High Desert Museum strengthens role as regional hub with $40 million expansion, adding new wing

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- The High Desert Museum announced Thursday it's starting construction on a $40 million expansion project that will add a 24,000-square-foot wing to the facility, featuring new classrooms, expanded gallery space, and event and gathering spaces for the community.

The new wing will increase the museum's capacity for exhibitions, education, and engagement. In addition, plans have the addition as fully electric with solar-ready infrastructure and designed for potential net-zero energy and water expenditure.

The project is set to open in the winter of 2027.

The project will add a new 24,000‑square‑foot wing connected to the main building, with new classroom space, an expanded art gallery, and flexible event and gathering areas designed for both locals and visitors. Museum staff say the additional space will allow them to host larger exhibitions, expand school programs and field trips, and offer more community events and public conversations.

A centerpiece of the project is a complete renovation and reinstallation of the museum’s permanent exhibition featuring the Doris Swayze Bounds collection, a nationally significant collection of Plateau Indigenous objects that has been at the museum for about 30 years. Executive Director Dana Whitelaw said the museum is working closely with Native and non‑Native advisors to rethink how those stories are told.

“We're working with a team of advisors, Native and non‑Native advisors, who are helping us bring the stories of today into that renovation,” Whitelaw said. “With this deep partnership, we're really excited to be able to bring our visitors in [to] a 4,500‑square‑foot gallery with objects from the Doris Swayze Bounds Collection that's been at the museum for about 30 years. It's a really incredible and powerful way to bring Indigenous stories to our visitors.”

The new art gallery will be the only space of its kind east of the Cascades, with high ceilings and flexible exhibition design that will support modern and contemporary art, traveling shows and larger, more immersive installations. Museum leaders say they will continue to highlight artists whose work broadens understanding of the American West and elevates underrepresented voices.

Beyond galleries, the expansion will add:

• “The Gathering,” a central commons area described as the museum’s “living room,” with a fireplace and space for informal meetups, workshops and facilitated dialogue.
• A new Learning Center with four classrooms and an outdoor “learning porch” and amphitheater, more than doubling the museum’s current education space and giving students and teachers more room for hands‑on programs.
• High Desert Hall, a 5,000‑square‑foot event center with room for about 300 people, plus an outdoor terrace that opens into the surrounding ponderosa forest and trail network. It’s designed to host lectures, performances, film screenings, conferences and community conversations.

Portland‑based architecture firm Hacker is designing the addition. The building will mirror the surrounding High Desert landscape, using materials like weathered steel, stone and glass, with floor‑to‑ceiling windows and a nature‑inspired color palette that blur the line between indoor spaces and the sagebrush and pines outside.

The museum says the new wing will be fully electric, with solar‑ready infrastructure and a design that aims for potential net‑zero energy and water use.

Since opening in 1982, the High Desert Museum has grown into the largest cultural institution east of the Cascades, welcoming nearly 225,000 visitors a year and housing more than 28,000 objects and 170 animals. Attendance has climbed about 40% over the last 15 years, and programming has doubled, putting pressure on the museum’s existing footprint.

“The transformed campus will deepen our ability to evolve alongside the diverse audiences we serve and to reinforce the museum’s integral role in our community as a leading cultural, educational, and civic institution,” Whitelaw said in a prepared statement.

So far, the museum has raised about 87% of its $40 million goal through government grants, private foundations and individual donors, including a $6 million grant from the Roundhouse Foundation. The expansion and reimagined Indigenous galleries are expected to open to the public in winter 2027.