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MoMS Exhibits

Current & Upcoming:

• New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music (2008–2009)

Archived Exhibits:

• Between Fences (2006–2007)
• Key Ingredients: America by Food (2004–2005)
• Produce for Victory: Posters on the American Home Front, 1941–1945 (2001–2002)
• Barn Again! Celebrating an American Icon (1999–2000)

Museum on Main Street

Museum on Main Street (MoMS) is a program of the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) in partnership with state humanities councils, and in coordination with the Federation of State Humanities Councils. SITES develops high quality and mobile humanities exhibitions. Humanities councils develop traveling exhibit tour projects in their states and support educational events at local levels. The targeted exhibit venues are small or emerging, nonprofessional, rural or underserved cultural organizations.

Humanities Tennessee presented a tour of Barn Again! Celebrating an American Icon in 1999–2000, Produce for Victory: Posters on the American Home Front, 1941–1945 in 2001–2002, Key Ingredients: America by Food, 2004–2005, Between Fences in 2006–2007 and will tour New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music in 2008–2009.

The genius of MoMS is how it allows SITES and humanities councils to share their years of exhibition and programmatic expertise with many under-served communities across America. The MoMS exhibition projects in Tennessee have resulted in professional development, new local partnerships, and even cultural tourism initiatives. The tours have also included many public humanities programs such as companion exhibitions and oral history projects. These activities may garner financial support from Humanities Tennessee, but local philanthropy, fundraising and volunteerism are evidenced by the community-based activities that occur during the exhibition. For example, Produce for Victory hosts held USO dances and "Rosie the Riveter" look-a-like contests, and Key Ingredients hosts held community-wide cook-offs, local recipe collections, and potluck dinners.

Tennessee exhibition hosts have successfully used the opportunities and resources connected to the MoMS collaboration to produce an astonishing array of public programs and to foster lasting institutional advancement — making key improvements to their facilities, ongoing operations, programming, and community visibility.

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