Its programs and exhibits are non-partisan, secular, and feature themes of conflict resolution, equity, social justice, tolerance, and protecting our natural world.

The Museum features permanent, temporary, and traveling exhibits that highlight the rich history of, and potential for, nonviolent solutions to conflict and sustainability in the natural world.

[4] The Dayton International Peace Museum was founded in 2004 by farmers Ralph and Christine Dull, along with J. Frederick Arment, Lisa Wolters, and Steve Fryburg.

Ralph and Christine Dull were long-time peace activists and members of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, receiving numerous awards for books published and their work around the local area.

More recently, in response to the 2019 Dayton shooting and rising gun violence in the U.S., the museum partnered with the Facing Project to publish a collection of 16 stories detailing the experience of gun-violence survivors.

Held over three days, the event combined music and free yoga sessions with serious discussions on the gun violence and the community.

[24][25] The Museum's former Executive Director, Kevin Kelly, has also been active within local media, writing guest opinion columns in the Columbus Dispatch and Dayton Daily News on racial and social justice.

He has most recently written on the legacies of civil rights icons Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis in the contexts of the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol,[26] political tension,[27] and the COVID-19 pandemic.

[28] The Museum is also the official repository of each fiction and nonfiction book submitted annually to the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.

Recent winners of the Richard Holbrooke Award include John Irving, Alice Hoffman, Elie Wiesel, Chanel Miller, and Hala Alyan.