Chicago’s Navy Pier, in partnership with Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center, has pened its newest exhibit, “Stories of Survival: Object. Image. Memory.” The exhibit will be on display outdoors for the first time at Navy Pier’s Polk Bros. Park for guests to experience from Thursday, April 7 through Thursday, June 30.
The powerful exhibition, made possible by Lead Sponsors Fifth Third Bank and United Airlines, and curated by Illinois Holocaust Museum, showcases more than 50 personal artifacts brought to America as families fled persecution and war. “Stories of Survival” features powerful collaborative artworks by celebrated photographer Jim Lommasson and survivors of the Holocaust (including from Ukraine) and seven other genocides, including those in Armenia, Bosnia, Cambodia, Iraq, Rwanda, South Sudan and Syria. Admission is free, as part of Navy Pier’s nonprofit mission.
“A suitcase. A sweater. A Teddy bear with one eye. The personal things exhibited in Stories of Survival—very small things when measured against the enormity of war—are items that real people held close to provide comfort, connection and identity,” said Navy Pier President and CEO Marilynn Gardner. “This powerful installation offers insightful answers about individual survivors, but it also stirs meaningful questions. What would you take with you?”
Illinois Holocaust Museum CEO Susan Abrams adds, “The exhibition allows the viewer to walk in someone else’s shoes and experience through their eyes the effort to hold on to cherished memories while adapting to new circumstances. The exhibition poignantly shows our common humanity across geography and time.”
