The session is creating liberation pavilion, the culmination of over three decades of planning great ideas that produced the capstone pavilion to an incredible accomplishment that really took an Incredible Team to bring it about and to kind of lead us through that. You know, weve assembled an amazing panel. You know, of course, we have dr. Nick mueller nick mueller, the president and ceo emeritus of the National World war two museum. Cofounder the museum, along with Stephen Ambrose. And as those who were here for the Previous Panels know, you know, clearly, you know, the tour de force, the great ideas that have driven this place forward, but also will drive it into the future. And then joining us to nicks left, as youre right, erin clancey aaron is our director of Curatorial Services here at the National World war two museum. Shes been a museum team member since 2017, and as such, is responsible for the care and management of the museums incredible artifact. Archival oral histories and digital collections. And i think were, you know, quarter of a million artifacts. Imagine. How do you even care for those, let alone present those select those you know, and preserve those for the future. You know, and this is just the start when we start having archival reading rooms and things going forward. I know nicks going to want to talk about, you know, advanced the Educational Mission and you know, how does archival reading rooms and things like that for the future access really help us . And then as we go down the line, you youve heard mentioned Patrick Gallagher, you know, the incredible force the president of Gallagher Associates exhibit design firm. You know, patrick has overseeing the Gallery Design of multiple exhibits here including arsenal of democracy, road to tokyo, road to berlin. But most recently, the galleries within liberation pavilion. And thats going to be our our focus today. And then at the at the end of the table, theres eliot cohen. Eliot, as you heard, as you know, one of our president show councilors. So incredible body that that brings us incredible insights because sometimes we get caught in the day to day here at the museum and, you know, sometimes this allows to lift up and really have some new new insights with that. Lets a former councilor in the United States department of state from 2017 nine since 2019, hes been one of our president ial counselors. Hes also served as historic consultant for many of the galleries of liberation pavilion and also for the third floor freedom theater experience as well. So as we as we dive into liberation pavilion, let me do a quick survey. Who here has not been in liberation pavilion yet . Okay. So a whole bunch of you. So we could dive in and you could start. We could Start Talking about it. But i want to do just a quick, quick drive through so people that havent seen it get a sense of of whats ahead. And some of you that have well get some insights as we go. So, you know, there it is, the big giant piece. As you come in, you know, those who served really lays out thi personal dimension. You know, 10,000 dog tags on the left to represent the 16. 4 million americans killed in the war. On the right are images of those americans who did not return home. And it really persale a incredible, incredible set of images. I think about 70 of which are from our our collection. So thats on right here. And, you know, so you really sets the stage on the first floor finding hope in a world destroyed, but its a shattered world. And then as we come in into the cost of victory, perhaps my favorite of the artifacts is there in the center. Well talk about that. But were talking about the human cost. And were not starting with the triumph of the war, but with the actual cost of the victory itself. And then well go back in time, set up the the nazi racial laws, the nuremberg laws that set up e foundations for the holocaust. And ene have a ronive section of the hidden annex where the frank family will hide out in amsterdam, and then ultimately their betrayal. Bless you. We move into the holocaust galleries and then from the holocaust galleries, we have a piece on the liberation of the camps. And then finally the liberation theater, the 30 minute segment. You know, these authentic voices we heard, you know, in these oral histories. Its the day of liberation from the perspective of the liberators and those who are liberated. And so incredibly powerful opportunity to hear those authentic voices. From there, the visits would go into faith in wartime. Incredible piece here in the centerpiece is the story of the u. S. Army transport dorchester torpedo, the labrador sea, with four chaplains on board to protest ministers at Catholic Priest and jewish rabbi, they will give up their coats, their life jackets, their gloves, help people into the boats and go down with the ship praying together. So a Memorial Chapel some of us will need that reflects in place. You know, as you go through this content and really think of other place to leave a remembrance. Then is from there people go into a three galleries on the Monuments Men and women. The grand plan for nazi looted art. But what we did to preserve of the fruits of Cultural Heritage and civilization and with another immersive gallery and in group pieces, visitors go upstairs is its the celebration and the initial returning home. Theres some artifacts that you know most of us would collect from the battlefield and bring home with them. But then we get into the serious piece, the the responsibility piece t fight for freedom and home and abroad that come with the postwar world. And well work on reestablishing justice, creating the United Nations, rebuild the former enemies, the truman administration. Then look at economic make and social changes at home. Technology from the war and into