Starting in July, the Museum will temporarily close to undertake a significant upgrade to the facilities. The renovations will modernize the Skokie structure and create a new lobby designed to hold vastly more guests of all ages and abilities, while serving as an engaging orientation to the Museum and its multiple exhibitions. Updates will include a new visitor welcome center, a redesigned state-of-the-art auditorium, and a reflection space within the Karkomi Holocaust exhibition, among other upgrades.
While the Skokie Museum is temporarily closed, the Museum will open a downtown satellite location featuring some of its most popular exhibitions at the former site of the Broadcast Museum in the River North neighborhood.
Renovation renderings
Projected Timeline
Skokie Renovation
In order to enhance and improve the visitor experience through increased accessibility, more intuitive wayfinding and amplified educational engagement opportunities, expanded facilities are needed to meet the growing needs of visitors and the community.
The Museum will close all exhibitions on June 2, 2025, but will remain open for public programs and trainings, by reservation only, through the end of June. The museum will fully close on July 1, 2025.
The Museum will partially reopen on January 2, 2026, with limited content, details TBD and announced at a later date.
The Museum will fully reopen in the late summer of 2026 with a grand reopening to be announced.
The Museum will modernize the Skokie structure and create a new Welcome Center designed to hold vastly more guests of all ages and abilities, while serving as an engaging orientation to the Museum and its multiple exhibitions. The redesigned Center will include updated security and ticket offices, a redesigned state-of-the-art auditorium, exhibition reflection space, and more restrooms, among other upgrades.
Our downtown Chicago location, opening summer 2025, will feature several world-class exhibitions for the public to engage with in person.
Public programming and events will still be offered virtually, as well as in person at offsite locations TBA.
Field trips and group tours will be available for advance registration at our downtown Chicago location beginning in summer of 2025. Virtual field trips will continue to be offered online.
The Legacy online gift shop will continue to operate.
There will be a Legacy gift shop on-site at our downtown Chicago location featuring special limited-edition merchandise.
In addition to access to ongoing and new programming, member benefits will now include entry to our brand-new satellite location in downtown Chicago opening in summer 2025.
The museum’s collection will not be accessible during this time, and will be housed off-site in a secure, temperature, and humidity-controlled facility until we reopen in Summer 2026.
New artifact donations to the Museum collection will pause until September 2026. You may contact the Collections Department at 847.967.4817 or artifacts@ilhmec.org to set up an appointment for September 2026 or beyond. In addition, research requests and physical access to the Permanent Collection will not be available until the beginning of 2027.
There will be no change in pricing.
Continue to check back for updates on our website at www.ilholocaustmuseum.org, and you can also follow us on our social channels Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X and sign up for our newsletters.
Our special exhibitions Resilience: A Sansei Sense of Legacy and Shtetl in the Sun will be available through June 1, 2025. The museum will also offer a diversity of public programs through June 26th, including exclusive film screenings, author talks, commemorations, and theatrical and musical performances.
Downtown Location
The Museum will open a temporary space with a diversity of exhibitions, in downtown Chicago at the former site of the Museum of Broadcast Communication at 360 N. State Street in the River North district.
During the temporary closure of Illinois Holocaust Museum in Skokie, the satellite location will allow the Museum to continue to offer visitors world-class exhibitions and provide in-person educational opportunities.
The satellite will open in July of 2025, and remain open for one year. More details TBA.
The satellite location will offer several engaging and award-winning exhibitions including Virtual Reality and Holographic Theatres, and feature stories of survivors of the Holocaust and genocides across time and geography. More details to be announced in the coming months.
The satellite location will be open Monday – Sunday, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.
The location will be closed for certain holidays, TBA.
General Admission tickets, which include access to all exhibitions:
- Adults: $12.00
- Seniors (65+): $8
- Students (up to age 22 with valid student ID): $8
- Children (5-11): $6
- Children (under 5): Free
Yes, admission will be free for members.
Yes, reservations for fields trips and group tours will begin in the coming months.
Yes, our Legacy Gift Shop will be open downtown, and will continue uninterrupted online.
Continue to check back for updates on our website at www.ilholocaustmuseum.org, and you can also follow us on our social channels Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X and sign up for our newsletters.