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Smithsonian Exhibits
Bringing America's Museum to Main Street Washington
Our special partnership with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. allows us to bring an exciting array of traveling exhibits to small museums and other venues across the state. In collaboration with the Smithsonian and their extraordinary collection (often called “America’s attic”) our staff enhances these exhibits by adding Washington State programming. The traveling exhibits are consistent crowd pleasers with popular topics ranging from American music to regional food and the people who make and serve it. These exhibits bring a slice of Washington, D.C.’s Smithsonian Museums to dozens of towns across the state from Ilwaco to Metaline Falls.
Since 2004, Humanities Washington has coordinated five of these traveling exhibit tours, providing more than 200 weeks of programming for 27 community museums across the state. Each exhibit spends two years traveling to 12 communities across the state. Journey Stories is the current traveling exhibit, running through 2012.
We only charge organizations a nominal fee to participate allowing even small museums to be able to host these traveling exhibits. Humanities Washington helps host staff and volunteers reach new audiences and build community partnerships by assisting with public outreach and the development of companion local exhibits and programming.
For more information, contact Ellen Terry at (206) 682-1770 x101 or by email.
Current Exhibit: "Journey Stories"
Journey stories – tales of how we and our ancestors came to America – are a central element of our personal heritage. From Native Americans to new American citizens, everyone has a story to tell. Washington state is filled with stories of people leaving behind everything – families and possessions – to reach a new life in another state, across the continent, or even across an ocean.
Our transportation history is more than trains, boats, buses, cars, wagons, and trucks. The development of transportation technology was largely inspired by the human drive for freedom. Journey Stories will examine the intersection between modes of travel and Americans’ desire to feel free to move. The story is diverse and focused on immigration, migration, innovation, and freedom. It is accounts of immigrants coming in search of promise in a new country; stories of individuals and families relocating in search of fortune, their own homestead, or employment; the harrowing journeys of Africans and Native Americans forced to move; and, of course, fun and frolic on the open road.
2011-2012 Exhibit Touring Schedule
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Jan. 28 – March 11 |
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Ellensburg |
