Hey everybody why have we not talked about the freedom center i mean it is a 258,000sqft $110 million world-class museum and a big puzzle piece of the overall river project and opening day is August 23,2004......

 

what will this mean for cincinnati want this help cincinnati's image....

Have they set a concrete opening date yet?

i certainly hope it succeeds. its a very important part of the redevelopment of the riverfront and downtown. a lot of people are skeptical of it though, whether it can truly pull in the # of visitors it expects and more importantly can it maintain it? pulling people in at first is fairly easy. its new and different and people will want to see it. after that though, would people really travel from other cities just to see the freedom center?

 

i know they have big plans to be a center for research and other scholarly work. i think they will have to build upon that and do more foundation and outreach type work to stay valid and keep their profile up (which will draw visitors).

yes the official opening day is August 23,2004

a lot of people are skeptical of it though, whether it can truly pull in the # of visitors it expects and more importantly can it maintain it?

 

In Cincinnati, there is an unusually high level of skepticism and self-doubt, kind of an inferiority complex. Let's hope the skepticism isn't a self-fulfilling prophecy.

 

I can't wait to see the Freedom Center, I hope it can augment it's primary mission of the Underground Railroad with exhibits on other struggles for freedom around the world and keep visitors coming.

In Cincinnati, there is an unusually high level of skepticism and self-doubt, kind of an inferiority complex. Let's hope the skepticism isn't a self-fulfilling prophecy.

 

It's the entire state, to an extent. Though Cleveland has the most "hope" in their populace. Columbus people are just...clueless; Cincinnati are cynical and overblow things as if it is just a Cincinnati issue; Dayton just doesn't give a damn.

I leave aside my obvious dislike for the location, since it's already built and there's no changing it now.

 

I hope the museum is a success. I hope they eventually are able to build up their paltry amount of resources to become a major research facility.

 

And I hope they don't get overshadowed by the museum that's being built in New York, which will deal with many of the same issues and is (by nature if being in NYC and on the site of our nation's greatest tragedy) going to get a lot of attention.

 

A quick Google News search has turned up articles in the New York Times, the Miami Herald and the International Herald Tribune within the past month. I would hope there would be even more national and international articles in August.

 

I also hope the museum can be self-supporting and doesn't have to come up for an operating levy every ten years.

Does anyone find it ironic that this kind of museum is going up in a city that has developed a national repuatation for racism and conservativism?

 

BTW, there is actually already a pretty interesting (tho small) museum on the African-American at Wilberforce College, near Xenia.

No. I think this is precisely where this museum needs to be located.

Also, due to the fact that Cincinnati was once the underground railroad hub, a "Shangri-La" for southern blacks, etc, it's very appropriate.

Jeff I dont understand people like you I find people like you so unhelpful to cincinnati. To me cincinnati has not developed a true national reputation of being racist. For some reason people like you(jeff) think that people around the country is really paying attention to cincinnati let me tell you i know people from new york to los angelos and they are not paying any attention to anything(racism) in cincinnati so cincinnati has not developed a real reputation for being racist.......

 

P.S

 

"BTW, there is actually already a pretty interesting (tho small) museum on the African-American at Wilberforce College, near Xenia."

 

Who Cares.....

Yeah...who says there should only be one museum dedicated to black history?

I really want to see it succeed too, it is a great addition to the riverfront. However, like other museums of this nature it may have trouble sustaining attendance over the years. I have heard the Holocaust Museum's attendance has been falling every year. Once you have seen it, is there a reason to go back a second time?

yeah the people at the freedom center said that they will bring in new things over time to keep the museum fresh.

what i like about the freedom center and why i think it will work after the first 2 years is this museum isnt like the other 1 trillion museums where they have all the artifacts and stuff you can find that everywhere see the freedom center is diffrent becouse at the freedom center you can actually expierence what slaves went thru not just read about it and look at it thru 3-inch thick glass like other museums....

^ Well, only to a certian degree. Unlike the slaves did, visitors will always know in the backs of their minds that in a couple of short hours they'll be back to their cul-de-sacs in West Chester. I see what you're getting at, though.

