Freedom Center opening new gallery rooted in the power of place
In This Place will be first new permanent exhibit in 15 years; opening May 23
CINCINNATI – The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is honoring its power of place and connection to the building’s historic footprint. A new permanent exhibit opening May 23 serves as both an introduction to guests and a tribute to the thousands of freedom seekers who crossed the banks of the Ohio River.
In This Place, opening on the first floor of the Freedom Center, is an immersive gallery that explores the historic significance of the Freedom Center’s location on the banks of the Ohio River. Here, many enslaved people working to liberate themselves through the Underground Railroad took their first steps on free soil. The gallery features a sweeping, powerful media experience as well as artifacts and an interactive table where historic moments flow by as if in the river itself. Guests can “pull” those moments from the current to learn more. Historic photos, footage and artifacts punctuate the region’s critical role as a borderland between slave and free states and the ongoing dynamics of justice and injustice that intersect here in Cincinnati and across the country.
“The story of the Freedom Center is rooted in this power of place and the legacy of the land we stand on,” said Woodrow Keown, Jr., president & COO of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. “This new gallery will serve as an important introduction to the Freedom Center, our region’s history and the stories guests encounter as they journey through our museum.”
The new gallery is the first permanent exhibit to open at the Freedom Center in 15 years as part of an overall exhibits remake that will both update existing exhibits and develop new permanent experiences. Currently under development is a groundbreaking social justice exhibit focused on local and national social justice movements from the late 1800s to the present – building upon the strategies and tactics used by activists in the Underground Railroad.
The Freedom Center’s exhibits remake pulls the threads of history and those lessons of the Underground Railroad into the present day. In This Place will set that tone at the beginning of each visit, framing the Freedom Center’s exhibits and artifacts in a historic context with a present impact.