The Museum in Brief

Mission:

Envision Peace Museum is a laboratory and educational center dedicated to the exploration, popularization, and legitimization of peace-building. Through exhibits and experiential educational programs, Envision Peace Museum challenges visitors to explore peace and justice in historical, contemporary, and future-focused contexts while developing skills, strategies, and courage to confront violence and injustice in their everyday lives.

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Envision Peace Museum is a visionary social change museum that connects and inspires people with powerful ideas, stories, and tools for transformation. Through experiential exhibits and participatory cultural programs, Envision amplifies the voices and illuminates the techniques of peace-builders and social change visionaries world-wide.

Envision is conceived as a multifaceted and multi-media museum; in addition to the major physical museum being planned for Philadelphia, Envision plans to send traveling exhibits around the nation, and to serve a global community through an on-line museum. These facets of the museum will all facilitate dialogue, build community, and inspire action.

Envision is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that operates under the guidance of a working Board of Directors. Envision is also in the process of building an International Advisory Board and has attracted several dozen professional volunteers and community leaders who bring their knowledge, passion, and skill to Envision.

Programs

Envision’s exhibitions, education, and events programming are offered globally, through the Museum’s website, and regionally in the Philadelphia, PA area.

Envision’s goals are to:

• Provide world-class exhibitions that entertain, educate, and empower visitors.
• Build “communities of action” using emerging and social media technologies.
• Bring together peace-builders from around the world in conversation about extraordinary stories and powerful ideas for social change.
• Engage with local, national, and international organizations in redefining peace and fostering justice.

History

All museums start somewhere – Envision started with some questions and a vision.

The questions: What could a 21^st century peace museum be like?  How might it help people explore and understand peace and justice more fully, believe in them more deeply, and work for them effectively?

The vision: An interactive museum that is entertaining, educational, and empowering – one that allows people to explore the meanings, complexities, possibilities, and tools for peace and justice and to draw their own conclusions.

Milestones

Envision was founded in 2007. Here are some development milestones since that time:

• The premier of Envision’s first traveling exhibit, Lost Stories (PDF), highlighting examples of nonviolent action from around the world (January, 2009)
• Envision is the subject of a design studio in Drexel University’s architectural program; creation of building concepts for Envision Peace Museum (2008)
• Cloud-Gehshan and Talisman Interactive design the first Envision website (January, 2009)
• Envision Peace Museum hires its first Director, Michael Yves Gagné (May, 2009)
• Howard Zinn and Dr. Helen Caldicott become the first members of Envision’s International Advisory Board (Summer, 2009)
• First fund-raising, first major donors (Summer, 2009)
• Graduate Museum Studies Students at the Fashion Institute of Technology (SUNY) create 8 exciting concept designs for Envision core exhibits (Fall, 2009)
• Envision Board members hold a series of listening sessions/ friend-raisers (Fall, 2009)
• Envision recruits a 12 member Steering Committee for the Strategic Planning Conference (January, 2010)
• Meetings with Philadelphia Mayor, Michael Nutter, and Deputy Mayor, Alan Greenberger (Spring, 2010)
• Strategic Planning Conference facilitated by Concentrics, Inc. involving 100 thought leaders, stakeholders, and potential partners. (June, 2010)
• Partnering with the American Friends Service Committee in the exhibition of Windows and Mirrors: Reflections on the Afghanistan War (September – November, 2010)

Envision Peace Museum currently involves a fourteen member Board of Directors, a growing International Advisory Board, an Executive Director, and several dozen dedicated volunteers. Many of these people are based in and around Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. All of them bring knowledge, skill, and passion to Envision, which is stronger for this diversity of voices and perspectives.