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Special: "Museum on Main Street: A Love Letter to Small-Town America" from Museums in Strange Places

40m · Smithsonian's Stories from Main Street · 29 Nov 20:56

We're excited to share an episode from our host Hannah Hethmon's podcast Museums in Strange Places. Back in 2019, Museums in Strange Places featured the amazing work of the Smithsonian's state and local partners in rural communities. Starting in Moreland, Georgia (pop. 382) in 1994, the Smithsonian, state humanities councils and local history organizations began a collaboration called Museum on Main Street to bring traveling exhibitions and humanities progams to rural communities. Since that kick-off nearly 30 years ago, more than 2,000 communities (with a median population of 8,300) have participated in the program.

Museum on Main Street is all about local history: rural communities use a Smithsonian exhibition and humanities scholars in their state to immerse their visitors in the stories that make their hometowns unique. In 2011, the program launched Stories from Main Street -- the story collection initiative that helps power this podcast -- to elevate and preserve rural voices and perspectives on important topics.

Did you know that about half of the museums in the United States are in small towns? American history and culture is everywhere! Enjoy this look at the work, resourcefulness, creativity, joy and pride our communities bring to the project.

Be sure to listen to Museums in Strange Places where you get your podcasts or at: https://pod.link/1296895315

Museums in Strange Places and Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street are produced by Better Lemon Creative Audio. Hannah Hethmon is your host.

The episode Special: "Museum on Main Street: A Love Letter to Small-Town America" from Museums in Strange Places from the podcast Smithsonian's Stories from Main Street has a duration of 40:39. It was first published 29 Nov 20:56. The cover art and the content belong to their respective owners.

More episodes from Smithsonian's Stories from Main Street

Special: "Hopefully, My Generation Will Be the Ones to Change It"

Young people throughout the country bring new perspectives and attitudes to our history and our culture. But often, they don't feel welcome to the conversations that adults have about community and culture. Since 2012, the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street has been working with small towns that want to highlight youth perspectives. Young people explore topics related to history, culture, and change in their communities and then create multimedia projects that tell their hometown's story. The result is that youth get an important opporunity to show that they are interested in the direction of their communities and have constructive perspectives on how rural Americans can work together for a better future. Listen in as we talk with leaders of local youth projects and hear from students themselves as they talk about life in a rural community.

Preview: Youth Voices

Here's a sneak peek at our next special episode! Give a listen to the voices and the work of the next generation of rural Americans learning about their communities. Young people living in rural America are just like other American youth: interested in change, thinking about their futures, and ... sometimes feeling like adults aren't interested in what youth have to say. Our episode celebrating youth voices in rural America will be released on March 27.

15: Good Relationships Build Stronger Communities

You've got to have friends! Personal and professional connections are critical to the development of healthy communities, whether they are rural or urban. In this final episode of our Spark! series, we're examing how two communities innovated around culture and heritage to overcome stagnation and division. In Helper, Utah, the city came together to design their own revitalized main street and plan a future after the coal industry left. In Franklin, North Carolina, the town had to face the past to reconcile with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians so the two communities could work together to preserve the past and build a mutually beneficial future.

14: Great Things Happen Here

In this episode, we're taking a closer look at two very different rural communities that embody technological innovation. In Taos, New Mexico, solar energy is used to power high-speed internet and a jobs training hub for locals that want to stay local. In Chenango County, New York, there's a long history of innovative companies, from aerospace parts manufacturers to Chobani, the famous yogurt brand.

13: Comebacks and Ripple Effects

Rural America is full of places of innovation--towns where people work together to conceive new ideas and spark engagement by the community to implement them. Journey with us in this first episode in our look at rural innovation to explore two stories of social innovation, visiting towns that took risks and dreamed big to revitalize their downtowns, and show the community what was possible when they worked together. First up, learn how Hillsboro, Illinois, brought energy and commerce back to Main Street. Then, hear about the creative ways Bethel, Vermont, reinvigorated a sense of community and place.

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