ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum said Thursday that it surpassed a $21 million capital campaign goal to fund the museum's expansion.
Construction began last fall on the new $21 million project, being built on the Millstone Campus, near the northwest corner of Lindbergh Boulevard and Schuetz Road. The new museum, slated to open in 2022, will replace and quadruple the space of the current Holocaust museum to 35,000 square feet.
The new facility will further the museum's mission to preserve the legacy of the Holocaust and empower visitors to make the world a more tolerant place by rejecting antisemitism and all forms of hate, racism, and bigotry, officials said.
Part of the funding came from a $750,000 challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor, as well from such organizations as Centene, J.E & L.E. Mabee Foundation, Enterprise Holdings, BJC HealthCare and the Bellwether Foundation. Support also has been provided by the community and other area corporations, including Ameren, Associated Bank, Emerson, Moneta Group Investment Advisors, Northern Trust, Rubin Brown, Stifel and World Wide Technology, officials said.
Going forward, gifts to the capital campaign will help fund technology, an accelerated expansion of the museum's archives and research space, virtual programming and development of curriculum in a first-of-its-kind Impact Lab, officials said.
The new museum will feature interactive technology and an environmentally controlled and secure archives space to protect and preserve more than 12,000 artifacts. It will provide a new space to display temporary exhibitions, both from the museum’s collections and from other institutions, officials said. A multipurpose area will seat up to 250 visitors during programs and community events, and the new facility provides space for onsite research by students and scholars.
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