Illinois Holocaust Museum Unveils Plan for Groundbreaking Interactive Galleries

Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center has begun to build a new three-gallery exhibition suite. The Take A Stand Center will provide an immersive, empowering visitor experience through its Survivor Stories Theater, interactive Upstander Gallery, and action-oriented Take A Stand Lab.

Illinois Holocaust Museum will be the first in the world to use this three-dimensional technology to tell Survivor stories in an incredibly life-like way. The Survivor Stories Theater will address the challenge of preserving first-hand Survivor narratives for future generations. The technology, developed through USC Shoah Foundation's New Dimensions in Testimony project, combines high-definition holographic interview recordings and voice recognition technology to enable Survivors to tell their stories and then respond to questions from the audience.

"The opening of the Take A Stand Center is the most exciting milestone since the Museum's opening in 2009," said Museum CEO Susan Abrams. "I am proud that Illinois Holocaust Museum is protecting our Survivor legacies and providing visitors with engaging tools to take action for what they believe."

The Upstander Gallery will take visitors on an interactive exploration of historical and contemporary Upstanders who have fought against injustice and stood up for worthy causes.

The Take A Stand Lab will then put the power of change in visitors' hands, allowing them to get involved and make their voices heard before they leave the Museum.

The Take A Stand Center's official groundbreaking ceremony will take place in Spring 2017 for a Fall 2017 opening, and is the cornerstone of Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center's $30 million Commit to the Future Capital Campaign that will secure the financial and programmatic future of the Museum. The private phase of the campaign raised $20 million with generous gifts from J.B. and M.K. Pritzker Family Foundation, John W. and Jeanne M. Rowe Foundation, Dr. Richard Chaifetz, the Crown Family, and Abe & Ida Cooper Foundation. The remaining $10 million will be raised in the Campaign's public phase.

"The urgency to keep this history alive is real, as the aging Survivor population dwindles," said J.B. Pritzker, immediate past Museum Board of Trustees Chair. "It is a moral imperative to protect their legacy and continue to tell their stories and teach the lessons that combat hatred, prejudice, and indifference."

Visit www.ilholocaustmuseum.org/commit-to-the-future for more information on this capital campaign.