Three Rivers Public Library recently announced that a new Smithsonian Museum on Main Street Exhibit, Spark! Places of Innovation is coming to Three Rivers. Spark! Places of Innovation explores the unique combination of places, people, and circumstances that sparks innovation and invention in rural communities.
Inspired by an exhibition at the National Museum of American History, this travelling exhibition features stories gathered from diverse communities across the nation. Photographs, engaging interactives, objects, videos, and augmented reality bring a multilayered experience to reveal the leaders, challenges, successes, and future of innovation in each town. Technical, social, cultural, or artistic—every sort of innovation story is as unique as each community and will be represented in Spark! Places of Innovation.
Spark! will be the springboard for diverse local programming in the humanities, sciences, and arts. Visitors will be inspired to learn about how innovation has shaped their own communities and how they may be innovators themselves. This exhibition will be an opportunity for community members to come together in conversation around their community’s history, present, and future with innovation. Spark! is coming to Three Rivers Public Library from July 8 to August 19, 2023.
“We are so excited to get the opportunity to bring the Smithsonian to our community,” Library Director Bobbi Schoon said. “This will be an incredible experience for us.”
This project is funded in part by Smithsonian, and Michigan Humanities, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
About Museum on Main Street
Museum on Main Street brings high-quality Smithsonian traveling exhibitions to Main Street museums, historical societies, and other small-town cultural venues across the country. These exhibits boost civic pride, as residents young and old, from diverse backgrounds come together to share and celebrate their heritage. Host venues are selected through a competitive application and awarded to communities as a cohort that will work and train together over the next year, leading up to opening day at the first venue.
About Michigan Humanities
Michigan Humanities strives to bring people together through stories, histories, cultures, and conversations. In carrying out this mission, Michigan Humanities builds awareness and excitement for humanities in everyday life, achieves best practices and sustainability for all humanities programs and services in Michigan, and upholds the following key values: inclusion, diversity, and equity; discovery and understanding; authentic conversation; respectful collaboration; and meaningful experiences. Michigan Humanities’ vision is a more thoughtful, connected, engaged, and informed Michigan.
