Chandler Museum to have special guests, events on grand opening day
Dec 7, 2018, 6:15 PM
(City of Chandler)
PHOENIX — The city of Chandler will have its grand opening of the Chandler Museum on Saturday.
The museum will feature the city’s involvement in past and present local events and celebrate its notable residents.
It will officially open at 9:30 a.m. when Chandler Mayor Jay Tibshraeny and members of the City Council participate in a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The museum is located at 300 South Chandler Village Drive, just southwest of Chandler Fashion Center.
“We are dynamic community with a reputation as the high-tech hub of the Valley, but we also have an important history to remember and celebrate,” Chandler Museum administrator Jody Crago said in a press release.
“For this project, it was important that the modern and the historic work together to create a cultural destination that will serve as the starting place for exploring Chandler, not the end point.”
The opening day will feature several special events.
Lyndsey Fry, who grew up in Chandler and was a member of the 2014 United States women’s national ice hockey team that won an Olympic a silver medal, will make an appearance at 1 p.m.
In 2016, Fry was inducted into the Chandler Sports Hall of Fame, which will have a permanent display in the museum.
At 3 p.m., museum guests will be able to hear about the punk band Green Day’s connection to Chandler.
The museum’s main exhibit, “Gaman: Enduring Japanese American Internment at Gila River,” will also debut at the opening.
We can’t wait. Here’s a sneak peek of the new Chandler Museum and one of the featured exhibits: Awkward Family Photos. Are you joining us for the grand opening on Saturday, Dec. 8. Details: https://t.co/pFbQCR771U pic.twitter.com/ntqPjsFGr2
— City of Chandler, AZ (@cityofchandler) December 7, 2018
The display details the experiences of more than 16,000 Japanese-Americans who were forcibly removed from their west coast homes at the beginning of World War II and placed in the Gila River Internment Camp, located south of Chandler.
Chandler broke ground on the museum in October 2017.
The museum project cost approximately $4.3 million and was funded primarily through bonds approved by voters in 2004 and 2007.
Normal hours for the museum will be 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday through Saturday.