A 250,000-square foot interactive museum, dedicated to journalism and called 'The Newseum', has opened in the US capital, Washington, DC. It offers visitors an experience that blends five centuries of news history with up-to-the-minute technology and hands-on exhibits.

The Newseum, which cost $450 million to build (much of it donated by private media companies), features seven levels of galleries, theatres, retail spaces and visitor services. It offers a unique environment that takes museum-goers behind the scenes to experience how and why news is made. "Visitors will come away with a better understanding of news and the important role it plays in all of our lives," said the museum's Executive Director and Senior Vice President, Joe Urschel. "The new Newseum is educational, inspirational and a whole lot of fun."

The museum's architect is James Polshek of the Polshek Partnership. The exhibit designer is Ralph Appelbaum. Polshek and Appelbaum collaborated previously on the Clinton Presidential Library and Museum in Little Rock, Arkansas, and the Rose Center for Earth and Space in New York. The previous incarnation of the Newseum was in Arlington, Virginia, from 1996 until it closed down in 2002. Officials at its parent organisation, the Freedom Forum, decided to build a larger centre in Washington, closer to the Smithsonian museums on the National Mall.

One gallery in the Newseum features every photograph that ever won a Pulitzer Prize. Interactive kiosks let visitors try various journalism roles: photographer, editor, reporter or anchor. A theatre shows what the museum calls a '4-D' film - a 3-D movie with seats that move — that covers news events over more than 150 years. A memorial gallery is dedicated to journalists who died covering the news.

Marble facade

Robert Campbell, architecture critic of the Boston Globe, says the exhibits in the museum are better than the architecture. "The building can be thought of as a forgettable set of metal frames and scaffolds that house the fascinating exhibits. The Newseum does work as urban design. It boldly fills what used to be an ugly gap in Pennsylvania Avenue, the street that's billed as 'America's Main Street'.... The dominant feature of the facade is a vertical panel made of 50 tonnes of Tennessee marble. On it are engraved the words of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the one that guarantees freedom of the press."

Campbell sums up by saying, "If you come to Washington, be sure to see the Newseum, and allow plenty of time to wallow in its almost limitless riches. The older you are, the more you'll love it."