Thats true grasscat i do understand but im not that sure that alot of west chester and other suburb people are going to visit the freedom center anyway so im not sure they will have a massive affect on visitor turnout.

is there a picture of this thing?

Thats true grasscat i do understand but im not that sure that alot of west chester and other suburb people are going to visit the freedom center anyway so im not sure they will have a massive affect on visitor turnout.

Umm...well, if the center is banking on only city dwellers as visitors, then they're f*cked.

is there a picture of this thing?

I don't have a recent one, nor one that's any good. I didn't see one in our picture gallery or on Monte's PBase page.

 

Perhaps another local has one?

grasscat i did not say the freedom center didnt need suburb peeps i sad im not that sure if alot will visit the center.

 

There is alot of pictures at undergroundrailroad.org

I just looked at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland website and I didnt know that the Freedom Center is Bigger.

jeff I dont understand people like you I find people like you so unhelpful to cincinnati.

 

Well, I never said it was a bad idea. I just thought it ironic given recent events.

 

Given the history of Cincinnati (Harriet Beecher Stow, Uncle Toms Cabinand the citys central location in relation to the Underground Railroad, this is an appropriate museum for the area. Its also a good complement to the National Civil Rights Museum down in Memphis. The Cincy musuem deals with the struggle for freedom in the antebellum period, while the one in Memphis focuses on the modern civil rights movement.

I understand

Oprah Winfrey Gives $1 Million to Museum:

 

CINCINNATI - Oprah Winfrey has given $1 million to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and is narrator of an educational film for the museum, its administrators said.

 

The $110 million museum, being built along the Ohio River, commemorates the secret Underground Railroad network that helped slaves escape from the South to the free North during the 1800s.

 

Winfrey, whose donation was announced Thursday, will narrate a short film introducing "Brothers of the Borderland," a film and interactive theater program. A reconstructed slave holding pen also will be part of the museum.

 

Celebrity supporters of the museum, many of whom are expected to participate in the center's dedication ceremonies Aug. 23, include Vanessa Williams, Angela Bassett (news), Muhammad Ali, Quincy Jones (news), Bono and Danny Glover (news).

 

Two of the center's three pavilions will be named after the families of Black Entertainment Television founder Robert Johnson and former Procter & Gamble Co. chief executive John Pepper, who each donated $3 million to the museum.

 

 

Pepper joined with former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young to serve as chairmen of a fund-raising campaign for the museum.

 

Great......

Cool.

I can honestly say that this museum will probably bring tears to my eyes. I am very excited and look forward to the opening. I like the location and hope to see "The Banks" surround the museum one day. I went to the "Battle of Lexington" museum and they had newspaper clippings that said, "1 Negro Buck -$100". It was pretty emotional and I am sure they will show stuff like this that many of us naive people will see for the first time. It is awful to read these things but very enlightening at the same time.

April, 2004

For more information

Contact: Sara Bennett

[email protected]

(513) 381-0055

Or visit www.freedomcenter.org/press

 

National Underground Railroad Freedom Center Celebrates August 23 Grand Opening Groundbreaking Exhibits By Jack Rouse Associates Offer Emotional Experiences For All

 

CINCINNATI, Ohio–The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center celebrates its grand opening on August 23, unveiling exhibits and experiences designed to inspire the hero in visitors.

 

Jack Rouse Associates (JRA) designed and produced the guest experience for this world-class institution, which is dedicated to fostering safe, open and honest dialogue on issues of freedom both locally and internationally. JRA's scope included story line development, exhibits, interactives and multimedia pieces such as an environmental theater and an opening film that communicates the Center's themes using animation by artists around the world.

 

Located on the banks of the Ohio River – the same river escaping slaves crossed during the 1800s on their way north to Canada, the Freedom Center is dedicated to heroes in the pursuit of freedom. The Center chronicles one of the most painful episodes in America's history while celebrating the courage, cooperation and perseverance of those who aided escaping slaves by creating the network of "conductors" known as the Underground Railroad.

