Headwaters River Journey: Exhibit Experience

Headwaters River Journey: Connecting the Drops
What comes out when you turn on a tap in Colorado’s Front Range cities? River water! The rivers we love in Colorado are connected to the water we use at home. And those rivers are in trouble.

This is a key message at Headwaters River Journey, a new cutting-edge museum along the Fraser River—which feeds the Colorado River.

The project had an ambitious agenda: “connect the dots” between declining natural river flows and Colorado’s growing population. And then empower people to take action to conserve water and protect rivers.

A Design Team with Deep Currents
Our team brought together experts in storytelling, sculpting, graphics, 3D design, filmmaking, video game technology, coding, color, and more.

We created an exhibition journey that immerses visitors in the mystery of the snow-to-flow cycle. From the love of rivers, we take visitors to the dark side of Colorado’s water story: moving water out of rivers, through mountains, and across hundreds of miles. After the “tunnel of tension,” visitors emerge into the Solutions Gallery filled with ideas for WHAT I CAN DO TO HELP.

What engaging, immersive experiences did we develop? Highlights include:

• Curving walls, riverine floor treatments, and duotone murals with popping graphics guide your journey.

• A crawl-in beaver lodge, sensor-triggered bull moose video, and super-sized fish draw you into the rich natural world.

• Walking through a gritty water tunnel, you sense the enormity of Colorado’s engineered “plumbing system” that transports water.

• A Wall of Grass with hose bib audio interactives tells the story of converting a dry prairie into a verdant, bustling metropolis.

• In a meditative “Think Tank” space, drops of water fall into a river rock cistern (a reminder of the water cycle and our place in it).

• Fly Like an osprey! Control a digital osprey avatar with your arms, as you follow the path of water from the Continental Divide to Denver lawns.