The Brain Museum Partners with Luci and The Planning Office for Culture to Design a Public Home for the Brain
The Brain Museum has partnered with award-winning firms Luci and The Planning Office for Culture to design the Vision Plan for the first large-scale public museum dedicated entirely to the brain. Supported by a grant from the Dana Foundation, the planning phase will shape, together with the community it serves, a place where anyone can explore what makes them who they are.
Nationally recognized experiential design and cultural-planning firms will lead a Dana Foundation-funded planning phase to shape the first large-scale public museum dedicated entirely to the brain.
The Brain Museum, a new nonprofit creating the first large-scale public museum dedicated entirely to neuroscience and its connection to everyday life, today announced a partnership with Luci and The Planning Office for Culture to design the museum's foundational Vision Plan. The two nationally recognized firms will work hand in hand with The Brain Museum and the communities it will serve to translate this ambitious idea into an actionable roadmap.
Why do we remember some moments for a lifetime, yet forget where we put our keys? What happens when we fall in love? Why do we dream? Why can't we tickle ourselves? Why don't we have cures for so many conditions that affect how we think and feel? What makes you, you? The brain shapes every part of our lives, yet for most people, it still feels abstract and out of reach.
Facts alone don't make the brain feel personal. Experience does. The Brain Museum is being built on that belief: that people understand their own minds best when they can explore brain science firsthand, not just read about it. Bringing that vision to life is the work now underway with Luci and The Planning Office for Culture, who bring the experience-design and cultural-planning expertise to make it real.
"A dream without a plan is just a wish," said Manuella Oliveira Yassa, PhD, founder and president of The Brain Museum. "Partnering with Luci and The Planning Office for Culture is how this dream becomes a plan. They design places people never forget, and they share our conviction that a museum like this should be built not just for the public, but with the public. Together, we're creating a place where anyone can explore what makes them who they are." Oliveira Yassa is a neuroscientist and award-winning science educator who has spent her career creating bridges between science and the public.
The partnership launches the first phase of the museum's design: a collaborative process to crystallize its mission and vision, develop early exhibit concepts, define its audiences and future spaces, and produce a Vision Book that will provide the foundations for the museum's future. Community input is built into the work from the start, ensuring the museum is shaped with the people who will one day walk through its doors. The planning phase is supported by a grant from the Dana Foundation, which the museum announced earlier this year.
Luci is leading the experience and exhibit design, with Creative Director Thomas Tzortzi guiding the creative vision.
"At Luci, making complex ideas relevant, engaging, and memorable is a guiding principle," said AJ Goehle, CEO and Founder of Luci. "The Brain Museum takes that principle even further. It's a chance to create true connection between fact and experience, expert and audience, neuroscience and everyday life, from the earliest stages," said Thomas Tzortzi, Creative Director.
Along with Luci, The Planning Office for Culture is shaping the museum's strategy and long-term vision.
"It's a rare opportunity to help shape a museum around a field as dynamic and deeply human as neuroscience," said Cameron Boodram, Principal and Founder of The Planning Office for Culture. "Our job is to ensure that the Brain Museum's mission, approach to public engagement and physical environment all create meaningful ways for people to connect with the science of how we think, feel and experience the world."
An Invitation to Get Involved
As the planning phase begins, The Brain Museum welcomes conversations with anyone who wants to help shape it: educators and school administrators, scientists and clinicians, families and community members, donors and founding partners, and civic and business leaders who want to help establish a new cultural and educational anchor for Orange County.
To request a meeting or learn more, contact Manuella Oliveira Yassa at manuella@nationalbrainmuseum.com or visit nationalbrainmuseum.com.
About The Brain Museum
The Brain Museum is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization creating the first large-scale public museum dedicated entirely to neuroscience and its connection to everyday life. Envisioned as a lasting relationship between brain science and the public, it will invite people of all ages to explore how the brain works, and what it means to be human, through immersive, hands-on experiences. Rooted in Orange County and shaped with the community it serves, The Brain Museum believes science belongs to everyone. Learn more at nationalbrainmuseum.com.
About Luci
Founded in Chicago in 2011, Luci is an award-winning, experience design practice creating museums and brand experiences that shape how people see themselves, their world, and their place in it. Guided by the belief that new times call for new perspectives, Luci combines curiosity, emotional intelligence, rigorous research, and multidisciplinary collaboration to transform complex stories into meaningful experiences designed around visitor outcomes. With studios in Chicago, Seattle, New York, and London, Luci has delivered more than 100 projects across history, science, culture, education, and entertainment. In addition to being named to the Inc. 5000 list twice, Crain's Chicago Business named Luci one of the city's Biggest Woman-Owned Businesses. For more information, visit lucicreative.com.
