The new Philip E. Batt building is home to the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights, an Idaho nonprofit founded in 1996 with the goal to establish the Anne Frank Memorial in Boise and education programs on human rights. (Mia Maldonado/Idaho Capital Sun)
Idaho’s Wassmuth Center for Human Rights is opening its doors to its new building Thursday at its grand opening.
The building, named after Idaho’s late Republican governor Philip. E. Batt, will provide a community programming space that the center did not previously have, Wassmuth Center Executive Director Christina Bruce-Bennion said at a press conference Tuesday morning.
“We work with young kids, we work with educators, corporations, and the community, but the center has never had a building to do a lot of that programming,” she said. “We’ve always done what we could do in the memorial or the library. This building is really kind of the next era for us of being able to house a lot of our programming inside.”
Built by Erstad Architects, the 6,000 square-foot building includes staff offices, classrooms, a Holocaust testimony room, a conference room, library and local artwork.