The Smithsonian Is Coming to a Town Near You!

The Wisconsin Humanities Council (WHC) is excited to announce the six organizations selected to host the Smithsonian’s Museums On Main Street exhibition, Between Fences. The exhibition will open in Wisconsin in the fall of 2007 and spend six weeks in each of the host communities. 

The Tour:

1. September 15 – October 27, 2007: Waupaca, hosted by the Waupaca Area Public Library and displayed in the future exhibit gallery of the library.

2. November 3 – December 15, 2007: Hales Corners, hosted by the Stahl-Conrad Homestead and displayed in the barn and farmhouse museum. 

3. January 5 – February 16, 2008: La Farge, hosted by the Friends of the Kickapoo Valley Reserve and displayed in the visitor center.

4. February 23 – April 5, 2008: Sauk Prairie, hosted by River Arts, Inc. and displayed in the River Arts Center gallery. 

5. April 12 – May 24, 2008: Clear Lake, hosted by the Clear Lake Area Community Center and displayed in the Center’s community room.

6. May 31 – July 12, 2008: Cable, hosted by the Cable Natural History Museum and displayed in the new museum to open in 2008.
 
Between Fences is an exhibition designed by the Smithsonian Institution specifically for small, rural communities. The exhibition explores themes of boundaries, place, and space using objects and images including fences, tools, photographs, and publications such as product literature, journals, postcards, and posters. 

The WHC will coordinate the tour, as part of the Museums on Main Street program, working closely with Wisconsin’s six host organizations and communities to plan public programs on the many themes of the exhibition, such as land use, defining public and private space in terms of home, farm, and factory, the settling of the United States, and the boundaries and borders of human relationships.
 
“I was really impressed by the applications we received,” said Jessica Becker, Program Officer at the WHC and coordinator for the Between Fences tour. “Clearly these issues are extremely relevant in Wisconsin today and the exhibition tour is a wonderful opportunity for communities throughout the state to explore their history, celebrate their unique stories, and break down fences that are no longer needed.”

Applications came from organizations in every corner of the state, all with populations under 10,000 people. A panel of WHC board members and humanities scholars selected the sites based on geographic distribution, strength of proposed ideas for complementary programs, commitment from the community, and the physical display space. 

More information about the Smithsonian Museum On Main Street program, and the Between Fences exhibition, can be found at www.museumonmainstreet.org.

The Wisconsin Humanities Council is the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Since 1972, the WHC has served the people of Wisconsin through both a grant program and humanities projects of its own. Its mission is to create opportunities for all the people of Wisconsin to engage in critical exploration of the histories, arts, ideas, and values of their own and other communities.  More information can be found at www.wisconsinhumanities.org.