FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Museum of the Peace Corps Experience Announces November 10, 2026 Opening Celebration for 65 Objects That Changed the World
WASHINGTON, D.C. — October 7, 2026 — The Museum of the Peace Corps Experience (MPCE) will celebrate the opening of 65 Objects That Changed the World on Tuesday, November 10, at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, D.C., with an evening of exhibition viewing, celebration, film, and conversation.
The landmark exhibition marks the Peace Corps’ 65th anniversary through 65 ordinary objects that hold traces of extraordinary encounters across cultures—moments of generosity and misunderstanding, inequality and exchange, friendship, discovery, conflict, and change. Together, they offer a different lens on the American story, revealing not only what Americans have carried into the world, but what nearly 250,000 Peace Corps Volunteers have learned from others and carried home. The free exhibition opens November 10 and remains on view through March 7, 2027.
“At its heart, this exhibition asks a deceptively simple question: Who changed whom?” said Zack Klim, Ph.D., Executive Director and Chief Curator of the Museum of the Peace Corps Experience. “These objects remind us that cross-cultural exchange is rarely simple or one-directional. People arrive with assumptions about themselves, America, and the world, and encounter people with histories and perspectives of their own. Sixty-five years of Peace Corps experience suggests that changing the world can begin with something very small: the decision to know one another and build something better together.”
Opening Night Experience
The evening begins from 4:30–5:30 p.m. with an opportunity to explore 65 Objects That Changed the World on the first floor of the MLK Library.
From 5:30–7:00 p.m., guests who register for the event will gather on the 5th floor for an opening reception with drinks and hors d’oeuvres celebrating the exhibition and the community of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, storytellers, partners, donors, and peacebuilders worldwide.
At 7:00 p.m., the celebration moves to the library’s auditorium for the premiere of Diamond Rivers Reborn, followed by a conversation and audience Q&A with the filmmaker and featured volunteer.
The documentary brings filmmaker and Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Bill Benenson back to Brazil’s Chapada Diamantina nearly six decades after his Peace Corps service first introduced him to the region. The film explores the transformation of a landscape once defined by diamond mining and the people working to preserve its natural and cultural heritage.
An Opening Night That Helps Build the Museum
Opening Night Supporter registration is $50 and includes the reception, film premiere, and conversation. Proceeds directly support the Museum of the Peace Corps Experience.
Guests will also have an opportunity to participate in the Benenson $100,000 Museum Challenge, launched following a transformative $100,000 gift from Bill and Laurie Benenson. The challenge invites the Peace Corps community and broader public to collectively match their gift with another $100,000 to support the Museum’s collections, exhibitions, educational programming, institutional growth, and development of 65 Objects as a national traveling exhibition.
Admission to 65 Objects That Changed the World itself is free and open to the public.
Tuesday, November 10, 2026
4:30–5:30 p.m. — Explore 65 Objects That Changed the World
5:30–7:00 p.m. — Opening Reception with drinks and hors d’oeuvres
7:00–9:00 p.m. — Diamond Rivers Reborn Premiere, Conversation & Q&A
Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library
901 G Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20001
About the Museum of the Peace Corps Experience
The Museum of the Peace Corps Experience is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to collecting, preserving, and sharing the stories and objects shaped by Peace Corps service and cross-cultural exchange. Through exhibitions, collections, education, research, and public programming, the Museum explores the complex and enduring relationships created when people encounter one another across cultures.
The Museum is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and is not part of the U.S. Peace Corps, a federal agency.
Media Contact:
Jennifer Erie
Board Member and Communications Committee Chair
communications@peacecorpsmuseum.org
