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![]() The Isaac Pollack House, former home of the Dayton International Peace Museum | |
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Established | 27 May 2004 |
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Location | 10 N. Ludlow Street Dayton, OH, 45402, USA |
Coordinates | 39°45′35″N84°11′36″W / 39.7597864°N 84.1932922°W |
Type | Peace museum |
Website | https://peace.museum |
The Dayton International Peace Museum is a non-profit, primarily volunteer-run peace museum located in Dayton, Ohio, at 10 N. Ludlow Street. The Museum's mission is to promote, through education and collaboration, a more equitable, civil, and peaceful world. Its programs and exhibits are non-partisan, secular, and feature themes of conflict resolution, equity, social justice, tolerance, and protecting our natural world. It is the only peace museum in the Western Hemisphere to still have a physical location. [1]
In addition to functioning as a traditional museum, the Peace Museum serves as an activities center for those who seek a community of peace. The Peace Museum features permanent, temporary, and traveling exhibits that highlight the rich history of, and potential for, nonviolent solutions to conflict and sustainability in the natural world.
Located in the Courthouse Plaza Building on Dayton's Courthouse Square, the Peace Museum includes a library, an interactive children's room, a gathering space where visitors can engage in conversation, and holds events such as book discussions and story slams.
The museum is open from 10 A.M - 5 P.M Friday and Saturday for visitors and Tuesday - Thursday by appointment. The Museum's admission is $5, it is free for members. [2]
The Dayton International Peace Museum was founded in 2004 by farmers Ralph and Christine Dull, along with J. Frederick Arment, Lisa Wolters, and Steve Fryburg. Currently, the museum is run by Executive Director Kevin Kelly and Administrative Assistant Arielle Dzaferagic. It was the second peace museum to be created in the United States, with The Peace Museum in Chicago, Illinois, which closed in the late 2000s, being the first. It is the only one in the Western Hemisphere still with a physical location. [1]
In 2005, the Museum moved into Dayton's historic Isaac Pollack House. In 2014, the 1877 structure was refitted with modern technology. The new equipment allowed the Peace Museum to produce multimedia, interactive exhibits, and to broadcast programs and virtual exhibits to multiple rooms.
Ralph and Christine were long-time peace activists and members of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, receiving numerous awards for books published and their work around the local area. Ralph received the 2009 Pioneer of Ohio Award from Green Energy Ohio and the National EPA Award for Environmental Stewardship in 2010. [3]
Since their departure, the museum has maintained a focus on local change, meeting with local leaders and encouraging broader interpretations of peace within the community. In 2017, the Museum participated in the local "Building Peace Through the Arts" initiative alongside the University of Dayton, Dayton Philharmonic, and other local arts institutions. More recently, in response to the 2019 Dayton shooting and rising gun violence in the Dayton area, the museum partnered with the Facing Project to publish a collection of 16 stories detailing the experience of gun-violence survivors. The book, titled "Facing Gun Violence: It’s Always Close to Home for Someone," was released on August 1st, 2020. [4]
In September 2021 the Museum temporarily closed for visitors, opening again in June 2022 in a new facility on Courthouse Square. [5]
The Museum is an active member of the Peace in Our Cities global initiative, the Austrian Service Abroad program, the Association of Children's Museums, and are on the advisory board of the International Network of Museums of Peace based in Kyoto. [6]
The museum hosts a number of different permanent and temporary exhibits, notably featuring an extensive exhibit on the Dayton Peace Accords, complete with interactive panels and touchscreens. Their exhibit on the peace accords is the most extensive of its kind [7] and was digitized for the 25th anniversary in 2020. It is currently available on the Museum's website. [8]
Outside of their exhibitions, the museum's standing programs include several discussion based events, with "Building Peace" talks given on a variety of topics by guest speakers and a series of community discussions on Martin Luther King Jr.'s writings called MLK Dialogues. Outside of the talks, they also host weekly guided meditation and yoga, an annual summer camp for children, a Youth Advisory Board, and periodic programs on Kingian Nonviolence, mediation, peace literacy education, and compassionate education. [9] The museum has also held larger events for the community, partnering with former NFL player and Dayton native Chris Borland in the wake of the 2019 Dayton shooting for the inaugural Dayton Peace Festival. Held over three days, the event combined music and free yoga sessions with serious discussions on the gun violence and the community. [10] [11]
