Illinois Holocaust Museum opens temporary space in Chicago's River North
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The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center has opened a temporary exhibition space in River North while the Skokie museum undergoes an $8 million renovation.
The big picture: The renovations aim to modernize the nearly 20-year-old space with a larger welcome center, a redesigned auditorium and a new reflection space.
Driving the news: Museum leaders and Gov. JB Pritzker unveiled the temporary museum Monday at Experience360, 360 N. State St.
Zoom in: A mural by Chicago artist Ryan Duggan greets visitors, depicting a 1977 protest against a Nazi march in what was then a largely Jewish Skokie.
- After that protest, Chicago-area Holocaust survivors opened an education center in a Skokie storefront. The current Stanley Tigerman-designed museum opened in 2009.
The intrigue: Visitors to the temporary space can ask questions and get AI-generated answers from holograms of Holocaust survivors.
- For the first time for the museum, Rwandan Genocide survivor Kizito Kalima shares his story as part of the exhibition's hologram exhibit of survivors.
What they're saying: "We find ourselves facing down a rising tide of hate and anti-semitism and authoritarianism here at home and across the globe," Pritzker, an early supporter of the museum, said Monday.
- "The Holocaust Museum satellite campus is a reminder of our shared responsibility to speak up, to use the lessons and the courage that survivors have passed on to us to stand up for our most vulnerable, to drive the best of our humanity.
If you go: "A Panoramic View Through History and Time" is open 10am-5pm every day and tickets range from free-$12.
What's next: The Skokie museum will partially open to the public in January 2026 and is expected to fully reopen next summer.