Museum on Main Street

As part of the Smithsonian Institution, Museum on Main Street (MoMS) is a unique alliance of the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, state humanities councils, and cultural organizations in small, rural communities.

The MHC is currently planning for Crossroads: Change in Rural America, a Museum on Main Street exhibition that will arrive in Mississippi in August 2023. Crossroads takes a broad look at the characteristics of rural America by exploring the historical importance of rural communities, their connection to land, and how change has transformed rural America and how rural Americans are evolving for the future.

This tour of Crossroads, generously sponsored by the Tennessee Valley Authority, will visit six Mississippi communities from August 2023 through June 2024:

Crossroads host sites:

August 26-October 8, 2023

Wiggins: Ferris B. O’Neal Senior Community Center

Hosted by Stone County Economic Development Partnership

October 14-November 26, 2023

Brookhaven: Lincoln County Public Library

Hosted by Lincoln Lawrence Franklin Regional Library System

December 2, 2023-January 14, 2024

Marks: Quitman County Arts & Culture Museum

Hosted by Quitman County Arts Council

January 20-March 3, 2024

West Point: Louise Campbell Center for the Arts

Hosted by West Point Clay County Community Growth Alliance

March 9-April 21, 2024

Rolling Fork: Sharkey-Issaquena County Library

Hosted by Mississippi’s Lower Delta Partnership

April 27-June 9, 2024

Pontotoc: Pontotoc Community House

Hosted by Pontotoc Historical Society

 

Museum on Main Street’s exhibitions focus on broad topics of national history and give host museums the opportunity, with support from state humanities councils and guidance from the state scholars, to create their own educational programs, cultural activities, and exhibitions that center on their local heritage. Exhibition support materials and “how to” training workshops are provided to venues hosting the exhibitions.

Since 2001, the Mississippi Humanities Council has toured ten MoMS exhibits including “Produce for Victory” (WWII America on the Home Front), “Key Ingredients” (America by Food), “Between Fences” (Boundaries, Borders and Bridges in America), “New Harmonies – Celebrating American Roots Music,” “Journey Stories” (Immigration, Migration and Settlement in America), “The Way We Worked,” “Hometown Teams,” “Water/Ways,” and “Crossroads: Change in Rural America” (2020-2021) and “Voices and Votes.”