Museum Opens “Choose Love” Pop-Up

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Tenement Museum Opens ‘Choose Love’ Pop-Up enabling Visitors to Purchase Essentials for refugees this holiday period

December 4, 2018, New York, NY— The Tenement Museum has partnered with Help Refugees, a UK-based organization providing humanitarian aid to the world’s refugee population, so Museum visitors and shoppers can purchase essential items such as accommodation and food for refugees this holiday season. The pop-up store, which will open in the Museum’s Shop, is part of Help Refugee’s ‘Choose Love’ project: stores that give shoppers the opportunity to purchase a wide range of products and services on behalf of refugees across the world.

“A partnership between the Tenement Museum and Help Refugee’s ‘Choose Love’ project is a natural fit,” said Tenement Museum President Kevin Jennings. “The Museum’s mission is to preserve and tell the uniquely American stories of immigrants, migrants and refugees who helped create, and continue to help create, our nation.”

“Visitors who have just heard the stories of historical immigrants, migrants and refugees on one of our tours can play a role in the stories of refugees today by purchasing an item they truly need from the pop-up store.”

The ‘Choose Love’ pop up store will be open in the Museum Shop’s theater space on the 13th & 14th of December open late on Thursday (10am- 8:30am) and during the shop’s normal operating hours on Friday (10am-6:30pm).

At the Choose Love pop up, essentials such as cooking kits, warm clothing and diapers can be purchased and provided to refugees in the US, Europe and the Middle East. Significantly, vital legal services for families recently separated at the US border (provided by US legal advocacy organization International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP)) will also be sold.

Help Refugee’s ‘Choose Love’ pop up project, which asks visitors to ‘shop your heart out, leave with nothing, and feel the love’, is in its second year. This is also its first year to expand its presence from the UK to the US. Last year, the solo store in London raised $1 million in services and items for refugees, including 800,000 nutritious meals, 3,556 nights of accommodation, 25,000 essential winter items for adults— which included 5,000 blankets and 11,000 items of clothing—and 100,000 of essentials for babies and children, including 77,000 packs of diapers.

Alongside, the pop-up store inside the Tenement Museum’s shop, ‘Choose Love’ will be opening a store in New York’s Soho neighborhood. The store, which opened on Giving Tuesday (November 27) and closes on Christmas Eve, is located on 456 West Broadway, Soho, New York, NY 10012. You can shop online here.

Josie Naughton CEO of Help Refugees said, “At a time when the world faces many challenges; when rhetoric of hate and division has found itself center stage; we believe sharing this simple message has never been more vital.”

“As displaced people attempt to survive another freezing winter in tents and makeshift shelters, as many families prepare to spend their first Christmas torn apart, we’re welcoming Londoners, New Yorkers and Tenement Museum visitors to Choose Love and support refugees and homeless populations across the globe.