Greetings from Idaho's beautiful Silver Valley where the host communities for the Idaho Humanities Council's tour of Between Fences have gathered for their installation workshop. We had a great afternoon building the exhibition at the Mullan Morning Club. Here are a few pictures of the group at work.
-- Robbie Davis, Museum on Main Street/SITES, Washington, DC
The Between Fences Smithsonian exhibit is a popular attraction in the town of Medora. It is no wonder, considering the town's western flavor and heritage. The exhibit stimulates visitors to carry the concept of fences farther than just wood and wire. It is this new mindset that many bring with them to Medora's seven museums and it creates a deeper appreciation for other exhibits.
On June 29th, the Chateau de Mores State Historical Site and the Billings County Historical Society hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony for Between Fences with special guests U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan, State Senator Bill Bowman, and State Representative Pam Gulleson. Local elementary students were also present at the event to be recognized for their work which is displayed in the exhibit. Medora area students were given cameras earlier in the year and asked to take pictures of fences in their lives. A PowerPoint presentation and booklets made by the children are available for viewing at the beginning of the exhibit.
U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan stands with students Thomas Christensen and Anya Baranko alongside their teacher Kathy Chernenko to acknowledge their work in the Between Fences exhibit.
Two large maps have been placed on the walls near the guest book, one of the United States of America and the other of the World. All visitors are encouraged to place a stick pin in their hometown. So many visitors from North Dakota have attended the exhibit that a North Dakota state map was added. It is interesting to see how many visitors from across the world have ended up in Medora.
The latter half of the Between Fences exhibit's stay in Medora will be supported by special events on Tuesday. The Between Fences speakers program for Medora featured Dr. Barbara Handy-Marchello on July 15. She is the state scholar for the exhibition and offered a slide presentation on the use of walls, fences, and other boundaries from world history. As an interactive program, the audience participated in a "quiz" and took part in a game that led to discussion about the changing meaning of fences and boundaries. Special productions of Recollections of Murder and Mayhem in Medora will be held on July 22 and 29. The play chronicles the murder trials of the Marquis de Mores, the French aristocratic founder of Medora. The Marquis' efforts to fence and civilize the land led to disputes with local free range cattlemen culminating in a shootout that killed one of the cattlemen. Actors in the productions portray the various viewpoints in the subsequent murder trials. Teddy Blue Abbot will be presenting on July 29 and 30. His performance topics will cover the Texas Trail and the Open Range.
The exhibit is scheduled to stay in Medora on view until August 1. Between Fences is the perfect exhibit to help celebrate Medora's 125th anniversary by bringing more interest and visitors to the town.
-- Marie Zeller, Medora Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, Medora, ND
Local students and visitors have been flocking to the Uinta County Museum in Evanston, Wyoming since it opened Between Fences a few weeks ago. The museum's director, Barbara Allen Bogart, reports on their successful programs:
"Our accompanying exhibits include entries in the quilt challenge and photo contest, and several display panels on "Famous Fences." Members of a local 4-H Club took photos of fences in the county; a middle school teacher had her students produce quilt blocks on the theme of fences. One of the high school art teachers challenged her students to produce art work on "personal fences" -- the result is six brightly colored corrugated metal panels erected like a fence in the front of the building and an "accordion book" display inside the Museum. We also created a "velcro poetry" poetry board (similar to Magnetic Poetry) made with about 200 individual words printed on colored paper, then mounted on foam core, with velcro on the back (painstakingly put on by a volunteer). We have folding table-top panels with fabric covering that people can use to arrange the words.
The local Murdochs ranch supply store loaned us two eight-foot metal gates. We put them up outside the building and mounted large signs on them that can be read from the street -- "Good Fences Make Good Neighbors," "Don't Fence Me In," and "How do you build your fences?"
At our opening reception on Saturday, the local civic choir performed several fence-themed songs and we announced the winners of the quilt and photo contests. Mike McClure from Lander presented the photo awards. We had more than 100 people attend the reception and see the exhibit.
On Monday, more than 100 eighth graders visited us; on Tuesday, it was 60 fourth graders. We have scheduled all the 4th, 7th and 8th grade students in the district to see the exhibit. We have trained 10 volunteer docents to lead the school tours -- all of them are former teachers, which works like a dream. They are happy to be involved and they are accustomed to working with children. Most importantly, they are able to take the suggestions in the docent handbook and translate them into kid terms.
When we have more students than we can accommodate in the building, we have an activity center in an adjacent building where kids can create acrostic poems, use our velcro poetry board, work on a fence matching activity, play with Lincoln Logs, and discuss the images on the classroom poster. These activities are for younger students; the middle school students really enjoy the activity sheets that were provided with the exhibit. We created a board with photos of various scenes that required fences. Students had to match the fence pieces (which are printed on both sides) with the scenes, so that the fence on each side of the piece matches the scene.
Uinta County Museum's fence matching game
The newspaper is giving us great coverage. We placed a couple of ads in the newspaper, free ads on two local access cable stations, and posters plastered all over town. Other forms of publicity that are working especially well are box-toppers at the local Dominos and table tents at local restaurants. We have already had visitors in the Museum who learned of the exhibit through these media. At Dominos, we produced 500 half-sheets announcing the exhibit that they taped to pizza boxes at no charge. Now that the exhibit is launched, we feel like we can relax a little! So far, so good!"
Congratulations to everyone in Evanston for their great efforts! To find out more about their local programs, visit the museum's website at http://www.uintacounty.com/index.asp?nid=28
-- Robbie Davis, Museum on Main Street, SITES, Washington, DC
In beautiful Birmingham, Alabama, coordinators and scholars from the six 2008 and 2009 host states for Between Fences met to learn more about the exhibition and to report on planning for their respective tours. Each state has wonderful plans for Between Fences. Museum on Main Street's great friends at the Alabama Humanities Foundation gave the group a tremendous welcome. The group was greeted with a fantastic reception while visiting the exhibition in West Blocton. Participants were flattered to be welcomed guests at the Birmingham Kiwanis Club's July luncheon. And, the group took time to take in the beautiful views of Birmingham from the top of Red Mountain in the city's Vulcan Park.
Coordinators from Delaware, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, South Dakota enjoy Vulcan Park with friends from the Alabama Humanities Foundation.
