The passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) by Congress in 1971 divided Alaska into twelve regions, transferring ownership of more than 44 million acres to newly established, for-profit corporations led by Native Alaskan shareholders. The NANA region encompasses eleven villages in northwest Alaska, the traditional lands of the Iñupiat people. More than 15,000 Iñupiat shareholders own NANA’s subsidiary businesses in fields including engineering and construction, facilities management, and information technology services. The income from these businesses provides shareholders with the support to continue the traditional subsistence lifestyle that their ancestors have practiced for thousands of years.

In 2019, one of these businesses relocated to a new, 70,000 square foot headquarters building in Herndon, Virginia. A traditional saying describes the Iñupiat people as “walking in two worlds with one spirit.” NANA leadership wanted the headquarters building to reflect this idea by merging the realms of Iñupiat heritage and the innovative technologies of the shareholders’ businesses.

Studio Loutsis initially joined the project to design bespoke environmental graphics and a gallery of Iñupiat art and artifacts. However, the scope soon grew: as we delved into the art in preparation for designing the planned gallery space we were able to fully appreciate the collection’s depth and breadth. This led us to a bold proposal: what if we curated several exhibitions throughout the building, allowing for multiple visitor encounters with the objects, rather than restrict the gallery experience to one space? The client fully endorsed this proposal as supporting their project goals: making the space more engaging for guests and celebrating Iñupiat heritage.

In designing the exhibitions, Studio Loutsis worked closely with Iñupiat advisors on object selection, display, and context. Our team conducted the research and content development, curated the artwork, and grouped the objects into three main themes: “Our People,” “Our Heritage,” and “Our Impact.” Custom casework, lighting, mounts, labels, and interpretive materials all met—or exceeded—best practices across the field of museum exhibitions, ensuring that the objects were protected yet accessible for all audiences, and transforming a variety of public spaces into gallery environments. In all three themes, the Studio Loutsis team worked with our advisors to incorporate contemporary photography and video to create context for the artifacts. This strategy not only helped animate the objects, but it also allowed visitors to the building, located thousands of miles from the NANA region, a glimpse into Iñupiat life today. 

We created ten site-specific environmental installations for locations we identified throughout the building, working closely with fabricators in a wide range of materials, including corrugated aluminum, wood (ash and oak), metal, slate, and cast concrete. In each case, the bespoke installations featured images related to Iñupiat culture: several directly referenced art objects in the exhibitions; other sources of inspiration included satellite maps of the eleven northwest Alaska villages and text from core Iñupiat teachings. With these pieces, we expanded the exhibition themes into tertiary spaces surrounding the exhibition, using the installations’ large scale and unexpected materials to act as an abstract extension of Iñupiat heritage.