Since its opening in 1988, the Museum of the Moving Image has been recognized as a major, internationally known institution and the only museum in the United States dedicated to exploring the art, history, and technology of the moving image.
For the museum, ACHA has designed several exhibitions. The most notable of these is their core exhibition, Behind the Screen, extending over two floors. The exhibition immerses visitors in the creative process of making moving images. It features over 1,400 artifacts, from 19th century optical toys to video games, as well as an array of interactive experiences, audiovisual material, and artworks.
The exhibition fills two floors of the museum, presenting the technology of film and video production on one floor and actors, costumes, sets, and places where we view them, on the other floor. To spatially narrate the exhibit, each part is divided into chapters, each of which has a beginning, middle, and end. Before one chapter ends, the next chapter begins to reveal itself to the visitor, as a kind of foreshadowing device.
Working with a team of specialized consultants, ACHA meticulously designed all aspects of the exhibition from interactive computerized displays, mounting of historic artifacts, to the lighting and graphic presentation of text and movie clips.