Smithsonian Spark! Exhibition Opens January 18 at Sinte Gleska University
January 11, 2025
In May 2024, the Smithsonian Institution began making its way across South Dakota. The vehicle for this adventure was a Museum on Main Street traveling exhibition tour, Spark! Places of Innovation, highlighting how innovation has shaped small towns across the nation.
The exhibition, examining the ingenuity and tenacity of rural America, will end its road trip at the Great Plains Art Institute at Sinte Gleska University in Mission, where it opens Jan. 18.
Through a partnership between the Smithsonian and the South Dakota Humanities Council, Spark! has already visited four other South Dakota locations. It opened at the Cheyenne River Youth Project in Eagle Butte and continued to the Rapid City Public Library, the Dakotaland Museum in Huron, and the Dacotah Prairie Museum in Aberdeen.
Featuring stories and images from more than 30 communities across the nation, gathered through a crowdsourcing initiative, Spark! explores innovation in rural America from the perspective of the people who lived it. Through photographs, hands-on interactives, objects, and videos, Spark! reveals the leaders, challenges, successes, and future of innovation in each featured town.
SDHC is proud to have hosted Spark! in South Dakota, said SDHC Program Coordinator Stacy Chidaushe. She hopes it combats the common misconception that rural America is less innovative than urban areas.
“Innovation isn’t necessarily new developments that happen on a grand scale, but most frequently those that affect our everyday lives and help society function on a day-to-day basis,” Chidaushe said. “Innovation in rural areas like South Dakota happens every day and has broader impacts throughout our nation than most people realize. SDHC is proud to bring attention to those achievements, highlighting both the national perspective shared by the Smithsonian’s traveling exhibition and the local programming developed by our host sites.”
Designed for small-town museums, libraries, and cultural organizations, Spark! serves as a community meeting place for conversations about innovation. With the support and guidance of SDHC, participating communities in South Dakota have developed complementary exhibits, hosted public programs, and facilitated educational initiatives to raise people’s understanding about their own history, the joys and challenges of living in rural America, the impact of change on communities, and goals for the future.
Spark! is part of Museum on Main Street, a unique collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES), state humanities councils across the nation, and local host organizations. Spark! was inspired by Places of Invention, an exhibition developed by the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation. To learn more about Spark! and other Museum on Main Street exhibitions, visit www.museumonmainstreet.org.
For more information on the Spark! exhibition opening in Mission, call Keli Brings Three White Horses at (605) 856-8211 or Ned Day at (605) 856-8118.
Learn more about humanities programming in South Dakota by signing up for SDHC e-Updates!