Conceived as a metaphor for the human brain, design for this new museum was inspired from a passage out of Tennyson's Ulysses: "I am part of all that I have met; yet all experience is an arch where through gleams that untraveled world whose margin fades forever when I move."
The Museum is organized around one space—the Main Hall—where all experiences come together. Like Ulysses in Tennyson's poem, this space is a part of all of the spaces in the museum, yet at the same time becomes the foundation upon which they are experienced. A distinguishable form, the Main Hall draws visitors in from Main Street with views into and through the museum. Individual wedge-shaped galleries grow organically from its core. Inside, it is a vortex of creative energy. An oculus to the sky, symbolic of Tennyson's "arch", opens the space to the universe and all that it holds, while a prominent link to a large outdoor gathering plaza forges a connection with the rest of Depot Park.
