Innovation Gateway a Humanities Hub at Naper Settlement: A Place for Civic Reflection and Conversation

FAIN: CHA-286664-22

Naper Settlement (Naperville, IL 60540-6517)
Harriet Pistorio (Project Director: September 2021 to present)

Construction of a new visitor center at Naper Settlement, an outdoor history museum in Naperville, Illinois.

The Innovation Gateway is a capital construction project that will create an education and welcome center with meeting, exhibit, and orientation spaces that will benefit residents, visitors, educators and students as a place for gathering, dialogue and learning. With state-of-the-art technology, it will be home to a digital exhibit experience that will expand community involvement in the museum’s digital collection and curation, producing a whole, truthful and inclusive story of Naperville’s history including pivotal events, people, public policy, cultural shifts and local business innovations from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. Its construction will impact the museum’s ability to move forward on its transformation initiative by providing desperately needed exhibition, programming, meeting, and event space. It will be a place of civic education by informing conversation around humanities topics to engage the museum’s pluralistic audience.