This place has to be Instagram-worthy!” It certainly was, so come along as I step into the world of make-believe and chat with Geoff and Amy Mitchell, the owners of the Museum of Make Believe.

Popbuff: One of the most touching stories behind the museum is Oscar, the cat who eventually became the heart of your logo. Can you share the story of Oscar and how creating the puppet that inspired Stardust helped transform a personal loss into something lasting?

Geoff: The puppet originally started as an experiment. I was learning how to make miniatures and puppets for a possible stop-motion project, and I chose our beloved cat, Oscar, as my subject.
During the process, we learned that we were going to lose him, so the project became much more personal. I finished the puppet as a memorial to Oscar, with the idea that it would sit at home in a glass case and guard his ashes. It was never intended to be shown publicly.

Later, when I began exhibiting my miniature work at Muzeo, the director saw Oscar. I remember looking at an empty pedestal and thinking, “Why not show him?” It was a turning point for me because I was beginning to move away from the more traditional academic art world and toward storytelling and entertainment.

What surprised us was that Oscar became one of the most popular pieces in the exhibition. People really connected with him.

Amy: He became a symbol for us. So when we came up with the idea for the Museum of Make Believe, we knew Oscar had to be our mascot. He’s like our little guardian here.

Geoff: Seeing how people responded to Oscar helped us realize that there was an audience for something different—something imaginative that simply makes people feel good.

Popbuff: When visitors experience the museum, what do you hope they feel—especially adults who may not have tapped into their imagination in quite some time?

Amy: For me, I want people to get away from a world where everything is on our phones and everything moves so fast. Even I catch myself looking at my phone at a stoplight because I can’t seem to just sit for 30 seconds and let my brain wander.

I think back to when we were kids. If you were on a long car ride, you might read a book, or if reading made you carsick, you simply sat there and thought. Today, everyone has an iPad or a phone. I love the idea of people coming here and getting back to simply thinking, connecting on a human level, and stepping away from everything being so intense and fast-paced.

I see it when people walk outside after visiting the museum. Sometimes they open the door and almost have this reaction of, “Whoa, I forgot the world was out here.” That’s what I want—the feeling that they’ve stepped through a portal into another place for a little while.

Geoff: I also don’t want to tell people exactly what they should feel. People can look at the same piece of artwork and interpret it in completely different ways. I think that applies to the museum as a whole. When people walk inside, the entire space is almost one piece of artwork, but within it are individual pieces, some with their own stories.

Amy: Ultimately, we just want people to have fun.

Popbuff: Especially the bathroom! (laughs)

Amy: Yes! We recently added more art in there. We thought, “We can’t just have a regular bathroom.” During our first week, someone actually wrote a Google review just about the bathroom—not even the rest of the museum. We thought that was hilarious.

Popbuff: Laguna Beach has such a long history as an artistic community. What made it feel like the right home for the Museum of Make Believe?

Amy: A lot of the credit goes to Kelsey Irvin. She’s a fine artist and painter, and we have her work in the museum. She and her husband also own Kelsey Michaels Fine Art Gallery here in Laguna Beach.

When we first started looking for a space, we were living in Anaheim and mostly searching around that area. Kelsey kept telling us, “I really think the museum needs to be in Laguna Beach.” She was one of our founding board members and one of our artists, but we initially thought Laguna would be too expensive.

Then we found an affordable space here. That first location didn’t work out, but it encouraged us to keep looking in Laguna. Eventually, our current space became available, and it was affordable, quirky, and basically a big white box that we could transform.

It has turned out to be a wonderful location. We’re close to the ocean, the free trolley stops right in front, and Laguna has such a unique and artistic community.

One concern we originally had was whether being in Laguna would limit us to a local audience, but the opposite happened. We get visitors from all over—Ecuador, Switzerland, Texas—and many of our guests actually come from Los Angeles and San Diego. We’ve also promoted the museum at John Wayne Airport, on buses, and through brochures in local hotels, which has helped people discover us.

Popbuff: In an age dominated by phones, social media, and AI, why do you think traditional storytelling and human imagination are more important than ever?

Amy: I think people are hungry for it, even if they don’t realize it. We tell visitors that everything here is handmade, and they’ll say, “Oh, that’s cool.” Then they start looking more closely and asking, “Wait—how was this made?”

People can sense when something has been touched and created by human hands. There’s love in it, and that feels different from something that was simply manufactured. I think people want that connection, even if they don’t always know that’s what they’re looking for.

Geoff: I work from the assumption that people are interested in seeing things that other people actually made. We also work with Bill Schaffell, who creates many of the museum’s pedestals and display pieces. Sometimes those pedestals become works of art themselves. For example, he created the treasure chest that holds the sandcastle display, making the display structure part of the storytelling experience.

