Find Your West is an immersive, state-of-the-art exhibit at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.
With more than 3.2 million tickets sold in 2022, Lighthouse Immersive’s sprawling and mind-bending Van Gogh Exhibition: The Immersive Experience have made digitally animated projected light shows a world sensation. However, the Toronto-based company— which produces the wild, digital art shows focused on historical greats such as Frida Kahlo, Gustav Klimt, Claude Monet, and, the new Immersive Disney Animation — has never worked on a museum project before.
Until now.
The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City unveiled the first-of-its-kind, immersive, projection-mapped exhibit by Lighthouse Immersive in April. The Find Your West experience maintains that mind-bending feel with 27 projectors and 768 LED tiles made up of more than 23 million LED lights and representing work from more than 50 people from five different countries.
This time, the technology is in the service of representing the American West.
This isn’t, of course, Lighthouse Immersive’s first rodeo — the company produced the blockbuster Immersive Van Gogh experience, as well as Immersive Disney Animation, both of which have enjoyed runs in multiple venues worldwide. The Cowboy’s immersive experience is the first exhibit of its kind it has produced for a museum.
Making The Past Come Alive In The Future
“This is an experience that will change how you view both historic events and the vitality of Western life today,” said Pat Fitzgerald, president and CEO of The Cowboy.“This is just the beginning of how The Cowboy, with our partnership with Lighthouse Immersive, is changing how people will experience museums in the future. This is going to change the way we look at and see the West, and it will change the way we engage with the West.”
The 3,000-square-foot exhibit carries visitors to the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum’s galleries through four vignettes that highlight the stories of cowboy, Native American, ranching, and rodeo cultures. Situated within The Cowboy’s West Hallway, the floor-to-ceiling exhibit also encircles visitors in Western vistas and tells the story of the westward migration of America’s early pioneers by immersing them in the sights and sounds of the American frontier.
The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City is America’s premier institution of Western history, art, and culture. Founded in 1955, the museum collects, preserves, and exhibits an internationally renowned collection of Western art and artifacts while sponsoring dynamic educational programs to stimulate interest in the enduring legacy of the American West.
But the museum isn’t so embedded in the past that it ignores the fact that museumgoers want more than static displays and paintings. Visitors, Fitzgerald says, want to feel and experience the history they came to see. And that’s exactly what the brand-new immersive exhibit delivers.
Corey Ross, co-founder of Lighthouse Immersive, worked with David Korins, Emmy-winning creative director and principal designer of Korins Studio, to develop the layout and set design for the four vignettes of Find Your West. Korins’ set design credits include the Broadway musical Hamilton, as well as multiple other Broadway, television, film, and concert productions.
Korins and his team and The Cowboy team decided on an experience that aimed to makevisitors feel like settlers heading into America’s West, but the Find Your West is only a preview of what The Cowboy plans to do with Lighthouse Immersive in the future.
Building A Future
The Find Your West project is part of The Cowboy’s “Live the Code” capital campaign announced last year, which will raise $40 million to modernize the museum’s guest experiences and infrastructure. That campaign includes working with Lighthouse Immersive again to open an immersive theater experience in a gallery in late 2025.
“This is going to leave a legacy for our museum,” Fitzgerald said. “We are a national museum, but more than that, we really are a global museum. Our stories resonate around the world.”
Get An Exclusive Preview Of Find Your West
Check out the new Find Your West exhibit at nationalcowboymuseum.org.
PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy Heide Brandes
