CapitalCampaignReportJUNE2017

ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN

What lessons have we learned from the Holocaust? What can we do to create a future without hate? The Museum has the responsibility of serving as the gatekeeper of Survivor memory and culture. Our work bridges the gap between remembering the lives lost in the Holocaust and conveying the relevance and history of the Holocaust to youth and adults in our diverse community. We can accomplish this only by introducing exhibits and expanding outreach and educational programs that tie the events of the Holocaust to modern life and the ethical and moral challenges we face on a daily basis. We are creating a unique, complex center, a space for intellectual and practical inquiry, where questions emerge and focus our intent. In an ever- changing world facing local and global challenges, Holocaust Museum Houston will play a significant role in creating and evaluating programs about the Holocaust, genocide, human behavior and decision-making. Holocaust Museum Houston is a space of difference, a place where history and memory are mined and interwoven. The Museum’s physical presence and the capacity of its programs and exhibits invites visitors into a relationship, finding ways to open doors of possibility that provide entry points into a dialogue with a difficult past — and a conversation with the present — and the future. We consider how social justice and social responsibility connect and how these ways of thinking and acting increase the relevancy of the Holocaust in the 21 st century. The new L.E.E.D. Certified 57,000 s.f. facility will feature the new Human Rights Gallery, the new Youth Diaries Gallery and the expanded core exhibit Holocaust gallery, “Bearing Witness”. A new Welcome Center will have

an Orientation film, and all exhibitions materials will be available in English and Spanish. “Bearing Witness” will also feature new, technology-enriched sections including Nazism in Power, Forced Removal and Ghettos, Final Solution, Deportations, Systematic Killing, War, Collaboration / Choices, Rescue and Resistance, Death Marches, Liberation, Rebuilding Lives and Trials. The Human Rights Gallery will explore the history of human rights, other genocides, the Stages of Genocide and feature historical figures who were human rights exemplars. The Rhona and Bruce Caress Gallery “Anne Frank & Young Writers Voices”, will focus on the experience of youth during the Holocaust, exhibiting journals and diaries of children attempting to mark their place in the world and cope with adversity while sharing ways of documenting their personal experience. The “Anne Frank Interpretive Display” will be followed by an Interactive Context Media Bar and Interactive Diary experience, Audio Program and Artifact Display. A representation of Anne Frank’s personal space and desk will allow visitors hands- on activity as they identify with the young author. A brand new second floor will house a theater, auditorium, the Samuel Bak Learning Center and Art Gallery and Education

department offices, training and education classrooms. The 200-seat Albert and Ethel Herzstein Auditorium will host performance, lectures and films. The Bak Gallery will be home to the nation’s only permanent Samuel Bak collection, over 129 pieces that will be rotated throughout the year. Houston Survivor Photos will feature our beloved Houston-area survivors, a salute to their courage, tenacity and devotion to educating future generations of compassionate, empathetic young men and women. Finally, the second floor will serve as the home to the Jerold B. Katz Family Butterfly Loft and the HMH Butterfly Project, a collection of over 1.5 million handmade butterflies sent to the Museum from children all over the world. The new third floor will host staff and administrative offices, conference and training rooms and The Boniuk Library. We need your help as we work to combat ignorance with education and replace disbelief and denial with proof. Please join us in support of this Capital Campaign so that we can draw attention to the reality of the Holocaust and other genocides and apply those lessons to present-day issues.

PROPOSED CAMPUS PLAN DRAFT

2

3