Technology is advancing so quickly that someday you might be able to simply describe something—“Make me a vintage ice cream shop with a checkered floor and an old-fashioned ice cream machine”—and it could instantly create it for you. To me, that takes away something important.

When you see something handmade, you can almost feel the process behind it—the struggle, the mistakes, the layers underneath, and the decisions the artist made along the way.

Amy: You can feel the effort that went into it. Maybe Geoff had to make something twice because it didn’t work the first time. That struggle becomes part of the piece.

Geoff: There are certainly useful roles for new technologies. You could use them to generate ideas or explore possibilities. But ultimately, I believe people still want to see something that another person created.

When you look at art made by another human being, in a way you’re looking at life. You might look at something and think, “I have no idea how someone made that.” There’s something powerful in that connection.

Amy: And it’s fun when that inspires someone else. We’ve had parents come through with their kids and say, “When we get home, let’s buy some Sculpey clay and try making something.”

That’s one of the things we love most—watching creativity pass from one generation to another. Maybe instead of immediately going home to play a video game, a child decides to make their own little ice cream parlor. That’s pretty exciting.

Popbuff: After everything you’ve accomplished since announcing the museum in 2020, what has surprised you most about the journey? What have you learned?

Amy: We had a completely different idea of how things were going to work when we started. First of all, we’re incredibly grateful that we have an audience. More than 30,000 people have visited, which is amazing considering how small the museum is.

Originally, because I have a full-time job and Geoff is a full-time artist, we thought Geoff could run the museum on Thursdays and Fridays and I could handle Saturdays and Sundays by myself. We quickly realized that wasn’t possible! Sometimes we have 20 people coming through in an hour, so we learned very quickly that we needed help.

Another big surprise was our audience. We thought we would primarily attract adults interested in art. Then during our first week, we had so many children coming in. We didn’t even have some of the protective barriers we have now, because we hadn’t expected kids to be climbing into the displays or trying to get closer to the trees.

So we adapted. We added little fences, created treasure hunts, and came up with ways to make the museum more interactive for children. It became much more of an entertainment experience than we originally imagined.

Geoff: When we first rented this space, I think we viewed it almost as a preview of what the Museum of Make Believe could eventually become—a concept space rather than the finished vision.

But once we opened, we realized visitors saw it as a real museum. That made us feel responsible for giving them a meaningful experience, even within a small space.

Amy: We thought, “We’ve got to give people a lot. We’ve got to make this fun.”

Geoff: One of my favorite comments actually came from someone who stopped by but didn’t have time to visit. They looked around and said, “I love your lobby. I’ll come back when I have more time.”

Amy: And I thought, “We wish this was our lobby! This is the whole museum!” (laughs)

Geoff: But that comment stayed with me because it made me imagine what this could eventually become. What if this really were just the lobby? What if one day the Museum of Make Believe became a much larger place where you could spend hours exploring?

Popbuff: Last question: If you could bring one legendary storyteller, artist, or fictional character—past or present—to the Museum of Make Believe, who would it be?

Geoff: I would have a hard time choosing between Walt Disney and Michael Jackson. From what I understand, Michael Jackson was very interested in themed entertainment and in creating environments that transport you into another world. That’s something I’ve always been drawn to as well.

For me, part of the journey after art school was allowing myself to embrace that kind of storytelling and say, “I can do that.”

Amy: I would choose Walt Disney. I’ve become much more of a Disney fan because of Geoff. We have passes, and we try to go to Disneyland about once a week, even if it’s only for a few hours. It gives us a little mental break, but it’s also creatively inspiring.

Sometimes we’ll notice some tiny detail and think, “That could be interesting to try.” Other times we see something and decide we want to go in a completely different direction.

I think Walt Disney would understand what we’re trying to do here. I’d like to think he would walk through the museum, see the imagination behind it, and understand the world we’re trying to create.

A Place to Slow Down and Wonder

Visiting the Museum of Make Believe felt like stepping into a tiny world where creativity still takes center stage. What Geoff and Amy Mitchell have built is more than a collection of miniatures and stories—it’s an invitation to slow down, look closely, and reconnect with the kind of imagination many of us leave behind as we get older. I especially loved how personal everything feels, from the handmade artwork to the stories behind each piece, and it was wonderful to see how their passion has grown into a place that both children and adults can enjoy.

For anyone looking for something different to do in Laguna Beach, this charming little museum is definitely worth discovering. Walk-ins are welcome. The Museum of Make Believe is located at 1590 S. Coast Highway, Laguna Beach, CA, and is open Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. For tickets, visitor information, and more, visit https://www.museumofmakebelieve.org/.