Tohono O’odham Nation Cultural Center & Museum

Description and goals

Community Collaboration:
Himdag Ki: Hekihu, Hemu, Im B I-Ha’ap
Topawa, Arizona, 2006

Ganymede Design Group worked hand-in-hand with Durrant Architects of Tucson, Arizona, from the outset of the project, providing consultation regarding specific museological concerns and cultural sensitivity. In particular, “back of house” activities with their precise environmental requirements and adjacency issues, and spaces for receiving, quarantine, fumigation, collections storage, conservation, and special consideration for traditional practices and protection of sacred and funerary items were easily accommodated in initial planning as a function of GDG’s hands-on familiarity with professional museum practice. Ganymede Design Group took the lead on exhibition planning for the Tohono O’odham Nation Cultural Center & Museum, by first eliciting the viewpoint of museum staff, tribal elders, other tribal members and employees and the architectural team in order to develop an Interpretive Master Plan. From that plan emerged a vibrant series of exhibits that celebrate O’odham community history and traditional values; exhibits are seamlessly integrated into the physical plant of the museum building. Dynamic exhibit text, educational program planning, concept development for several computer-based interactive stations, coordination with interior furnishings, graphic design and production supervision as well as supervision of final installation were among the many services supplied to Himdag Ki: by Ganymede Design Group.