 

But the Freedom Center goes much farther. It is not simply a museum or a history lesson. It is an experience that challenges visitors of all races, ages and backgrounds to think about what freedom means to their lives today, to discuss those concepts with others, and to take action if they feel so moved. This unique approach to a difficult topic makes the Freedom Center relevant to all who are open to the idea that an ongoing struggle exists between freedom and "unfreedom," and that each person can choose what role he or she will play.

 

The Freedom Center is the result of a grassroots idea sparked in 1994 by the Cincinnati chapter of the National Conference for Community and Justice and by other individuals dedicated to promoting justice and freedom. Today, supporters come from everywhere and include political figures Andrew Young and First Lady Laura Bush; musicians Bono and Quincy Jones; and human rights activists Ethel Kennedy and Muhammad Ali.

 

The Freedom Centerís exhibits and programs are like no other. With a focus on experiential learning over artifacts, the Center is on the leading edge of a new generation of cultural centers called museums of conscience.

 

The Center's approach arose from a recognition that presenting sensitive and polarizing subjects to diverse audiences would require a fresh strategy. To attract the desired visitation numbers, the Freedom Center needed to include everybody and mean as much to every person. To retain relevance and audience appeal, its story needed to have meaning today, and tomorrow. To stand out from its competition, the Center had to be about something akin to but greater than history.

 

"We saw an opportunity for the Freedom Center to suggest that there are current issues of freedom and unfreedom that involve you and are worth your stepping forward and doing something, like the people on the Underground Railroad did," says Bob Harness, JRA's Vice President for Creative. "By and large, conductors on the Underground Railroad were average people, just like you and me."

 

JRA found that the key lay in the Center's name: "freedom."

 

The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center's story is based on the perpetual struggle between those who would enslave or repress and those who would be free. As visitors make their way through the Freedom Center, they encounter exhibits, media pieces and thought-provoking activities that position stories about the Underground Railroad as examples of courage, perseverance and interracial cooperation in support of freedom.

 

Visitors are then asked to consider how they might take a stand for freedom in their own lives. A dialogue zone – one of the Center's truly unique features – invites them to participate in a facilitated conversation about what they've seen, heard and felt concerning issues of freedom that are important to them.

 

The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center transcends race while in no way diminishing it. It spotlights slavery in America and the Underground Railroad as unique and powerful chapters in a timeless, universal story. It brings the story into the present and keeps it alive. It gives the Freedom Center a national profile that stands apart, and it hints at a direction for dialogue on freedom issues that is less explosive while no less meaningful.

 

In the months leading to its opening, the Freedom Center has attracted a great deal of attention from scholars, museum professionals and the local and national community. A number of events and programs are planned for the Center's grand opening and beyond. For more information, please visit www.freedomcenter.org/press.

 

Jack Rouse Associates (JRA) has been providing design, master planning and production services for more than 25 years to clients around the world. The firm specializes in the creation of exhibits and experiences for museums, theme parks, corporations, stadia and zoos. Recent clients include the Arab American National Museum and Cultural Center in Dearborn, Michigan; the Green Bay Packers; Volkswagen's AutoStadt in Wolfsburg, Germany; and The Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education at Cincinnati's Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.

 

The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center Guest Experience Brief

 

The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is housed in a new three-story building on the banks of the Ohio River in Cincinnati. The building was designed by Blackburn Architects of Indianapolis in cooperation with BOORA Architects of Portland, Oregon. Guests enter on the ground level. The exhibits and experiences, designed and produced by Jack Rouse Associates, are located on the second and third floors. Brief descriptions of each are provided below:

 

* Suite for Freedom: The Freedom Center's opening experience is a suite of three films illustrating the Center's core topics. The three short pieces feature fine-art animation by artists from around the world which brings to life in an accessible and highly emotional way the eternal struggle between freedom and "unfreedom."

