You’ve heard that the ambitious new museum coming to town, the one with an emphasis on storytelling and a national reach, has just secured its high-profile downtown location, right?
The American Writers Museum announced last week that it has leased an 11,000-square-foot space in a vintage building at 180 N. Michigan, and plans to open the only museum in the world dedicated to American writers there in 2017.
This museum was dreamed up by founder and president Malcolm E. O’Hagan, an east-coast engineer and book lover inspired by visits to the Dublin Writers Museum in his native Ireland. Its mission is to “engage the public in celebrating American writers and exploring their influence on our history, our identity, our culture and our daily lives.” It’s landed two grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and is affiliated with 51 author-home museums across the country. Its advisory council includes the likes of former poet laureate Billy Collins and author Scott Turow, and it has collected enthusiastic blurbs for the project written by everybody from former NEA chair Dana Gioia to author Dave Eggers.
