Susan Zimet, co-director of the Hudson Valley Media Arts
Center, discovered empty SAGE building several years ago while scouting
for a sound stage. Intrigued, she called her friend Karl Rodman, a
local businessman and president
of the educational travel company Hudson Valley Tours. Together, they
hatched the idea for the Cold War/Peace Museum.
"People need to see this and know what was going on right in their
own back yards during that time," Zimet says. "At any given moment
we could find ourselves back in that situation again."
To pay for feasibility-and-concept studies for the museum,
Zimet and Rodman have created the Cold War / Peace Museum Organizing
Committee, a not-for-profit corporation which has held fundraisers
and is soliciting donations; they have already received upwards
of $85,000 in cash
and pledges, and have built a committee of knowledgable and well-connected
people.
The committee envisions an institution that would not only explain the
SAGE system but also
examine the
Cold War's impact on life in the United States and the Soviet Union.
They might also include a
movie theater that would show continuous screenings of movies
like Dr. Strangelove as well as a life-size replica of a back-yard
bomb shelter.
The significance of such sites has increased since the Sept.
11 terrorist attacks, Rodman said. "We've entered a new kind of Cold War psychology," he
says. "The lessons of that earlier war need to be examined and understood."
