There's an ambitious plan for a stunning Indigenous art museum in Alberta
An ambitious design for a new Indigenous art museum in a town northeast of Edmonton would blend striking architecture with the surrounding landscape, but bringing the vision to life will require some serious fundraising.
Designed by Alberta-based architecture firm Spectacle, the proposed new building for the Museum of Aboriginal Peoples’ Art and Artifacts (MOAPAA) would sit near the shores of Lac la Biche, showcasing the world’s only permanent display of works from the Professional Native Indian Artists Inc. (PNIAI).
The museum began in 1978 as a teaching collection for Portage College’s Native Arts and Culture programs. According to the college, it was difficult to find Indigenous works of art in the 1970s as they were not viewed as art and were unavailable in art galleries.
That difficulty led to PNIAI forming in Winnipeg in 1973, an independent Indigenous artist collective that included Jackson Beardy, Eddy Cobiness, Alex Janvier, Norval Morrisseau, Daphne Odjig, Carl Ray, and Joseph M Sánchez. This group advocated for Indigenous art as fine art to be included in art galleries across the nation.
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The proposed building would honour the group’s legacy through a design built around themes of duality and contrast, including light and dark, land and water, and interior and exterior.
Spectacle
A rooftop garden would feature plants used for healing and ceremony, while seven elliptical paths would wrap around the building, each representing one of the collective’s seven members while connecting seamlessly to the surrounding landscape.
Inside, plans include gallery settings for Indigenous art and artifacts, spaces for classroom and community learning, climate-controlled archives for more than 2,000 pieces already catalogued in the Portage College MOAPAA, as well as gathering halls and ceremonial spaces.
Spectacle
The design was the winner of a 2025 Canadian Architect Award of Excellence.
But despite the recognition, the new building remains a concept for now, with significant fundraising still needed to bring the ambitious design to life.
You can check out more details about the project on Spectacle’s website.