A couple of weeks ago the newest MoMS exhibition, Hometown Teams: How Sports Shape America opened in NJ and WV. If you haven’t already done so, please check out Facebook and Twitter for posts about the opening events! Today the final three copies ship to NE, IL, and ID. The MoMS team wants to congratulate these five councils as they launch this new MoMS exhibition. It has been a joy to work with them and see firsthand the excitement they have created in their states about this exhibit on what sports means in America.
The first three years of the Hometown Teams tour are booked, but we have openings in 2017, 2018, and 2019.
By this time next year, The Way We Worked will have been in 24 states. We continue to be amazed at how this exhibition has sparked so many great discussions about the many types of work Americans do and the diversity of our workforce. The topic is always timely! To accompany TWWW, state councils have made work a year-long theme and paired the exhibition with unique statewide program initiatives. In Kansas, communities that applied, but were not selected to host TWWW, were invited to by the council to be affiliate sites, creating a successful program that spread the exhibition’s impact across the state. In Alabama, dozens of teachers and students have participated in oral history training and are canvassing communities to collect local work history. And, towns are not to be outdone -- in Franklin, Kansas, the local museum spent an entire year developing special exhibitions on different types of work and had booked 2,000 students for visits before TWWW even arrived.
There are a couple of openings on the 2015 and 2016 tour dates--but then it comes off the road. So, if your council is interested in hosting The Way We Worked, please let me know just as soon as possible before the tour fills completely.
After meeting with council focus groups at the 2012 and 2013 National Humanities Conference, SITES has determined that for the next MoMS exhibition we will reach beyond the core humanities to something that is a vitally important element of life—water. Though this is traditionally a subject that would fall in the realm of natural history or science, we plan to explore the topic through the lens of the humanities. Indeed, water shapes every aspect of our lives and the world around us. Many may not realize how it penetrates our culture—work, recreation, religion, literature, art—and yet in some parts of the country and the world it is scarce. This new MoMS exhibition will address these cultural connections, giving visitors an introduction to the scientific and natural importance of water and a chance to think how broadly water affects how we view the world around us.
The Water exhibit is slated to open in the early summer of 2016 and will tour for six years through 2022. We are currently meeting with some internal partners to solidify our plans for this project. Once these meetings are wrapped up we hope to begin booking it by mid-March. In the meantime, please let me know in a separate email if you think your council may be interested in hosting this exhibit in the first couple of years of the tour. In our discussions with collaborators within the Smithsonian, and possible funders, it would be helpful to know of your potential interest.
Can’t wait to hear from you!
Director, Museum on Main Street
Smithsonian Institution, SITES