By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
LOWER MANHATTAN — Construction will start as soon as next month as Ellis Island seeks to expand its museum and the story it tells.
Until now, the museum has focused solely on the 12 million immigrants who arrived on Ellis Island between 1892 and 1954.
But starting in early 2012, a new set of exhibits will trace the country's immigration narrative from the arrival of the Native Americans up to the present.
"Forty percent of Americans have roots at Ellis Island— but that means 60 percent do not," said Peg Zitko, a vice president at the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, which is raising money for the expansion.
"Many people who visit say, ‘It’s a wonderful museum, but my story’s not here.’"
The new $20 million Peopling of America Center will include exhibits on global migration patterns, the survival struggles of the earliest American immigrants and the more modern issue of illegal immigrants. Interactive and multimedia displays will use the words of actual immigrants to describe their reasons for leaving, their journey and their adjustment to their new home.
The center will also include a citizenship gallery where visitors can try to pass the US citizenship test. A final gallery will feature a video-projected Flag of Faces, a constantly changing photo collage of Americans of all ages and backgrounds.
The Liberty-Ellis Foundation predicts that the new center will attract an additional 400,000 visitors to the island each year, a 20 percent increase. Zitko said she is looking forward to seeing a younger and more diverse crowd, and she thinks the many school children who make the trip each year will be more engaged.
"Now, kids are like, ‘Where’s my story? I don’t relate to this,’" Zitko said.
The new exhibits will replace office space the National Park Service is vacating in the island’s main building. The new galleries will stand alongside the older ones, which will continue to tell the traditional story of Ellis Island and will remain open during construction.
The Liberty-Ellis Foundation still has to raise $2 million to complete its capital campaign and plans to seek funds from the Lower Manhattan Development Corp.
Community Board 1’s Waterfront Committee issued a resolution in support of the project this week, calling it an "important cause."
