Leonisa Ardizzone is a longtime peace educator, former United Nations intern, university professor, nonprofit organizer and Unitarian Universalist minister. Now, as the founder and executive director of the Peace Museum and Learning Lab, she has found “exactly what I had been looking for my whole life.”

Ardizzone described “peace education” as studying how peace works, and how to address violence in a “transformational” way. Having studied with foundational peace educator Betty Reardon, Ardizzone said, “We can learn to be peaceful, but it requires us to critically analyze everything we're told and taught.”

“I want to bring peace education to more people, so I founded the Peace Education Center of the Hudson Valley,” Ardizzone said. “And it was just about a year ago that we were sharing space at the YWCA, and I said to my teammate, ‘I think it needs to be a museum.’ When you go to a museum, you see a variety of things, and then you're invited to engage with it.”

On July 10, Ardizzone opened the space, complete with books, artwork and information on human rights and environmental justice. Describing it as interactive and rotating, Ardizzone said the museum is a place to practice peace education rather than just learn about it.

Exhibits include historical timelines, influential figures in human rights and a “cooperation corner” designed for children to imagine and talk about visions of a better world. It also includes a map where people can pinpoint which country their family came from, and if they left by choice or force.

The main floor features panels where visitors can explain how they define peace and violence, identify root causes and solutions, a zine-making station, an origami crane station, a “glass-room” with a youth-designed climate exhibit and a tree mural where visitors leave ideas on how to make a more peaceful world.

“My mind was we have to have some core ideas about how peace ed works or how we conceive of peace and violence. So we want things to be interactive, but we also want people thinking about it when they leave,” Ardizzone said.

Visitors can use a self-guided “peace passport” activity booklet or have conversations with staff. In the future, Ardizzone said that school and community groups will receive tailored curricula and guided visits.

The Peace Museum and Learning Lab plans to host an exhibit on women and violence in September, followed by an Indigenous history and genocide exhibit in October, a global examination of democracy in November and a special exhibit focused on Palestine in December.

“I'd be satisfied if everyone who comes in here walks away with just one new understanding,” Ardizzone said. “The secondary hope is that then they go have a conversation with somebody.”

The museum is located at 730 Broadway. It's open Fridays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays from 11 a.m.-4 p.m.