the gallery on the fight for freedom at home and abroad, and the relevance of the four freedoms today. And then finally, well let the visitors and the veterans have the last word as they move in. And the third floor experiences are done by the team that produced beyond all boundaries. The head of a group and what was mousetrap has become medically produced. The freedom theater, which is Pretty Amazing opportunity as well. So with that, weveen of of whos been there. I think people will find the emotion an if you havent been in there yet, youll see it in spades. With that, im going to join this panel and were going to continue. It. To start with, is this kind of you know, patrick, youve been youve been involved in the design here, and id be interested in your thoughts on the design for liberation pavilion and, you know, what are some of the tenants that you built into that . And in some ways, how does how does this pavilion similar but also different than the other ones youve worked on here so far. Well, i think it was discussed earlier. I think the principles of the design for this museum had always been not only the foundation of using oral histories, because in our industry, theres nothing, nothing more powerful than personal storytelling and the impact that it has on all visitors, not just young visitors. Weve experienced it in directly in Holocaust Museums, working with holocaust survivors, but then with all the veterans here that emotional connection became so foundation, able to continue that in deliberation. But also the immersive character of the exhibit environments and the architectural environments. I dont think most people in the room would understand and from the perspective of what we do and what bart does, story is everything for us. So you wont see a drawing come out of our Office Sometimes for months or years until we get the story correct. And throughout the discussions today, youve heard about the brilliance of bringing together specialized consultants. Oftentimes, museums spend a lot of time navel gazing and realizing that they think theyre the best storytellers. This institution has always brought in the best and the brightest, and on liberation, eliot was one of those that real handwringing of whats the core of the story. And we could have had 15,000 square feet. It wouldnt have been enough for liberation and. Going back and getting the story right and getting the story right and then start thinking about what do you add . How do you add collections . How do you add the immersive character of the environments to just enhance that level of engagement for someone . Because we know that in a museum today, youre at a much more heightened sense of appreciation and learning and grasping the content. But if youre in a space that feels like the story youre trying to tell, but if we didnt have the story right, wed never get the design right. And liberation was by far the most challenging pavilion on a lot of levels. Not just what would we leave out, but what would we keep in and driving it toward the broader sense of understanding. One of the most complex stories that weve ever dealt with and that was the world after World War Two, both in good ways and in very challenging ways. And thats where folks like eliot would come in and give us clarity. Youre missing the perspective here. You need to get the perspective changed and we designed many spaces there, probably 75, 20 different times just till we knew we had it right. So so how about if you give us, you know, obviously, what is it that we had to get right . What are those themes or the theme that was so powerful for you as you were, you know, kind of helping us through this process and and cajoling or mud wrestling or whatever we want to refer to this as. So just quick, a word of thanks at the beginning to to nick and steve for getting me engaged in this Great Institute and and to pat and aaron and their teams. You know, as im a professor and to see the range of people who have to be engaged, the curators, the archivists, the researchers, the designers, and they did a marvelous job. And i just really want to express my thanks from either a three critical themes, which i think are at the heart of this. First, that the four freedoms would be at the core of the theme because we if were going to, we had to have some sort of message as what is this all about . And i think the four freedoms, freedom from fear, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom from want that captures it as well as anything else. And of course, president roosevelt had that out there, even before we were formally engaged in the war. Second theme really has to do with capturing how the war shaped the United States through the cold war to include, if you think about it, all of our president s from truman, all the way to george h. W. Bush, touched by participate in the war. But for me the most i would say the most important part after the four freedoms was that this conclude not simply what they celebration, although there obviously should be celebration of those who served, memorialization of those who sacrificed a recognition of the accomplishments. But the end with a challenge with that theme of the passing of the torch, which well all remember from the Kennedy John F Kennedy inaugural torch is passed to a new generation. His generation of veterans. And that, you know, so much of the audiences audience are young or teenagers and they may not feel a direct personal connection to the war, but its important that they feel challenged. Im just going to make it very personal. This past year, ive been in ukraine where there is a european liberal democracy that is under attack by what is, in the technical sense, a fascist regime that is seeking to wipe it off the face of the map. Ive been in taiwan, which is another