A new building at Boise’s Wassmuth Center shows the ‘art of human rights.’ Take a look
The Wassmuth Center has completed its “human rights campus,” and it invites you to come learn more.
After five years and $6.4 million raised, the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights’ new Philip E. Batt Education Building will open to the public Thursday next to the Idaho Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial and the downtown library near the Boise River.
The 6,000-square-foot education center is connected to the Anne Frank Memorial, which has been open to the public since 2002. The new building opens a “new era” for the Wassmuth Center in terms of its ability to house its programs, according to Executive Director Christina Bruce-Bennion.
“After 20-plus years of doing programs and creating resources, you know, with our education work in mind, it’s really the first time that we have not only a building, but a building that was intentionally designed to kind of embody the work that we do,” Bruce-Bennion told the Idaho Statesman.
For Bruce-Bennion, the building is a “dream come true,” allowing the Wassmuth Center to host programs and other community events, rather than having to turn to other spaces.
The building is named for former Idaho Gov. Phil Batt, who sponsored the bill creating the Idaho Human Rights Commission as a state senator. The new building was supported by 620 donors, including individuals, families and organizations.
Here’s a look inside.
The first level contains a First People’s Welcome Plaza honoring the original Boise Valley People. It also displays a timeline of human rights in Idaho, tracing key moments when human rights were compromised or championed.
Upstairs, visitors can see a classroom, a library and conference room and a permanent exhibit titled Dimensions in Testimony focused on Holocaust survivors. The interactive exhibit allows visitors to ask questions and receive real-time responses based on video interviews with Holocaust survivors, using technology from the USC Shoah Foundation.
Woven throughout the building are 28 pieces of art created by mostly Idaho artists, each with QR codes linking visitors to videos of the artists describing their work.
Artwork includes a mobile with 500 glass wings titled “Conscious Flight” in the building lobby, a bronze sculpture titled “Transcendent Justice,” a 6-foot “popsicle sun” titled “Be the Light” dedicated to a 6-year-old boy who passed away in the Treasure Valley, and a 7-foot mosaic titled “Hope’s Defiance” honoring missing and murdered Indigenous women.
The artists include Bobby Gaytan, known for his murals around the Treasure Valley, and Benjamin Victor, a sculptor who lives in Boise and who has sculptures around the city, including one outside of the Albertsons Stadium at Boise State University.
Bruce-Bennion said several pieces were inspired by words taken from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which can be read in full in the adjacent memorial space. The declaration, adopted by the United Nations in 1948, outlines 30 basic rights and freedoms for “all human beings.”
Bruce-Bennion said the works bring attention to “the art of human rights,” and many focus on themes of “light” and “hope,” which are also reflected in the building’s architecture.
“Every aspect of the design was intentional and community-focused, created to support a mission that resonates with all of us—advancing human rights,” Kierstan Rasmussen, marketing manager at Erstad, the Boise-based firm that designed the education center, told the Statesman via email.
“From a distance, the glass windows and lights at the roof’s base reinforce this openness and limitless learning,” Rasmussen said.
The center is conceptualized as not only a gallery but a classroom, Bruce-Bennion said: “Education is our primary mission.”
The classroom space upstairs will host community events, which are free to the public, as well as programs including Wassmuth’s Human Rights Education Fellowship and Youth Leadership Program.
Bruce-Bennion believes the center will be a place to not only educate but inspire.
“I think part of what we want to do, too, is make sure that we don’t just get stuck in the history, right, but that we really are trying to create space to envision, like, what could it look like?”
You’re invited to grand opening
Interested community members can attend the grand opening at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Philip E. Batt Education Building on South 8th Street in Downtown Boise along the Greenbelt. Boise City Council President Colin Nash will speak.
Additional details are on the Wassmuth Center website.
This story was originally published October 8, 2024 at 4:56 PM.
