Portal Museum
Holden Village, WA
A former mining town-turned-wilderness community, rooted in the Lutheran tradition, Holden Village welcomes visitors with natural beauty, rich history, and “holy hilarity” (not to mention delicious homemade bread). Throughout 2025, Understory worked in and with the Village to develop an interpretive plan and two major exhibits for their new museum.
Left: This concept design is for an exhibit exploring reciprocal relationships between people and nature. Above: Understory visited the museum when it was under construction, in order to tailor exhibits to the existing architecture.
Services provided:
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Project Management
Through several site visits and virtual planning sessions, Understory led the Village’s “Museum Task Force” in museum-wide and exhibit-specific planning and design.
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Collections Support
Holden has a lot of stories — and many objects to tell them! We helped sort through treasures and create systems to stay organized.
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Interpretive Writing
Exhibit text was drafted based on the interpretive plan, with a focus on reaching longtime visitors, ever-changing staff, and newcomers.
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Exhibit Development & Design
The museum building was under construction when Understory arrived on the scene. Our exhibit concepts were tailored to the architecture.
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Interpretive Planning
We led museum-wide interpretive planning, integrating many ideas and existing design concepts into a cohesive, mission-driven framework.
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Research & Content Development
Accurate content development required interviews with Village educators, and partnering with Reach Studio on GIS-based landscape renderings.