Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center has unveiled its plan to build a groundbreaking three-gallery exhibition suite, the Take A Stand Center . Using cutting-edge technology, the Take A Stand Center will provide an immersive, engaging, and empowering visitor experience through its Survivor Stories Theater, interactive Upstander Gallery, and an action-oriented Take A Stand Lab.

Illinois Holocaust Museum will be the first in the world to use three-dimensional technology to tell Survivor stories. The Survivor Stories Theater will address the challenge of sharing first-hand Survivor narratives and lessons with future generations. This state-of-the-art technology developed through USC Shoah Foundation’s New Dimensions in Testimony project combines high-definition holographic recording and voice recognition technology to enable Survivors to tell their stories and respond to questions in a strikingly life-like way.

“I am proud that Illinois Holocaust Museum is leading the way in engaging visitors to take history to heart, and take a stand for humanity,” said Museum CEO Susan Abrams. “The Survivor Stories Theater will enable actual conversation with a recorded Survivor, thereby providing visitors for generations to come with a personal perspective on the history and lessons of the Holocaust, the importance of the choices we make, and the power of our choices to change lives and transform the future.”

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

The action-oriented Take A Stand Lab puts the power of change in visitors’ hands, allowing them to get involved and make their voices heard, even before they leave the Museum.

The Take A Stand Center will break ground in the summer of 2017, 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 public phase of the Campaign.

“The urgency to keep their 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.