Road Reports

MoMS Welcomes Coordinators and Scholars in Annapolis, Maryland

MoMS welcomed state coordinators and scholars from 18 states to three information-filled days of orientation and planning meetings for New Harmonies and Journey Stories in Annapolis, Maryland. It was a great meeting -- full of good discussions, creative ideas and a splendid presentation of best practices for MoMS tours all over the country. We've added a few images from the meeting to the photo album in the right column. Enjoy!

-- Robbie Davis, Museum on Main Street/SITES, Washington, DC

Creative Programs Make Between Fences a Hit In Evanston, Wyoming

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

Food and Fun at Bowie, Maryland's Belair Mansion

Congratulations go to Bowie, Maryland for rolling out an exciting welcome mat for Key Ingredients: America by Food. The exhibition is at historic Belair Mansion, operated by the City of Bowie Museums, through January 5. In just the first week of festivities, more than 150 people enjoyed events associated with the opening of the exhibition. A symposium on Maryland foodways attracted participants from as far away as Delaware, New Jersey and Massachusetts. Speaker Mary Ann Jung appeared as Julia Child at an event at the Bowie Library. There are local exhibitions at the community's other museums, including "What Do Horses Eat" at the Belair Stables. And, the museum was greeted on its first weekend with the exhibition with three times the normal number of visitors! For more information on the museum's plans for Key Ingredients, visit its website at http://www.cityofbowie.org/museum/

-- Robbie Davis, Museum on Main Street, SITES, Washington, DC

Reinvigorating the Past in Elkton, Maryland

The Historical Society of Cecil County was pleased to sponsor Key Ingredients in northeastern Maryland. Building on the Museum on Main Street product, we curated a display, held lectures, and sponsored a photo contest. When the evening arrived to kick off the activities, 17 downtown Elkton shops, galleries, restaurants, and bars stayed open to celebrate the Smithsonian's arrival. We also partnered with the local Arts Council and the Elkton Alliance, the Maryland Main Street's revitalization authority, for the visit, which was made possible through the Maryland Humanities Council.

It was an unsually comfortable August evening on the Chesapeake Bay when we opened our doors to welcome the public and a great crowd turned out. People filled our headquarters as fantastic original music flowed and shop owners and restaurants greeted some 400 visitors. Before strolling through the business district on the "Taste Loop," I was already so pleased with the pleasant evening, the outstanding exhibit, and the astounding turnout that filled our museum. But as dusk settled on Cecil County, I strolled down Main Street with Jean Wortman from the Maryland Humanities Council and her husband. That's an experience I will long recall for it was wonderful to see the business area filled with strollers enjoying the ambiance of the evening, the entertainment and displays, and the samplings of local food that a dozen restaurants offered. As we passed from shop-to-shop, enjoying conversations at every stop, it was reminiscent of a downtown I recall from forty or more years ago, when Elkton's business district regularly filled with shoppers and strollers on Friday and Saturday evening.

This was a wonderful opportunity for the community and the Society. Hundreds of patrons visited the museum and businesses on opening night and a large portion of the assemblage was new to our downtown and to our organization. After the show, a number of the older businesspeople remarked about how much they too enjoyed the evening for it reminded them of a time long ago when the heart of the historic town was a bustling place on shopping nights. It was wonderful for us to be able to facilitate this occurrence for it demonstrated to key community stakeholders the power of our museum as an anchor in an old town that is working to draw people downtown and it demonstrated the value of working together on large initiatives.

We thank the Smithsonian and the Maryland Humanities Council for making this possible and we look forward to building on this broad-based demonstration project.

-- Michael Dixon, Historian, Historical Society of Cecil County, Elkton, Maryland

Southern Illinois Gets Roots Music in the Mall

Carbondale Community Arts opened its leg of the the Smithsonian Institution's traveling exhibition on roots music New Harmonies in a unique location; a shopping mall. An empty store front in University Mall (1237 E. Main St., Carbondale, IL) became an interactive museum space in a new, high traffic area. New Harmonies will be on display in Carbondale, IL between September 29th and November 10th, 2007.