* Slave Pen: The Freedom Center"s largest and most powerful artifact is an 1830s slave pen recovered from a Northern Kentucky farm and reconstructed log-by-log in the Center's second floor atrium. A remnant of America's internal slave trade and considered hallowed ground by many, the Slave Pen is interpreted minimally, allowing the power of the artifact to shine through. Inside it is a memorial to some of the people who were known to have been held there. Outside, on an adjacent wall, is a mural by renowned African-American artist Tom Feelings depicting the horrors of the internal slave trade. The Slave Pen is located in this high-traffic area so that visitors must pass it on their way to and from other exhibits. Each time they do, the structure takes on new and deeper meaning.

* Escape! Freedom Seekers and the Underground Railroad: This area, which is geared toward children and families, explains the basics of the Underground Railroad, gives visitors an appreciation for the perils of escape, and familiarizes guests with the kinds of decisions fugitive slaves were required to make. The experience begins with a short film titled "Midnight Decision," which introduces Caleb, a young man who must decide whether to run for freedom. Visitors meet Caleb, his family and the people who help him along his journey at several other junctures throughout the gallery, including an interactive game that challenges the player to put him or herself into the shoes of an escaping slave.

* Story Theater–Brothers of the Borderland: This environmental theater experience gives visitors a visceral appreciation of the courage and cooperation exhibited by those who helped escaping slaves. With a pre-show narrated by Oprah Winfrey, "Brothers of the Borderland" tells the story of real-life liberators John Parker and John Rankin, whose interracial, interfaith collaboration typified the Underground Railroad. Through the magic of technology and high definition film; visitors are literally there during a heart-pounding escape from slavery. As the mist of the Ohio River surrounds them, they are side-by-side with Alice, as she runs for freedom with Underground Railroad conductorsóblack and white, who put themselves in jeopardy to help her.

* Everyday Heroes Exhibit: The Freedom Center story broadens in the third floor atrium with this exhibit honoring a variety people who have taken a stand for freedom in causes spanning time and geography. The gallery is a bridge between heroes of the past such as Harriet Tubman and heroes of today such as Lech Walesa of Poland. Each year, new inductees will be added into this hall of fame.

* From Slavery to Freedom: This gallery, which contains the largest concentration of history-based exhibits at the Freedom Center, traces 300 years of slavery on the North American continent. Using artifacts, media pieces and immersive vignettes, the gallery gives visitors an understanding of the forces which contributed to the rise and proliferation of slavery in America, as well as those individuals and organizations which rose up to fight for its abolition. Topics include the Atlantic slave trade; the Middle Passage; the American Revolution and the U.S. Constitution; the expression of pro - and anti-slavery arguments in the United States; the development of African American culture; the Civil War; and the Emancipation Proclamation and Reconstruction amendments, which at last fulfilled America's promise of legal equality. Though the gallery ends on the high note of Jubilee, it reminds visitors that much work was and is left to do.

* The Struggle Continues: This final gallery educates visitors about ongoing freedom struggles and challenges them to consider whether they might have a role to play. The experience begins with an object theater that condenses 130 years of history into ten minutes, featuring examples of "unfreedom" that extend into the present day. Visitors then pass through a corridor lined with real-time examples of present "unfreedoms", categorized by topics such as modern slavery, hunger, tyranny and illiteracy. A series of interactives awaits next, challenging guests to ask themselves "Where do I stand?" "How can I help?" and "What would I do?" in a variety of situations. Nearby is a dialogue zone where visitors can participate in discussions moderated by professional facilitators from Cincinnati's Xavier University.

It should be an interesting experience.

Well today we got some National Attention Im sure more is to come as Aug. 23 approches...........

 

Slavery's horror and freedom's promise

By Jayne Clark, USA TODAY

 

Cincinnati's new National Underground Railroad Freedom Center sports interactive displays, an environmental theater and the assorted bells and whistles expected in a 21st-century museum.

 

But what's likely to grab visitors' initial attention is a 171-year-old slave pen that has been re-erected within the $110 million complex. The "pen," which resembles a small, two-story log house, was found on a Kentucky tobacco farm, where it had been built as temporary quarters for slaves destined for sale at points south. The rough-hewn 20-by-30-foot structure is the facility's crowning icon, and it stands as a stark testimony to what those traveling this 19th-century slave route were seeking to escape.

