The Long-Term Vision
The Kind Kulture Institute.
A permanent home in Los Angeles for survivor testimony, art, and human dignity, rooted in the legacy of the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi, dedicated to the full breadth of human memory.
The Vision
The Institute does not yet exist as a building. It is being built in public: one exhibition, one city, one year at a time. Stories in Color: A Human Dignity Exhibition is the pre-launch of the Institute. The final stop of the touring exhibition will be its opening night. The goal was never only to remember what happened. It is to decide what prevails.
Rwanda is the founding heart.Humanity is the destination.
Why It Must Exist
History has museums. Knowledge has libraries. Justice has courthouses.
Humanity deserves a home.
We believe humanity deserves a permanent place where stories become teachers, reflection becomes healing, and strangers become neighbors. That is why we are building the Kind Kulture Institute.
A home where humanity’s stories can live, teach, and heal.
Why Now
Spaces for healing matter more than ever.
We live in one of the most connected periods in history. Yet loneliness is rising, division is growing, and trust is declining. The need for spaces that cultivate empathy, reflection, and courageous conversation has never been greater.
The Kind Kulture Institute exists to give healing a home.
Dydine Umunyana Anderson · Kigali Genocide Memorial, Children’s Memorial Room · Rwanda, 2013 · Photograph by Michele Zousmer
The work of the Institute begins in this room and in others like it: in the rooms where children’s portraits hang, where the names are spoken, where the names are not forgotten.
Why Los Angeles
A city of ten million, at the intersection.
The Institute will stand in Los Angeles, at the intersection of culture, diaspora, education, and global storytelling.
Diaspora
Many homes, one city.
Every community that has carried memory across borders lives here. The Institute belongs in a city where many diasporas already live.
Storytelling Industry
Where stories travel from.
Hollywood, documentary filmmakers, and media institutions at scale. A story told here travels.
Academic Ecosystem
The university partners.
USC, UCLA, Cal State LA, Occidental. The classrooms and lecture halls the Institute will work alongside.
Philanthropic Community
Mission-aligned funders.
Major Los Angeles family and community foundations whose missions align with this work.
What the Institute Holds
Four pillars, one institution.
Testimony Archive
Thousands of hours of recorded testimony: video, audio, written. Open to researchers, educators, journalists, and to you.
Public Programming
Survivor events, remembrance gatherings, youth engagement, community dialogues, and civic programming.
Art & Exhibitions
Stories in Color as the permanent collection. Rotating commissioned works from global artists.
Education
Partnerships with schools, universities, museums, and human-rights organizations.
Imagine Your Visit
A place you don’t simply visit.
- Walk through the Institute.
- Hear the voice of a survivor.
- Pause before a single photograph.
- Read a child’s journal.
- Sit in silence.
- Join a conversation with strangers.
- Leave carrying someone else’s story alongside your own.
Every space within the Institute is intentionally designed around one philosophy: Mirror · Bridge · Change. Because sometimes one story can change the direction of a life.
The Arc
Three phases to permanence.
Phase 1 · 2026 → 2028
Stories in Color launches. The founding archive is built.
Phase 2 · 2027 → 2029
Museum touring and institutional expansion. The work travels city by city.
Phase 3 · 2029 → 2031
The capital campaign and the permanent Los Angeles site.
Help Us Build It
Before there is a building to point to.
An institution is built by the people who chose to believe in it first. Founding Partners join us in the rebuilding year and remain part of the institutional record for the life of the Institute.