Birck Family Innovation Gateway

A State-of-the-Art Welcome Center and Digital Exhibition Space

The Birck Family Innovation Gateway will be the new “front door” to Naper Settlement. This 4,800 square foot visitor welcome and education center will orient and engage guests. It will expand the museum’s content to include Naperville in the 20th and 21st centuries. Placing our local history in context with state and national narratives, we’ll shake up history the minute you walk in the door.  

The center will include a 23’ X 10’ digital wall exhibit that will encourage visitors to self-curate their own history journey. It will be a repository for files, photos, and more, allowing visitors to upload their own histories. This exhibit will be a crowd-sourced mechanism for public experiences.  

The Birck Family Innovation Gateway will support Naper Settlement's 132,000 annual visitors. The welcome center will include mobile ticketing kiosks and a student lunchroom. It will provide an improved, accessible site entrance for the 35,000 school children who visit each year. It will also allow us to expand our current programming. Teacher professional development workshops and other training opportunities will be offered in the new space.

We look forward to this beautiful, accessible new entrance to our 13-acre site. Please support Phase II of this project to bring 20th and 21st century history alive for all our visitors. 

For more information on the Birck Family Innovation Gateway giving opportunities, please contact Naper Settlement's Director of Development, Juliana Nelligan at nelliganj@naperville.il.us or call 630-305-5253.