"Opening a place of this significance is never without challenges, but what stood out was the spirit of collaboration and commitment that carried us through. The Cortina team consistently approached obstacles with creativity, optimism, and a shared determination to deliver something extraordinary." Ed O'Keefe, CEO of The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library
The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library opened July 4, 2026, in Medora, North Dakota. Cortina Productions served as a media production partner, leading the personalized Trailblazer Compass system and many of the interactive experiences that place visitors inside Roosevelt’s story.
The Library does not ask visitors simply to look back at Theodore Roosevelt. It asks them to take part. To make choices, try something difficult, and consider the values they bring to the world.
The Trailblazer Compass carries that journey across the Museum. As visitors explore, create, and respond, the system remembers what they do and builds a record of their experience. Each stop adds something new, turning a collection of interactives into one connected, personal story.
In the ranching gallery, visitors create their own cattle brand and watch it sear across a digital plank. Along the Campaign Trail, they arrange physical letterpress blocks to build a campaign poster, then step onto the back of a recreated Pullman caboose for a whistle-stop moment of their own. Their poster and portrait become a personalized newsreel saved to their Trailblazer profile.
Elsewhere, In the Arena draws on Roosevelt’s “Citizenship in a Republic” speech to ask what it means to act with courage, persistence, and conviction. The emphasis is not on getting everything right. It is on being willing to step forward.
Together, these experiences make Roosevelt’s ideas active rather than abstract. Visitors leave with more than a record of what they saw. They leave with a story shaped by what they chose, what they stood for, and how they entered the arena.
TEAM
Executive Creative Direction and Storytelling: Future of StoryTelling
Exhibit Design: Local Projects
Fabrication: Dimensional Innovations
AV Design & Integration: Electrosonic
Media: Cortina, Local Projects, Redglass Pictures, RLMG
MEDORA, NORTH DAKOTA - JULY 02: Guests view the exhibition during the Inaugural Events Of The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library on July 02, 2026 in Medora, North Dakota. (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library)
