Nicole D'Orazio

Location: Missouri History Museum

Dates Open: 2015 – Present

Role: Lead Designer, Project Manager

Exhibit Type: Permanent Children’s Exhibit

Content: Explores four locations within St Louis throughout different points in history.

Special Features: Immersive Environments, Custom Casework, Hand Painted Murals, Custom Toys, Back-Lit Photographs.

Major Design Challenges: Disguising original 1911 architecture to create fully immersive environments, Unifying three galleries into one exhibit space.

Awards: 2016 AASLH Award of Excellence

Attendance: 100,000 Visitors Annually

All photos and videos courtesy of Nicole D’Orazio, the Missouri Historical Society, or their credited partners.

Location: Missouri History Museum

Dates Open: April 2023 - February 2024

Role: Lead Designer, Project Manager

Exhibit Type: Temporary Exhibit

Content: Explores what makes St. Louis a true soccer city.

Special Features: Game room to allow visitors to play soccer in a variety of ways. Features include two arcade soccer stations, two Foosball tables, and a Subbuteo game table.

Attendance: 81,000+

Related Press:

“Soccer City” traces the history of St. Louis’ love for the beautiful game

Missouri History Museum exhibition celebrates St. Louis as a true soccer city

All photos and videos courtesy of Nicole D’Orazio, the Missouri Historical Society, or their credited partners.

Location: Missouri History Museum

Dates Open: April 2022 - Present

Role: Lead Designer, Project Manager

Exhibit Type: Permanent Evaluation Space

Content: Allows visitors to help shape future exhibits, programs, and initiatives while introducing them to our 2020’s Vision.

Special Features: Fully interactive exhibit with both high and low-tech opportunities.

Attendance: 135,000+

Related Press:

Missouri Historical Society in St. Louis wants ‘public curators’

All photos and videos courtesy of Nicole D’Orazio, the Missouri Historical Society, or their credited partners.

Location: Missouri History Museum

Dates Open: August 2021 - January 2023; July 2023 - Present

Role: Lead Designer, Project Manager

Exhibit Type: Temporary Exhibit

Content: From Ragtime to Hip-Hop, the exhibit explored the history of popular music in St. Louis.

Special Features: Many opportunities to experience the music itself - a mobile playlist of 100 songs by 100 artists which was accessed via QR code and guided by record icons on exhibit labels; music videos and listening stations throughout for those not able to access the playlist.

Major Design Challenges: How to depict artists for whom there is very little photographic evidence. Solution: Illustrations of all major artists.

Awards: 2023 AASLH Award of Excellence

Attendance: 185,000+

Legacy: The Exhibit lives on as a mini installation within the museum.

Related Press:

“St. Louis Sound” and the local storytelling mission of the Missouri History Museum

HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF

All photos and videos courtesy of Nicole D’Orazio, the Missouri Historical Society, or their credited partners.

Location: Missouri History Museum

Dates Open: November 2019 - June 2021

Role: Lead Designer, Project Manager

Exhibit Type: Temporary Exhibit

Content: Explored the history of the Mississippi River Valley.

Awards: 2022 AASLH Award of Excellence

Attendance: 113,000

All photos and videos courtesy of Nicole D’Orazio, the Missouri Historical Society, or their credited partners.

Location: Missouri History Museum

Dates Open: June 2019 - September 2019

Role: Lead Designer, Project Manager

Exhibit Type: Temporary Exhibit

Content: Explores the romantic history Charles and Anne Lindbergh along side the conservation efforts of their wedding gift, Flores Mexicanas.

Special Features: Documentary Theater, New Temp Wall System

Attendance: 57,000

All photos and videos courtesy of Nicole D’Orazio, the Missouri Historical Society, or their credited partners.

Location: Missouri History Museum

Dates Open: June 2018 - June 2019

Role: Lead Designer, Project Manager

Exhibit Type: Temporary Theater Exhibit

Content: Explores the history of the St Louis Municipal Opera (The Muny) in celebration of its 100th season.

Special Features: Immersive Displays, Custom Casework, Hand Painted Murals and Set Pieces, Braille Touchable Map, Interactive Dance Lesson

Major Design Challenges: To simultaneously immerse the visitor in the experience and process of a Muny production.

Attendance: 170,000

All photos and videos courtesy of Nicole D’Orazio, the Missouri Historical Society, or their credited partners.

Location: Missouri History Museum

Dates Open: June 2016 – July 2017

Role: Lead Designer, Project Manager

Exhibit Type: Temporary Nostalgia Exhibit

Content: Explored the history of the "Mother Road" throughout the city of St. Louis.

Special Features: Immersive Displays, Large Back-Lit Photos, Hand Painted Murals, Inter-generational Interactives including memory sharing oral histories,

Major Design Challenges: Designing around the inclusion of 5 vehicles.

Awards:

2017 & 2018 St. Louis Post Dispatch Readers’ Choice Award for Best Museum Exhibit

Top 100 Events of 2016 in North America by the American Bus Association

Regional Emmy Award for the associated documentary Show Me 66: Main Street Through Missouri

Helped MHM to earn the 2017 American Alliance of Museums Award for Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion. 

Attendance: More than 370,000 visitors, making it the second most popular exhibit in MHMs 150 year history, and the most visited exhibit for the last 80 years.  

All photos and videos courtesy of Nicole D’Orazio, the Missouri Historical Society, or their credited partners.

Location: Missouri History Museum

Dates Open: April 2016 – September 2016

Role: Lead Designer, Graphic Designer, Project Manager

Exhibit Type: Temporary Fashion Exhibit

Content: Explored the history of the color black in fashion from the Victorian era to present day.

Special Features: Community inclusive photo murals, Custom casework, High and low-tech interactives, Large back-lit panels.

Attendance: 184,000

All photos and videos courtesy of Nicole D’Orazio, the Missouri Historical Society, or their credited partners.

Location: Missouri History Museum

Dates Open: March 2014 – August 2014

Role: Lead Designer, Project Manager

Exhibit Type: Prototype Children’s Exhibit

Content: Explored three locations within St Louis throughout different points in History, while asking for community feedback on our ideas for the permanent exhibit opening in 2015.

Special Features: Semi-Immersive Environments, Graphic Murals, Hanging Installations, and Community Building Interactives.

Major Design Challenges: Creating a space that felt both finished and unfinished at the same time to allow our visitors to feel they had a hand in the final exhibits development.

All photos and videos courtesy of Nicole D’Orazio, the Missouri Historical Society, or their credited partners.

Designed: 2018

Installed: 2019, 2021, 2023

Exhibit Use: Flores Mexicanas, Mighty Mississippi, St. Louis Sound, Soccer City

Role: Lead Designer, Project Manager

Purpose: To replace our old and outdated temporary wall system and reduce gypsum board construction.

Pieces Include: 1’-3’ Basic Wall Units, Corner Units, T Units, End Caps, Casework Units

Special Features: Custom Casework, Custom Design, Base and Crown Molding, Interior Channeling for Electrical Runs, Tear Away Channel to Eliminate Seems, Gypsum Board-like Finished Product

All designs are proprietary to the Missouri Historical Society. All Designs created by Nicole D’Orazio for the Missouri Historical Society.

Location: Missouri History Museum

Content: Exhibit Graphics created for various projects.

All designs created by Nicole D’Orazio for the Missouri Historical Society.