Six North Carolina Venues Selected to Host Smithsonian Traveling Exhibit Highlighting Rural America

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- North Carolina Humanities, in cooperation with the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES), has selected six North Carolina venues to host Crossroads: Change in Rural America. The exhibition examining the evolving landscape of rural America tours around North Carolina in 2022-2023.

The tour begins at Iredell Museums in Statesville September 2022. From there, the exhibit travels to Joyner Library at East Carolina University in Greenville, Granville County Historical Society and Museum in Oxford, Museum of the Albemarle in Elizabeth City, and Mountain Heritage Center at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. The tour concludes at Onslow County Museum in Richlands June 2023.

Crossroads: Change in Rural America is a Smithsonian Institution exhibit that offers small towns and rural communities a chance to look at their own paths to highlight the changes that affected their fortunes over the past century. The exhibit explores how rural America embraces the notion that their citizens and their cultural uniqueness are important assets. All Americans benefit from rural America's successes, and we can learn great things from listening to those stories.

"With so many North Carolinians living and working throughout rural North Carolina, we are excited to tour this exhibit within our state," said Sherry Paula Watkins, Executive Director of North Carolina Humanities. "Rural looks different depending on where you are in North Carolina, from the western mountains to the eastern coastline, and we're excited to see how each venue selected showcases what rural means to their community."

With program support and grant funding from NC Humanities, the six selected venues develop complementary exhibits that showcase their local history, people, and stories and offer programs and events that prompt discussions about the economic innovations, challenges, persistence, and cultural facets that make their community unique and essential.

NC Humanities has proudly partnered with SITES for over a decade to bring nationally-touring Smithsonian exhibits to North Carolina. With the completion of this upcoming tour, NC Humanities will have brought six distinct exhibits to over 30 different North Carolina small-town and rural museums, community colleges, libraries, and historic sites. In 2022, Crossroads: Change in Rural America will tour through Arizona, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, and North Carolina.

To stay up to date with the North Carolina 2022-2023 tour of Crossroads: Change in Rural America please visit nchumanities.org.

About North Carolina Humanities: Through public humanities programs and grantmaking, North Carolina Humanities connects North Carolinians with cultural experiences that spur dialogue, deepen human connections, and inspire community. North Carolina Humanities is a statewide nonprofit and the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.To learn more visit www.nchumanities.org.

About the exhibit: Crossroads: Change in Rural America is part of Museum on Main Street (MoMS), a unique collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES), state humanities councils across the nation, like North Carolina Humanities, and local exhibit host institutions. Support for MoMS has been provided by the U.S. Congress. Learn more at www.museumonmainstreet.org.

SOURCE North Carolina Humanities

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