 

A decade after it was first proposed, the 158,000-square-foot Freedom Center opens Tuesday (the official dedication is Aug. 23) on the north bank of the Ohio River and at the heart of a 200-mile stretch used by fleeing slaves known as the "freedom corridor."

 

But the Freedom Center is more than a museum. Executive director Spencer Crew likens it to other "cultural institutions of conscience," such as Washington's Holocaust Memorial Museum.

 

"It (the Underground Railroad) is only part of a larger story and we're very much interested in talking about that larger story," Crew says. "We see our niche as looking at issues of human and civil rights. How do we as citizens of the U.S. and the world (preserve) freedom and help others enjoy it?"

 

Which is not to say the facility doesn't share characteristics with more conventional museums. It exhibits Civil War artifacts, shackles and anti-slavery publications, for example. But because of the clandestine nature of the Underground Railroad, which refers to the network that shepherded thousands of slaves to freedom, few artifacts remain.

 

"It was very secretive, so there isn't a lot of tangible evidence," says Rita Organ, director of exhibits and collections. "But it's not difficult to tell the story without the tangible items."

 

Much of the focus is on the personal stories of people who passed through and the anti-slavery activists who aided them.

 

Among the highlights:

 

•Brothers of the Borderland, a film that commemorates local abolitionist heroes in an "environmental theater" with piped-in natural sounds, trees and mist to replicate a rural nighttime setting.

 

• "From Slavery to Freedom," a more traditional exhibit featuring artifacts, timelines and the stories of hundreds of participants.

 

• "Escape! Freedom Seekers and the Underground Railroad," an attraction designed for children ages 3 to 8.

 

 

Initial opening of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, 50 E. Freedom Way in Cincinnati, is Tuesday.

Official opening ceremonies are Aug. 23. Timed tickets can be booked online beginning Sunday at freedom center.org/tickets. Cost is $12 for adults; $8, ages 6-12.

 

Some same-day passes are available during center hours, 11 a.m. tro 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Information: 877-648-4838

I went down to the Freedom Center yesterday and it is just breathtaking you think the outside looks good my god wait to you see the inside......Its Great!

Well, I don't think the outside looks all that great (especially the big blank wall that fronts Second St.)...but I do look forward to seeing the inside.

Oh well I like it but yeah I see what you are saying grasscat about the 2nd street wall. I guess I just like the shape of the facility and the tile they used that they imported from Italy.

August 1, 2004

The Road to Freedom, Revisited

By BRUCE WEBER

 

 

 

I GUESS the first thing," said Spencer R. Crew, "is 'Why Cincinnati?' ''

 

Dr. Crew, executive director of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, is right. With a recent history that has left the city with a reputation for strident conservatism and racial tension, this is perhaps not the first place you'd think of for a $110-million museum focused on the Underground Railroad. That remarkable network of abolitionists and other people of good will, black and white, who helped slaves escape to freedom, was once described by Andrew Young, the former mayor of Atlanta and American ambassador the United Nations, as "the world's first human rights movement."

 

But here it is, in Cincinnati, a three-pavilion structure situated dramatically on the north bank of the Ohio River between two professional sports stadiums and, with the office towers of downtown rising on a hillside behind it, literally at the foot of the city.

 

Part museum, part interactive learning center, part civil rights theme park, the new institution - known officially as the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center - is a kind of secular church of tolerance.

 

And Dr. Crew, who is its executive director, can look out of his office window at the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge (completed just after the Civil War and named for the designer, who used it as a trial run for the Brooklyn Bridge) and across the river to Covington, Ky.

 

On Tuesday, when the center is to open to the public for the first time (the official opening ceremonies will be Aug. 23), it's a view that visitors will also see, allowing them to ponder the fact that, a century and a half ago, they would have been looking at the divide between free state and slave state: the Ohio as River Jordan.

 

"Our location has a lot to do with symbolism," Dr. Crew said. "In 1850, Cincinnati had the third-largest African-American population of any city in the country. People looking for freedom could look across the river, and once they got here could melt into the population and not be recaptured by those who were pursuing them."