Current Museum Director, Kevin Kelly, has also been active within local media, writing guest opinion columns in the Dayton Daily News on racial and social justice. He has most recently written on the legacies of civil rights icons Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis in the contexts of the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol [12] and the COVID-19 pandemic. [13]
They are also the official repository of each fiction and nonfiction book submitted annually to the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Recent winners of the Richard Holbrooke Award include John Irving, Hala Alyan, and TaNeshi Coates. [14]
Built in 1877, the Isaac Pollack House has been the home of the Dayton International Peace Museum since 2004. After emigrating to Dayton from Riedseltz, France in 1854, Isaac Pollack went into business with Soloman Ruah, a fellow immigrant, as whisky and wine dealers. Both men grew to be important civic leaders, with Pollack especially recognized for his service as defending Cincinnati during the Civil War.
Following the end of the war, both men started development on identical houses next to each other. Constructed in Renaissance and Baroque styles, no expense was spared for either house. Hand carved stonework and oak floors filled the interior, all capped off with an ornate Mansard roof. After building finished in 1877, the families flipped a coin to decide which house each got, with Pollack ending up with the house at 319 West Third Avenue. Pollack retired and moved out of the house in 1903, passing away soon after in 1908.
After leaving the Pollack family, the house passed through several hands, largely serving as a home and dance studio. In 1954 Montgomery County bought both houses and, while demolishing Ruah's neighboring house, kept the Pollack House standing against pressure to redevelop the area. In 1974, the house was added to the National Register of Historic Places and, three years later in 1977, was bought from the county and was moved to its current location on Monument Avenue.
In 2005, the Isaac Pollack House became the Museum's home until September 2021. [15]
Dayton is the sixth-largest city in the state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Dayton was estimated to be at 814,049 residents. The Combined Statistical Area (CSA) was 1,086,512. This makes Dayton the fourth-largest metropolitan area in Ohio and 73rd in the United States. Dayton is within Ohio's Miami Valley region, 50 miles (80 km) north of the Greater Cincinnati area.
The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also known as the Dayton Agreement or the Dayton Accords, is the peace agreement reached at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, United States, on 21 November 1995, and formally signed in Paris, on 14 December 1995. These accords put an end to the three-and-a-half-year-long Bosnian War, one of the Yugoslav Wars.
The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) is an American federal institution tasked with promoting conflict resolution and prevention worldwide. It provides research, analysis, and training to individuals in diplomacy, mediation, and other peace-building measures.
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The Boonshoft Museum of Discovery is a children's museum, science and technology center and zoo in Dayton, Ohio, United States that focuses on science and natural history. Exhibits include an extensive natural history collection as well as maintaining a collection of live animals native to Ohio and abroad. Educational outreach extends to the community by providing in-school programming and on-site special programs. SunWatch Indian Village and Fort Ancient are the sister sites to the museum.
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The Isaac Pollack House is a historic structure now located at 208 West Monument Avenue in Dayton, Ohio, United States. Built in 1876, this Second Empire house was originally home to the family of Isaac Pollack, a prominent Dayton businessman involved in the liqueur trade. The walls are composed of a mixture of stone and brick with some wooden elements, resting on a stone foundation and covered with a slate roof.
Jarrod Martin is a former Republican member of the Ohio House of Representatives, serving the Seventy-Third District.
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Russell John Carollo was an American Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, who worked as an investigative reporter for numerous publications, including the Dayton Daily News, the Los Angeles Times, and The Sacramento Bee.
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McCarty, Mary. Give peace a chance. Dayton Daily News.