The new space, formerly a branch of U.S. Bank, is 4,600 square-feet lined with street level windows and faces the fountain on Courthouse Square.
The Dayton International Peace Museum is America’s only brick-and-mortar peace museum with rotating exhibitions and special programs. A goal for the new space, which has room to seat 165 people, is to host events, Kevin Kelly, executive director of the museum, said.
Credit: Tom Gilliam
Credit: Tom Gilliam
“We’re planning to have a film series and a live music series so we’re trying really hard to design and build out space with all that in mind,” he said.
Design plans include exhibition space, a theater, a studio and a large multi-purpose classroom.
A ribbon cutting for the new museum location is planned for Sept. 21, the International Day of Peace.
The grand opening exhibition will be a collection of rare original color photographs of Dr. Martin Luther King. The photographer, Bernard Kleina, will attend and speak about the exhibition.
Credit: Tom Gilliam
Credit: Tom Gilliam
The three-story Isaac Pollock House, built in 1877, will be sold and the proceeds will be used to start an endowment for the museum, Kelly said. A capital campaign will be announced soon on the museum’s website and social media.
The Dayton International Peace Museum was founded in 2004 by Ralph and Christine Dull, J. Frederick Arment, Steve Fryburg and Lisa Wolters to provide a place for the community to learn alternatives to war, racism and violence. It honors the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords that ended war in Bosnia.
“We’re standing on the shoulders of giants — the people that started this vision and continued it and supported it,” Kelly said. “I’m trying to respectfully expand that mission and make it so we can do the things we want to do but have not been able to do because of space.”
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