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Axios
07-03-2025
- General
- Axios
Illinois Holocaust Museum in Skokie to undergo major renovation
The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie will undergo a renovation beginning this July. Driving the news: The Skokie museum announced Friday it will temporarily close in July for the changes, but will open a satellite museum at Chicago's former Museum of Broadcast Communications in River North. The big picture: The renovation of the second largest Holocaust museum in the U.S. is beginning 80 years after the end of the Holocaust, but while antisemitic incidents hit a record high in 2024, according to the ADL. Flashback: After Neo-Nazis marched in Skokie in 1977, Holocaust survivors in the largely Jewish community, formed the Holocaust Memorial Foundation of Illinois. The group purchased a small Skokie storefront and made it available to the public. The current 65,000-square-foot museum opened in 2009. State of play: The renovations will modernize the structure and create a new welcome center designed to hold more guests and be more accessible. There will also be a redesigned auditorium, exhibition reflection space, and more restrooms, among other upgrades. What's next: The museum will close all exhibitions on June 2, but remain open for public programs and trainings. It will fully close on July 1. It will partially reopen on Jan. 2, 2026, with limited content, and fully reopen in late summer 2026. What's next: The satellite downtown museum is slated to open this July.
Chicago Tribune
07-03-2025
- General
- Chicago Tribune
Illinois Holocaust Museum will close for renovations, with a temporary location opening downtown
The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie has announced it will close this summer for renovations, with a partial reopening planned for early January 2026. In the meantime, a satellite location will open with some of the museum's more popular exhibits at the former site of the Museum of Broadcast Communications (360 N. State St.) in Chicago's River North neighborhood. The IHMEC first opened in Skokie in 2009 in a $45 million building designed by Chicago architect Stanley Tigerman — the project of what was the Holocaust Memorial Foundation of Illinois, founded in 1981 in the wake of a threatened march by neo-Nazis in Skokie. In Friday's announcement, the museum said the renovations will modernize the building and expand and upgrade its Welcome Center and auditorium. The museum remains fully open until June 2, at which time it will close for all but limited public programs by reservation only. On July 1, the museum will fully close for construction, with the downtown satellite location opening that month. The online gift shop will continue to operate. A partial reopening in Skokie is projected for Jan. 2, 2026, with the satellite location remaining open, with a grand reopening in Skokie in the summer.