 

The term Underground Railroad was first used in the 1830's. The antislavery network succeeded in conducting more than 100,000 runaways to safety, many of them to Canada.

 

The center is not a slavery museum, although in its most conventional gallery, it tells the history of slavery in America from pre-Revolutionary War days to the Civil War, with artifacts and dioramas. But it's not heavy on acquisitions; its collections are made up of just 200 items, including historical artifacts and commissioned artworks. There will also be a scholarly archive.

 

The most compelling exhibit is an actual slave pen dating from the early 19th century, a wooden jail where men and women were chained and confined by a slave dealer. The pen was preserved inside a tobacco barn in a soybean field near Germantown, Ky., about 50 miles southeast, and donated by the current owner of the land, a contractor and engineer, Raymond Evers.

 

Visitors entering the bare, well-scrubbed pen, now standing inside the museum's central, four-story pavilion, may well feel a chill; it's the same sort of feeling that Carl B. Westmoreland, the center's senior researcher, described among the people who lived near the barn and knew about the pen's existence.

 

"Everybody knew, 'You don't mess with that.' "

 

The new structure is made up of three pavilions, all square-based cylinders, with the five-story central silo connected by walkways to the three-story wings. The interior is high-ceilinged and spacious. And its exhibits are designed to be welcoming to all ages, with one gallery geared to young children, overflowing with simple interactive elements. For example, visitors can climb inside a wooden box, built to the exact dimensions of the crate employed by Henry Brown, the escaped slave known as Box, who mailed himself from Virginia to Pennsylvania and freedom.

 

A15-minute, three-part animated film - one part an abstract, illustrative dance on the theme of "unfreedom," the second a profile of a slave woman who takes care of the master's house, and the third the story of a successful slave escape - serves as an introduction to museum visitors.

 

Another 15-minute film, this one with actors on an outdoor set, was commissioned from the director Julie Dash (whose work includes "Daughters of the Dust" and "The Rosa Parks Story"). It is a fictional account of a young woman's escape across the river from Kentucky to the town of Ripley, Ohio, where she is pursued by her owner but protected by an Underground Railroad family. The film is introduced by Oprah Winfrey, who gave the center $1 million. It is presented in "an environmental theater," with the audience on wooden benches surrounded by trees, a star-lighted night sky on the ceiling and a soundtrack of night sounds. "The runaway experience was basically a nighttime, outdoor experience," said Rita Organ, the director of exhibits and collections. "We wanted to give people a sense of the danger of running away."

 

This appeal to the emotions of visitors may well be the most controversial element of the center, which has drawn opposition from some historians and advocates for a more conventional museum and a more unflinching documentation of the horrors of slavery and its aftermath. The subject of lynching, for example, is addressed only superficially in the children's wing, where a wall painting depicts the image of a lynching as part of an impressionistic portrayal of race relations in the years after the Civil War. And the Hall of Everyday Freedom Heroes, a series of interactive exhibits with touch screens that allow visitors to view brief video biographies of historical and contemporary figures of all ethnicities from Pablo Casals to Muhammad Ali, includes one of Ida B. Wells, the journalist and crusader against lynching.

 

It is a calculated approach, tailored to an institution with a mission - to promote the kind of awareness and activism that characterized abolitionists and others who sheltered and otherwise aided runaway slaves.

 

"We have a point of view," Dr. Crew said. "We're a museum of conscience."

 

On the way out, visitors will be exhorted to take action with the message, illuminated on the floor, "If not you, then who? If not now, then when?" And the center will also provide seminars and discussions about the exhibits and the issues they raise led by counselors and psychologists.

 

The museum trustees, keenly aware that they would face accusations of whitewashing history if the center seemed too complacent, also understood that too stringent an approach might be polarizing, sending a message of hostility and bitterness. As one trustee, Consuelo W. Harris, put it: "We wanted to make sure we were not being accusatory of all whites."

 

The result, the museum's founders hope, is a place where issues of freedom and tolerance can be confronted in a spirit of good will. It is a lofty ideal with some financial motivation: the center is counting on 250,000 visitors annually. It has already attracted support from many celebrities including Danny Glover, Angela Bassett, Vanessa Williams, Elie Wiesel and Jack Kemp as well as corporate sponsors like Coca-Cola, Procter and Gamble, Ford and Boeing. So far $102 million has been raised, 60 percent of it coming from private donations and the rest in federal, state and county government support.

