MOAPAA: Canada's Stunning New Indigenous Art Museum
5 days ago
4 min read
It might surprise you to learn that Lac La Biche will soon be home to the world’s largest collection of work by the Professional Native Indian Artists Inc. SPECTACLE Bureau for Architecture and Urbanism Inc. is building this collection at Portage College, northeast of Edmonton. The firm has just revealed the full design for the Museum of Aboriginal Peoples' Art and Artifacts, or MOAPAA. Rather than a standard building, the design feels like a landscape sheltered by a roof.
MOAPAA. Render by SPECTACLE with brick
The museum is located on Treaty 6 land, where Métis communities also live. This place shapes nearly every design decision. MOAPAA has already received a 2025 Canadian Architecture Award of Excellence. An Indigenous-led team guided the project, including founding PNIAI artist Joseph M. Sánchez, Museum Director Donna Feledichuk, and Portage College Elder Ruby Sweetman.
The site plan begins with seven overlapping elliptical paths, each one representing a founding member of PNIAI: Jackson Beardy, Eddy Cobiness, Alex Janvier, Norval Morrisseau, Daphne Odjig, Carl Ray, and Joseph M. Sánchez. Each path will have a sculpture honouring its artist, made by Indigenous artists. Where the paths meet, public spaces open up, with the main entrance on the east side and a sculpture garden on the west. This design reflects how the seven artists’ lives connected and separated over time.
A new forest of Trembling Aspen will be planted around the building to restore the site’s natural biodiversity. The building’s exterior features a screen of vertical wood slats, hinged at the top, that move in the wind like the aspens. This creates a shaded, comfortable walkway for viewing outdoor art, moving with the weather instead of resisting it.
Behind the moving screen, a ramp leads to a roof garden planted with sage, sweetgrass, and prairie flowers—plants used for healing and ceremony. The wooden deck on the roof can hold up to 60 people, turning the roof into a real gathering place, not just an extra space.
MOAPAA. Render by SPECTACLE with brick MOAPAA. Render by SPECTACLE with brick
Inside, the museum avoids the typical gallery setup. In the center of the exhibition space, a retractable platform system can turn into auditorium seating, benches, sculptural plinths, or fold away into the floor to make an open room. Rotating walls let curators change the layout and create new connections between artworks at any time.
There is no welcome desk. Instead, the auditorium extends the entry foyer through the center of the museum, removing the usual barrier between staff and visitors and making the space feel more like an open front room.
“As a curator, I view art and life as beyond the lens of champagne receptions and white box museums in concrete and steel towers. Ideas of commercial success are exchanged for truthful dialogue. Art is not an object. Great art seeks spiritual communication." - Joseph M. Sánchez, Chief Museum Curator of the MOAPAA.
MOAPAA. Drawing by SPECTACLE MOAPAA. Drawing by SPECTACLE
MOAPAA is built mainly from locally and sustainably sourced mass timber. The building uses full electrification, heat recovery, ground-source heat exchangers, and radiant heating to keep the climate stable and emissions low. Since wildfires are a risk in this area, the vault for the permanent collection is designed to survive a major fire even if the rest of the building cannot.
Curves play a big part in shaping the museum’s atmosphere. Beneath the curved roof, ceiling heights shift from one space to another, while the retaining walls follow the natural slope of the prairie garden above. Outside, a gently sloping ramp creates changing patterns of light and shadow as visitors move along it. Together, these softer forms help lead people from one exhibit to the next, creating a mix of quieter, more intimate spaces and open areas that connect with the rest of the museum.
“This free-standing museum adds to the Indigenous artistry already on display in the hallways of Portage College. “I think more exposure will only draw more inspiration and more education about Indigenous arts and culture.” - Ruby Sweetman, Portage College Elder.
MOAPAA. Model by SPECTACLE with Adam Scales MOAPAA. Model by SPECTACLE with Adam Scales
MOAPAA will hold the world’s largest PNIAI collection, but its purpose is bigger than a single gallery. It aims to be a place for Indigenous communities, artists, collectors, academics, and anyone interested in exploring its seven paths.
“The MOAPAA is conceived holistically as a space for dialogue and reconciliation. The collaborative approach and the organization of the site’s components through controlled contrast are the proposal’s main strengths.” - Sonia Gagné, Canadian Architect Juror.
As construction moves forward, the real test will be whether the building can deliver on that promise when it opens.
MOAPAA. Render by SPECTACLE with brick MOAPAA. Render by SPECTACLE with brick MOAPAA. Render by SPECTACLE with brick MOAPAA. Render by SPECTACLE with brick MOAPAA. Render by SPECTACLE with brick MOAPAA. Model by SPECTACLE with Adam Scales MOAPAA. Drawing by SPECTACLE MOAPAA. Drawing by SPECTACLE MOAPAA. Model by SPECTACLE with Adam Scales
Credits & Technical Sheet
Official name of project: MOAPAA (Museum of Aboriginal Peoples’ Art and Artifacts)
Location: Portage College, Lac la Biche, Alberta.
Client: Portage College
Core Client Team: Joseph M Sánchez, Donna Feledichuk, and Ruby Sweetman.
Architect: SPECTACLE Bureau for Architecture and Urbanism Inc.
Architectural Team:
Philip Vandermey
Jessie Andjelic
Jordan Livermore, Teegan Heinrichs
Veronique Ulrich
Building area: 1630 sq.m.
Anticipated completion: 2030.
Consultants:
Altus (cost estimation)
brick (visualization)
Adam Scales (model)
Work-Integrated Learning Senior Research Studio: University of Calgary School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape (SAPL), Master of Architecture, Arch 700 Senior Research Studio in Architecture I (Work-Integrated Learning).
Students: Marvit Ahanonu, Prerna Bhatia, Klara Biernacki, Jordan Bussiere, Caitlin Campbell, Joshua Clarke, Cathryn John, Steven Lamothe, Chris Lin, Bhupinder Nahal, Kylie Wilson, and Julian Zwack.
