Skywalk Observatory Celebrates Grand Re-Opening of Dreams of Freedom: Boston's Immigrant Experience

Skywalk Observatory recently celebrated the Grand Re-Opening of its fully re-imagined immigration exhibition, Dreams of Freedom: Boston’s Immigrant Experience. Seen at the launch event are (left to right, above): Raphael Oliver, General Manager of Skywalk Observatory and Top of the Hub; Dr. Westy Egmont, Exhibit Curator and Director of the Immigrant Integration Lab at Boston College; Senator Linda Dorcena Forry (whose personal story is included in the exhibition); and Pat Moscaritolo, President and CEO, Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Dreams of Freedom serves as a virtual passport through time, offering interactive multimedia exhibits that bring to life the unified experience of the thousands of immigrants who have made Boston their home for more than 400 years. The exhibition, part of the Skywalk’s permanent collection, is the city’s only educational experience dedicated to Boston’s rich history of immigration.

As noted at the entrance to the exhibition area: “Boston, ‘the city on the hill,’ was founded by people who sought a new life, free of the inequities and disappointments of the old world. The Puritan settlers hoped to create a city that would be a beacon to the world, and it has been. For centuries, immigrants have traveled from all over the world to build new lives. They journeyed far, built communities, became citizens and left their mark on Boston. Dreams of Freedom is both their story and everyone’s story. Ultimately, this is a story of commonality.

As a melting pot of the world’s communities, Boston has a tradition of inclusion and is home to someone from virtually every country on the planet. The city’s culture, neighborhoods and history have all been shaped and impacted by immigrants -- Irish, Italian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Dominican, Polish, Haitian, Nigerian, Turkish, Korean, Indian and more.

Touring the exhibits, guests will experience: the stark reality of leaving family behind to travel to a distant land with a bare minimum of possessions; family portraits come to life in a virtual dialogue debating the dreams and frustrations of arriving in a new homeland; the requirements and challenges of achieving American citizenship; the plight of the world’s refugees; a celebration of immigrant scholars, activists, artists, lawmakers, builders, athletes and inventors who have called Boston home and impacted the world; and images of today’s new Bostonians -- adults and children -- who have come from around the globe to build a better life and who will help shape our tomorrow.

Additional highlights include:

“Who Wants To Be An American?” -- an interactive game show allowing visitors of all ages to test and challenge their knowledge of American government.

The Skywalk Theater’s four videos -- Dreams of Freedom: The Boston Story, an exceptional video tour of immigration in Boston from colonial days to the present; Children of the World / Boston, an uplifting video montage featuring photographs by Randi Freundlich of Boston children from such diverse homelands as Sweden, Lebanon, Tibet, India, Haiti, Czech Republic, Jamaica and Vietnam, all set against the sounds of a children’s chorus singing “America The Beautiful;” Wings Over Boston, the Skywalk’s spectacular aerial video tour of Boston and Cambridge; and This Is Boston, a stunning time-lapse look at Boston from Faneuil Hall to Fenway Park.

The Bay State: A Multicultural Landscape, Photographs of New Americans, by Mark Chester – an interactive world map underscoring the fact that people from virtually every country on the planet now call Boston home.

Also displayed throughout the exhibit areas are a host of significant quotations relating to immigration from such leaders as Thomas Paine and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Jimmy Carter and Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, who also appears in Dreams of Freedom: The Boston Story video, narrated by Jimmy Tingle and shown in the Skywalk Theater as noted above.

“I am deeply excited about Dreams of Freedom: Boston’s Immigrant Experience,” said Mayor Walsh. “Immigrants are influential, historically and presently, to our city, which I know firsthand as the son of immigrant parents. This exhibit is crucial in sharing and presenting the stories of numerous immigrant movements in Boston, and how their search for identity and place in their adopted home helped to shape and build our city.”

Located on the 50th floor of The Prudential Tower, the Skywalk is New England’s tallest observatory and Boston’s ONLY sky-high vantage point. For information, visit http://skywalkboston.com/

Photo: R. J. Donovan