 

"I see the Freedom Center as coming to grips with these difficult things in an almost subliminal way," said Nathaniel R. Jones, a retired United States Appeals Court judge who is the center's co-chairman. "The whole concept is how to help people on a contemporary basis face the problems they now face."

 

For all its symbolism, the location of the center does have its incongruous aspect; the building, designed by Walter Blackburn, an Indianapolis architect who was the grandson of slaves and who died in 2000, is sandwiched between the Great American Ballpark, home of the Reds, the city's baseball team, and Paul Brown Stadium, where Bengals play their National Football League games. There are plans to further develop the waterfront. Although the area is now distinct from the rest of the city, like an island off the coast of downtown, the uphill walk to Fountain Square, the unofficial city center, is not difficult. Ideally, the center will help revitalize the downtown area, which is sleepy but not entirely asleep. There is a small theater district, and the Contemporary Arts Center, in a highly praised new building designed by Zaha Hadid, (now featuring a retrospective of the San Francisco artist Paul Kos) as well as a handful of lively restaurants and bars. That's another criticism that has been leveled at the project: is it an engine for redevelopment rather than a cultural institution?

 

Groundbreaking took place in June 2002, but in fact, the site has been the subject of debate almost since the idea for the center popped into the mind of Robert C. Harrod a decade ago, with doubts expressed about the center's long-term potential for pulling in the quarter-million annual visitors that would make it an economic boon to the city. Mr. Harrod, the executive director of the regional chapter of the National Conference of Community and Justice, an anti-bias organization better known by its previous name, the National Conference of Christians and Jews, was motivated by frustration with Cincinnati's reputation for intolerance.

 

It was here that the police arrested Dennis Barrie, director of the Contemporary Arts Center, on obscenity charges when he exhibited the homoerotically explicit photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe in 1990. It was the owner of the Cincinnati Reds, Marge Schott, who in the 1990's referred to two black players with a racial slur and made admiring public statements about Hitler. It was in Fountain Square that the Ku Klux Klan often displayed a cross during the Christmas holidays, a practice the City Council did not halt until 2002. And it is in Cincinnati that 15 black men, including an unarmed teen-ager fleeing arrest, died in confrontations with the police between 1996 and 2001.

 

Mr. Harrod said he came up with the idea for the center in late 1993, when he was mulling options for celebrating the 50th anniversary of his organization's presence in Cincinnati. He wanted to give the city a gift, he said, and a memorial to the Underground Railroad struck him as especially appropriate. The city was, after all, not only an important way station for runaway slaves; it was also the home, after 1847, of Levi Coffin, the abolitionist sometimes called the president of the Underground Railroad, who helped hundreds of slaves escape.

 

It was also in Cincinnati that Margaret Garner, an escaped slave, killed her baby daughter in 1856 when they were recaptured, rather than see her raised in bondage. That event, a spectacularly compelling real-life melodrama for the nation at the time, was revived by the novelist Toni Morrison in "Beloved," in 1988.

 

"The idea of an Underground Railroad museum made sense as a gift," Mr. Harrod said, "because it was true to the mission of our organization, which is fighting bias and racism."

 

He and many others in the city, he said, were deeply frustrated by the national publicity that made Cincinnati appear backward. "The community itself is not perfect," he said, but the image was unfair to the majority of the city's residents, "who manage to acquit themselves pretty well."

 

Mr. Harrod expresses confidence that the center will "use history to improve race relations."

 

"We're mindful that we've made a distinct set of choices," he said. "But I think it took courage to make this commitment. It takes courage to place a monument to racial harmony and diversity at the doorstep to your city. We had the nerve to do that."

 

The Freedom Center is at 50 East Freedom Way; (513) 333-7500; on the Web at www.freedomcenter.org.

 

It is open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday to Sunday. Closed Mondays. Admission is $12.

