CELL exhibit targets terrorism, its causes, cures

By Mary Voelz Chandler, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published August 28, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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One minute, images on the giant screens in front of you make you feel as if you're mingling with a crowd at a festival in Civic Center then walking up the 16th Street Mall.

But in a moment, this familiar vista explodes into a wall of flame and debris, as you're drawn into the aftermath of a terrorist attack.

With the wail of sirens and images of destruction surrounding them, legislators, visitors and community leaders Wednesday got a sneak peak at the newest member of the city's cultural community: the Center for Empowered Living and Learning.

Snaking through 5,800 square feet on the first floor of the Museum Residences, The CELL is an experiential center for exploring the causes and potential cures for global terrorism. It will open to the public Tuesday.

Interactive displays and high-tech graphics deliver educational information, while monitors display reminders of some of the biggest news stories of the past 50 years, from hijackings and the Munich Olympics, to the Symbionese Liberation Army and the destruction of the World Trade Center.

"The real focal point of its beginning was 9/11," said Larry Mizel, the force and pocketbook behind the project announced in 2006. "It brought home to all of us that terrorism can happen anytime, anywhere."

Thus, he noted, the permanent exhibition: "Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere: Understanding the Threat of Terrorism."

To pull together the up to $6 million educational program, consultants, designers and exhibition experts, Mizel turned to daughter Courtney Green.

"We wanted to make sure we delivered a universal message," said founding director Green. "We want to empower (people) to play a role combatting terrorism" through both the exhibition and programming.

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