The Museum is located on the traditional lands of First Nations People, owners of Treaty 6, which are also homelands to Métis people. Northeast of Edmonton, near the shores of Lac La Biche, the Museum's landscape functions as a narrative journey. Seven nested elliptical paths—each representing one of the seven historic members of the PNIAI (Jackson Beardy, Eddy Cobiness, Alex Janvier, Norval Morrisseau, Daphne Odjig, Carl Ray, and Joseph M. Sánchez)—wrap around the building. Public spaces are formed where the pathways join - on the east side, in front of the main entrance, and at the sculpture garden on the west side - as symbolic gestures depicting how the artists' lives have converged and diverged. Every path will be marked with a sculpture dedicated to each of the PNIAI members, created by Indigenous artists.

To restore local biodiversity, a forest of Trembling Aspen trees will be planted across the entire site.

The building’s elegant veil responds to the verticality of the reconstituted Quaking Aspen forest. Vertical slats hinged at the top swing gently back and forth in the breeze, responding to nature and the elements and moving gracefully together with the surrounding environment. This simple rhythm creates a pleasant shaded and intimate space for walking and viewing the art.

A ramp behind the building's signature kinetic wood screen leads to a roof garden featuring a prairie meadow of healing and ceremonial plants, including sage, sweetgrass, and prairie flowers, complete with a wooden deck gathering space for up to 60 people.

Flexible interiors and deconstructing the "White Box"

The interior layout purposefully moves away from rigid, traditional museum frameworks. At the core of the gallery area, an innovative retractable platform system can transform from a raked-seating auditorium into benches or sculptural plinths, or disappear entirely into the floor to maintain a free-flowing exhibition space.

A network of central and rotating walls allows for endlessly reconfigurable layouts, creating overlapping flows and interconnections between the artworks. This flexible landscape of walls introduces new exhibition possibilities for interconnections, overlaps, flows, and relations. The auditorium extends the foyer into the center of the museum, where conventional welcome desks have been eliminated to remove barriers between staff and visitors in order to foster an informal and friendly welcome.

“As a curator, I view art and life as beyond the lens of champagne receptions and white box museums in concrete and steel towers,” notes Joseph M. Sánchez, Chief Museum Curator of the MOAPAA. “Ideas of commercial success are exchanged for truthful dialogue. Art is not an object. Great art seeks spiritual communication."

Eco-resilience and cultural preservation

Conceived holistically as a space for healing, the building utilizes a superstructure made predominantly of locally and sustainably sourced mass timber. The facility incorporates advanced active environmental systems—including full electrification, heat recovery, ground-source heat exchangers, and radiant heating—to ensure a stable climate with minimal emissions. Crucially, to safeguard the invaluable heritage against climate risks, the vault enclosing the collection storage area is specifically engineered to survive a catastrophic forest fire even if the main superstructure is lost.

An architecture of fluidity and inspiration

Subtle curvatures and slopes throughout contribute to a sense of free movement and attraction. The curved shape of the roof and ceiling amplifies the effects of varying ceiling heights, while curved retaining walls enhance the slope of the prairie garden roof. A sloping exterior ramp creates a sense of movement that is enhanced by peripheral views and staccato rhythms of light and shadow. Additionally, subtle geometry pulls visitors towards exhibits, succeeding in its dual purpose of providing both intimate spaces and connections between public zones.

Housing the most extensive collection of any museum worldwide representing the entire Professional Native Indian Artists Inc. (PNIAI) group, the Museum is a local, national, and international destination for Indigenous communities, artists, collectors, academics, and anyone interested in the exceptional art and activities contained within the spectacular venue.

“This free-standing museum adds to the Indigenous artistry already on display in the hallways of Portage College,” says Ruby Sweetman, Portage College Elder. “I think more exposure will only draw more inspiration and more education about Indigenous arts and culture.”

Winner of a 2025 Canadian Architecture Award of Excellence, the Indigenous-led project featured close collaboration with a client team including artist Joseph M. Sánchez, Founding Member of the PNIAI and Chief Museum Curator of the MOAPAA, as well as Donna Feledichuk, Museum Director, and Portage College Elder and Pipe Holder, Ruby Sweetman.

“The MOAPAA is conceived holistically as a space for dialogue and reconciliation,” said Sonia Gagné, Canadian Architect Juror. “The collaborative approach and the organization of the site’s components through controlled contrast are the proposal’s main strengths.”