 

BRUCE WEBER is an arts reporter for The Times.

 

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

I don't know, but $12 seems a bit steep especially for lower-income families that might want to attend. Someone has to pay the bills tough, I suppose.

^ Agreed.

 

Good article, Cincinnatus.

$12, no problem. I would give 20 to see this museum. I can't wait! I am excited that we have this in our city.

I see this is todays..Sundays..NYT. Thats real good publicity as this is almost a "national" Sunday newspaper, read well beyond New York.

 

Its interesting reading about the genisis of the concept, from that Mr. Harrod.

$12 is the adult admission. Children get in for $8, students and senior citizens $10. Also there is a group discount if you make reservations in advance. All that is explained in the Enquirer's special section on the Freedom Center. It also has floor diagrams and virtual tours. http://www.cincinnati.com/freetime/nurfc/

Hmm the Cleveland Plain Dealer had a story on it today, on the front page

I think the building looks great. The riverfront is where it belongs. The river what was an important part of the underground railroad.

Always interesting to read the black perspective on something like this:

 

 

Freedom Center "An Utter Disgrace"

In their continued deviation from news reporters to downtown cheerleaders, the Cincinnati Post has this story about the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

 

Similarly, Amanda Mayes, of the Coalition for a Just Cincinnati, left a recent preview tour of the museum disappointed by what she considers a "sugar-coated, whitewashed version" of history that trumpets the Underground Railroad's successes while downplaying the grim stories of the many slaves who were caught, beaten and killed while trying to escape. "The whole thing is just an utter disgrace,'' she said.

 

As usual, Amanda is absolutely correct. I also went on a tour of the Freedom Center and believe me when I tell you, this is designed by Procter & Gamble to make white people feel good about slavery. They ought to rename this the Ivory Soap National Underground Railroad Freedom Center because, like Ivory, the exhibits are 99.99% pure of reality.

 

http://blackcincinnati.blogspot.com/2004/07/freedom-center-utter-disgrace.html

Wasn't the Freedom Center up front about the lack of focus on the horrors of slavery? I thought I read somewhere that they wanted the focus to be on the courageous efforts of freedom fighters of the Underground Railroad and those still fighting for freedom around the world, not the institution of slavery itself.

There is a musuem up in Milwaulkee that focuses on the dark side of slavery, racism, and Jim Crow...America's Black Holocaust Museum. It was founded by the survivor of a lynching in Marion, Indiana.

They have to walk a fine line. Make it too dark and too real, and people will not go. Make it too tame, and people will be insulted.

 

I'll reserve my judgements until I go see it, but let's also keep in mind the many powerful black Americans (hell, even non-Americans) who are putting their names and dollars behind this as well.

 

And there are just some folks who will never be happy with anything, and the whole world is evil and against them. Amanda Mayes is one of those folks.

Museums are great for about one year. After everyone has been there once, they really don't go back very often. Also, not many people are going to travel to go to a museum. People tend to go to a nice sunny beach for their 2 week vacation.

"They have to walk a fine line. Make it too dark and too real, and people will not go. Make it too tame, and people will be insulted."

 

While I agree, I have to wonder about the Holocaust Museum in D.C. - I haven't been but I've heard that some of the exhibits are quite graphic in detailing the events.

 

nsc, you're right - but some of us oddballs prefer martinis and sidewalks to mai tais and sandy beaches :crazy:

^ I'm with ya... well, except for the martini part. Give me a beer instead.

^ One Moerlein coming right up!

 

"They have to walk a fine line. Make it too dark and too real' date=' and people will not go. Make it too tame, and people will be insulted."[/i']

 

While I agree, I have to wonder about the Holocaust Museum in D.C. - I haven't been but I've heard that some of the exhibits are quite graphic in detailing the events.

I haven't been to the Holocaust Museum, so I can't offer any opinions on that.

 

The thing about the NURFC is that it's not supposed to be a conventional museum per se, but more of an interactive "experience" and a place for dialogue. They don't really have a lot of the typical museum-type artifacts. Perhaps in this way it differs from the Holocaust Museum, etc.