About The Planning Office for Culture
The Planning Office for Culture works with museums and cultural institutions to shape vision, strategy, and long-term plans for the future. From its Los Angeles office, The Planning Office has helped organizations across four continents to translate big ideas into clear and actionable frameworks. Its work supports institutions in navigating change, strengthening their role in public life, and building meaningful cultural experiences for the communities they serve.
About the Dana Foundation
The Dana Foundation is a private philanthropic organization dedicated to advancing neuroscience and society, a human-centered neuroscience paradigm that connects brain research to real-world needs, values, and experiences. It brings together students, scientists, practitioners, and communities to reflect on assumptions, share expertise, and ensure that neuroscience serves people in meaningful and socially responsible ways.
The Brain Museum Awarded Dana Foundation Grant to Create a Public Home for the Brain
The most extraordinary object in the known universe is inside your head — and most of us never get to see it, touch it, or understand it. A new $120,000 grant from the Dana Foundation launches The Brain Museum's 18-month planning phase to change that, shaped hand-in-hand with the community it will serve.
A new nonprofit invites educators, families, scientists, donors, and civic leaders to help shape the first large-scale public museum dedicated entirely to the brain
The Brain Museum, a new nonprofit creating the first large-scale public museum dedicated entirely to neuroscience and its connection to everyday life, has been awarded a $120,000 grant from the Dana Foundation. The grant launches an 18-month planning phase to design the museum in partnership with the communities it will serve.
Neuroscience increasingly shapes some of society’s most important conversations — about learning, mental health, healthy aging, creativity, and artificial intelligence — yet for most people, brain science still feels distant and hard to access. The Brain Museum aims to change that by creating a place where people of all ages can explore the brain through immersive, hands-on, and scientifically credible experiences that connect directly to their own lives. The museum envisions experiences that will turn abstract neuroscience into something you can move through, play with, and feel.
Guided by nationally recognized museum-planning firms, the 18-month planning phase will define the museum’s mission and vision, develop early exhibit concepts, test ideas with the community, and produce an implementation-ready plan to bring the museum to life.
“The most extraordinary object in the known universe is inside of our heads, and it has never had a public home,” said Manuella Oliveira Yassa, founder and president of The Brain Museum. “We’re building a place where anyone can explore how their mind works and come away understanding a little more about what it means to be human.”
Oliveira Yassa is an award-winning neuroscientist and science educator who has spent her career bringing brain science to the public. She serves as Director of Outreach and Education at the University of California, Irvine Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory and directs the USA Brain Bee, the national neuroscience competition. She founded programs including Brain Camp, the Brain Explorer Academy, and the Summer Institute in Neuroscience, which bring thousands of students and families into hands-on neuroscience each year. In 2025, she received the Society for Neuroscience’s Science Educator Award, a national honor for public engagement with neuroscience.
The planning effort builds on early momentum from a founding circle of community members who have already stepped forward with leadership support. With the Dana Foundation’s backing now in place, the museum is seeking additional partners and supporters who share its vision.
“The Brain Museum represents a bold new model for engaging people with neuroscience, one that extends beyond a single visit to create meaningful, ongoing connections between science and society,” said Caroline Montojo, president and CEO of the Dana Foundation. “By helping people see themselves in neuroscience and creating opportunities for communities to help shape its future, it closely reflects the Dana Foundation's mission to advance neuroscience that benefits society.”
An Invitation to Get Involved
The Brain Museum welcomes conversations with anyone who wants to help bring this vision to life, including:
Educators and schools interested in shaping the museum’s learning experiences
Scientists and clinicians who want to contribute their expertise
Families and community members who want a voice in the design process
Donors and founding partners who want to invest in a lasting community institution
Civic and business leaders interested in a new cultural and educational anchor for Orange County
To request a meeting or learn more, contact Dr. Manuella Oliveira Yassa at manuella@nationalbrainmuseum.com or visit nationalbrainmuseum.com.
About The Brain Museum
The Brain Museum is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization creating the first large-scale public museum dedicated entirely to neuroscience and its connection to everyday life. Envisioned as a lasting relationship between brain science and the public, it will invite people of all ages to explore how the brain works — and what it means to be human — through immersive, hands-on experiences. Rooted in Orange County and shaped with the community it serves, The Brain Museum believes science belongs to everyone. Learn more at nationalbrainmuseum.com.
About the Dana Foundation
The Dana Foundation is a private philanthropic organization dedicated to advancing neuroscience and society, a human-centered neuroscience paradigm that connects brain research to real-world needs, values, and experiences. It brings together students, scientists, practitioners, and communities to reflect on assumptions, share expertise, and ensure that neuroscience serves people in meaningful and socially responsible ways.