Give peace museums a chance?
The U.S. Institute of Peace, whose iconic headquarters turns 10 this year, remains cloistered despite promising for years to be very publicly accessible.
In ancient Rome, a curious choreography governed the doors of Janus Geminus, a shrine of the two-faced god. In wartime, they were thrown open; they shut amid peace. Those who know any classical history can guess the temple was well ventilated. The historian Livy records the doors closed just twice from the 7th to 1st centuries B.C.E. The rest of the time, Rome was at war.
The opposite is true of the Lincoln Memorial’s long shadow on Constitution Avenue at 23rd Street, where the United States Institute of Peace headquarters is celebrating its 10th birthday. For years, the institute promised to welcome the public into its iconic building, a peace shrine on some of the District’s most prime real estate. But USIP has remained cloistered, raising questions about its mission and service of the public interest.
My investigation—which I’ve been tracking for nearly six years—appears in Washington Post Magazine: “The D.C. Peace Museum That Never Happened.”
I am particularly interested in hearing from those who have been in the building and seen the parts to which I was denied access. Thanks in advance!
Important research and writing, thanks