UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science opened its latest exhibit, “Yuutka” (The Place of the Acorn), featuring black oak trees and projected plants in the museum lobby as workers finished preparations for visitors to step into a mixed-reality environment. The exhibit, which Lawrence Hall of Science staff and Ohlone collaborators described as the museum’s first mixed-reality display, is built around how visitors can gather virtual acorns using baskets equipped with 3D sensors, while learning about the Ohlone community’s relationship to local plants and ecosystems.
The exhibit’s centerpiece mixes technology with community-guided learning. A cartoon version of East Bay Ohlone matriarch Dolores Lameira appears on a wall, encouraging visitors as they use the mixed-reality experience to collect virtual acorns. The museum said the guiding avatar represents the role of Lameira, including as a retired tribal leader also known as “Auntie Dottie,” who is part of the exhibit’s virtual instruction.
Lawrence Hall of Science and its research team said the project began with a National Science Foundation grant of $1.4 million awarded in 2023, as the museum pursued exhibits intended to showcase Ohlone understanding of the natural world and to spark interest in science among Indigenous young people. The work includes replicas of black oak trees towering overhead, with plants projected on the floor and a creek and bridge under construction nearby for the immersive environment.
A central part of the story is how close the effort came to being halted. The Lawrence team said the Trump administration abruptly terminated their NSF funding last year as part of a broader cancellation affecting more than $1 billion in NSF grants officials said did not align with agency priorities. After that termination, the museum said the researchers and Ohlone youth involved in the project kept developing the exhibit rather than pausing, framing the work as continuing to represent Ohlone knowledge to visitors and to show that the community’s contributions are not “waste.”
Researchers and youth continued planning while also seeking legal relief. The project’s principal investigator, Ari Krakowski, later described a continuing funding threat as the exhibit neared completion, saying Krakowski received an email from the university that reported the NSF once again suspended the project’s grant and cited “foreign funding,” though the Lawrence researchers said the project has not received money from outside the U.S. The museum said that suspension occurred despite the earlier court fight over terminations.
The legal effort began after UC Berkeley researchers and legal advocates tracked a series of grant cancellations affecting multiple federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health and other NSF programs. Claudia Polsky, a clinical professor at UC Berkeley School of Law, said she started pressing for information by asking faculty to write a sentence about terminated grants, and she described the work she pursued as class action. In June 2025, Polsky and a legal team filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of UC researchers whose previously approved grants had been terminated by the Trump administration, arguing agencies were unlawfully ignoring congressional mandates in favor of Trump administration political objectives.
The museum’s own team included plaintiffs tied to the exhibit project. One of the named plaintiffs, Jedda Foreman, said in a declaration that the termination of the grant with nearly $500,000 left to be paid would cause an “enormous setback” for the collaborative work between the Lawrence Hall of Science and the Ohlone community. In a preliminary injunction later that June, Judge Rita F. Lin ordered the restoration of the Lawrence Hall of Science grants and other NSF, Environmental Protection Agency and National Endowment for the Humanities grants that had been revoked through either form letters lacking specific explanations or executive orders connected to diversity, equity and inclusion, according to the account.
As the project moved toward opening, the museum’s collaborators described the exhibit’s learning goals as both cultural and scientific. Staff said they saw possible lessons in Ohlone practices ranging from mathematics used in basket design to biochemistry involved in leaching tannins from acorns so they can be digested. They said many of those traditions are passed down orally rather than in scientific papers, but weaves that knowledge into scientific learning is part of the exhibit’s purpose.
At a preview walkthrough, Vincent Medina watched the mixed-reality acorns appear as team members tried picking up acorns as they fell, while an Ohlone granary filled with virtual acorns. Medina said “to see it all come to be — it’s going to go a long way teaching about culture, building understanding and respect.” After the exhibit was fully activated, the museum said the “Auntie Dottie” avatar would urge visitors to leave the first drop of acorns for animals and to avoid “wormy ones” that would spoil the granary.
The museum also described the ’ottoy, or repair, initiative it said Medina and Louis Trevino lead, with a focus on highlighting Ohlone culture and improving UC Berkeley’s relationship with the community. Medina described Ohlone people as “almost always in the past tense” in schools and museum curriculum, and he said the exhibit is meant to keep Ohlone knowledge planted in the present and aimed toward the future through a collaboration with Ohlone youth ages 7 to 22.