The First Americans Museum is a living institution that acts as a home for First Americans, and welcomes non-Natives as guests. It offers a variety of unique spaces and state-of-the-art resources, including permanent and changing exhibits, theaters, classrooms, and a community resource center. In developing the interpretive program for the Museum, the project team and Museum staff held extensive meetings with representatives from 39 tribal nations based in Oklahoma.
The design team was asked to create an experience that privileges the multiplicity of First American voices. These convey an ancient—yet very contemporary—story, with the purpose of generating awareness, sharing knowledge, sustaining traditions, honoring ancestors, and celebrating these diverse and thriving cultures. In the South Wing of the complex, a blend of interactive media, text, graphics, and film provides visitors with an encounter with the history of Oklahoma tribal communities through tribal and personal stories.
To develop the interpretive program for the First Americans Museum, the team collaborated with museum staff to plan and execute a series of extensive meetings with a roster of several dozen tribal representatives. As part of the interpretive effort, they worked with these representatives to make sure each tribe was equally showcased throughout the museum – textually, graphically, and through artifacts and the creation of unique media programs.
The design was deeply inspired by the traditions of First Nations storytelling. The experience heavily relied on the indigenous voices instead of the scholarly ones. This distinction was made through font selections, panel shapes, and color choices. The exhibit design drew heavily from the traditional patterns, textures, and colors of Oklahoma’s 39 tribal communities. Historical sections of the exhibitions drew inspiration from traditional colors, while the tones/palettes were used based on their tribal symbolisms. For historical areas that reflected an increasing Western aesthetic, more Western designs were incorporated into the traditional tribal look and feel. Given the expanse of characters used across the 39 tribal languages, selecting the font proved to be a unique challenge for this project. After an extensive search, a typeface was selected that could fully support the project’s needs.
Recognizing the influence of the land and nature, the design also pulled heavily from the diverse Oklahoma landscape. As native communities view their objects as living extensions of their tribes as they facilitate traditional ways of life, the objects on display also played a significant role in the overall graphic design process. Also within the South Wing, “WINIKO; Life of an Object” is a 10-year exhibition developed in conjunction with the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). Through this exhibition, visitors view objects from the NMAI collection that were created and/or owned by members of the Oklahoma tribal communities.
The Museum is recognized as a culturally groundbreaking institution. Many of the objects on display are returning to Oklahoma for the first time since their collection in the early 20th century. As part of the exhibit’s development process, reunions between objects and descendants of the creators and/or owners were facilitated by the First Americans Museum. The Tribal Nations Gallery, in particular, responded directly to the ideas of stereotypes, misconceptions, and misrepresentations. The Museum recognized that they had the unique opportunity to expose visitors – many for the first time – to First American peoples. Through the exhibitry and the design, visitors are able to dispel stereotypes of Native American peoples. This is arguably the first national institution in which an all-Native team is sharing native history and experiences from a native perspective.
Category:EnvironmentsYear:2023Designers:Marianne Schuit, Laura Epstein, Madeline Chinnici, Helios Tavio, Lily Remmert, Maggie Tomaszewski, Jessica Cooper, Ralph Appelbaum Associates, New York, New York, USAManufacturer:First Americans Museum, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA
