Brain Museum

This grant supports the Brain Museum’s planning phase for the creation of a permanent, community-centered, immersive public institution in southern California dedicated to connecting neuroscience to everyday life and broader societal contexts. Designed through co-creation with educators, students, families, and local stakeholders, the Brain Museum will reflect lived experiences, build public trust, and invite broad participation in shaping how neuroscience is understood and experienced. The Dana Foundation will be recognized as a key supporter in all deliverables and dissemination activities of this grant, and beyond the planning phase, as a foundational partner whose support catalyzed the Brain Museum’s development. 

The project will be implemented through a multi-phase process that draws on human-centered design, community-based participatory frameworks, and informal science learning research. Working closely with a community advisory board, the planning phase will create an interpretive framework, preliminary exhibit concepts, facility requirements, organizational structure, and preliminary financial projections to guide the Brain Museum’s development.  The findings will be synthesized into a Vision Plan that articulates the museum’s mission, experience frameworks, and operational approach, and a Prospectus that translates this work into a compelling case for investment and partnership. 

This project will generate a transferable model for neuroscience education and public engagement that advances co-creation, demonstrates how neuroscience can be meaningfully connected to everyday life through experiential design, and offers practical tools and strategies that can be adapted by museums, educational institutions, and community-based organizations.