liberal democracy, is facing pressure from an asian dictatorship. And very shortly im going to be going to israel, where youve had the largest massacre of since the holocaust. You know, the World War Two generation didnt. Extraordinary thing for their time in the period immediately succeeding. But i think very very important to give the message to succeeding generations that you, too will face your challenges and they may be they may require you to step forward and serve in one way or another. And i think to my mind, at least, the liberation pavilion accomplished all those things. So, so kind of related that, you know, patrick, you said you know, you went through 17 to 23 million designs, you know. Elliot, you had kept pushing here. I had to keep these themes. Nick i know previously to describe the liberation pavilion we have now had as kind of shifted over time that earlier it had more of an American Perspective of but almost had to bring in much more similar of an International Perspective the delegates describe being you know to bring in the International OrderInternational Norms you know, an americas responsibility and role in those things to a greater extent. Maybe you could comment on that. If i got that right. Yes, you did get it right. And and Patrick Gallagher remember that when we got to the end of our master planning process in 2003, after designing seven pavilions and what was going to go in each of them, we had the liberation pavilion was the end of that. We were pretty exhausted and and but i felt like, well, as the american experience. So were going to talk about the legacies of the war in terms of technology and medicine and and civil rights and womens rights and and, you know, impact on our on our military and our defense. And it was all that all that made sense. And a little bit about mentioning the Marshall Plan and what we were doing abroad. But it was very american centric. And i felt increasingly uncomfortable with that over the years. And after katrina, actually. And we had time, as stephen said, to think about some of the long term things. And and so i started to thinking we came out of the world a changed nation. The war changed our whole society changed our nation. And we were instead of being 17th in the world as Stephen Ambrose always said, in terms of our military strength, we were now a superpower. Our we were the leader of the world and certainly the leader of the free world. And the visions for helping to extend democracy and freedom and human rights flowed into the institutions, like you mentioned, the United Nations and then the Marshall Plan and naito and all of these we had broken out of isolation. And it seemed like to me we had broken out of it for good. And like it or not, historically, what happened to is as we reached out, we american to as much of the world as well as giving democracy and cocacola was everywhere. And American Industries were everywhere. And that brought all of these different cultures and countries and us. We helped to end the decolonize and in turn, many countries became independent, many of them went behind the iron curtain. There was a cold war, but in any event, it was that global perspective that began to think about and spent time with our president ial counselors talking about that Board Members were a little uneasy, shifting away from the american focus and so it took two or three or four years. I mean, at one point when paul hilliard, our trustee, received as a Horatio Alger award, some of us were up there. Phil safra, who was the chairman, was up there and and i said, lets go talk to sarah bloomfield, whos the president of the Holocaust Museum, and see how they keep their story relevant beyond the war. And so we spent a couple of hours with her that day. And with sarah ogilvy, whos on our president ial counselors. And they said weve been most successful in extending the relevance and the legacies of the war. If we connect to something in the war or in the experience that were that are core exhibits are about, and that led to boise, bollinger heading a task force with john georges. I mean, these are Board Members and john kerner and then a special task force of the board. But boise came down and said, finally, after two or 3 hours with patrick was there. Phil had emma was there. I said, the board has to come down on has to give us, give me the direction of a of a theme that we can build this around. And boy, after 2 hours, boise and and john georgia said its freedom. Lets lets build it around freedom and the extension of freedom at home and abroad and and so thats that that took about ten years of rethinking and a lot of hard work staff was we talked about it when was the president ial counselors and but i think thats that process was a very Creative Process for everybody involved and i know Patrick Gallagher and we talked about freedom, liberation. We talked about what other museums were doing on those themes. And i looked at european museums, too, that look at the end of World War Two, very differently from the way we do. We didnt mean freedom for poland in 1945, so any that it was a it was a very difficult, challenging and an otherwise rewarding process. So, so, you know, based on that, you know, i know everybody up here probably has a favorite art effect, personal story gallery a, you know, some of that. And i think i think it would be helpful for our audience. You know, give give us your sense of what your your favorite is. Ive got my own bush is not a favorite. Its like five favorites. But thats okay the but but maybe aaron how about we start with you is there something in particular that that you find most memorable, most passionate or really wanted to ensure that stayed and didnt make it on the cutting floor . But but really, you know, percieved veered forward to this to this