I'm the state scholar for the New Harmonies tour of Illinois, Chris Vallillo. For the past year, I've been involved in helping communities put together the events they were presenting in association with the exhibition. I've also assisted the local sites with the part of the exhibit they create to tell the story of their region's particular roots music. My position is largely advisory. I can make suggestions, but it's up to the local sites to use or ignore them. They do both!

For this event, Illinois' fifth of six sites, I was joined by musician and historian Bucky Halker onstage for the opening performance. Either myself or Bucky and I have performed for each opening event in the state. This has been a great way to start the exhibition since it lets presenters get their feet wet with a live performance (many have never had any prior to this) that they don't have to produce. It's also proven to be a fine experience for Bucky and I since his specialty is Woody Guthrie, Labor music and the Dust Bowl era while mine is the music of the rural Midwest from the mid 1800's through the mid 1900's. Between the two of us, we can touch on a great deal of the music New Harmonies focuses on.

Chris and Bucky perform at the opening of New Harmonies in Carbondale.

The unique location in Carbondale proved to be inviting and accommodating. The room was well-lit and spacious enough to allow for a modest performance space in association with the exhibit -- a nice touch.  The location in a shopping mall made it a point of interest for passers by, particularly during the sound check! 

The local aspect of the exhibtition highlighted many of the local roots musicians in the region from legendary bluesman Snooky Pryor, to "hot jazz" band leader Frank Trunbauer, to contemporary singer songwriter Shawn Colvin as well as many lesser known performers. Demostrations of acoustic guitar building, a collection of old music machines, and vintage musical instruments all collected from local sources, all helped bring the regions own rich heritage in roots music to life while excellent pictorial displays touched on the music of the Mississippi River, local dancing, live radio music, theatrical music, and the music of community bands.

Other upcoming events include a performance and lecture on Celtic Music, performances of Old Time music, R and B, Jazz, Gospel, Cowboy music, a contra dance and a lecture on the term Roots Music".  Most events are free to the public; there is a modest fee for the contra dance.

New Harmonies on display in Carbondale.

For a complete listing of events, locations and times, go to the following link:  http://www.carbondalearts.org/special%20events%20page/schedule%20of%20events.html 

-- Chris Vallillo

Singing in the Kitchen Program Wows the Crowd in Chisholm, Minnesota

I just wanted to scribble a quick note to say that "Singing in the Kitchen", a youth program led by Minnesota musician and educator Charlie Maguire, was a major success here at Ironworld. We had 120 people in the audience at Ironworld tonight and 11 new young spoon and jaw harp players graced us with their talent.  This provided a great opportunity for Ironworld to reach out to the local community.  As always, Charlie wowed the students in the classroom and managed to draw every student into participating.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to the Minnesota Humanities Center for making the Minnesota tour of Key Ingredients possible. It has been a bit of a bumpy ride for us here at Ironworld as we get on our feet as an independent museum. Right now in particular we need all of the support we can from other professional institutions. Key Ingredients has been just wonderful for us in that respect, in particular all of the “extras” that you all have made possible—the poetry books, the placemats, the activity fold outs.

I’m headed home in a few minutes, but I wanted to make sure to send out this note before I left. Ironworld was filled with music and excitement surrounding Key Ingredients tonight and that would not have been possible with out you.

-- Contributed by Jennifer Rian, Education Coordinator, Ironworld Development Corporation, Chisholm, MN.

Questa, New Mexico Opens Key Ingredients with Food and Flamenco!

The historic, tiny mountain town of Questa, New Mexico is the second host of the state’s tour of Key Ingredients. At the August opening several hundred residents descended on the Artesanos de Questa Cultural Center to celebrate their distinct culinary traditions. Craig Newbill, Executive Director of the New Mexico Humanities Council, spoke briefly about the importance of maintaining history and unique cultural identities.  A troupe of young flamenco dancers, plenty of munchies, and a champagne toast to the volunteers opened the exhibit. Local exhibitions that supplement the Smithsonian’s display include historic photographs and stories of food traditions at weddings and funerals, and a full recreation of an early camper’s meal at the annual fall deer hunt. Key Ingredients remains in Questa until September 21^st and then moves to the Sandoval County Historical Society in Bernalillo on September 28. For more information contact K. Michelle Quisenberry at 505.277.3705.

Contributed by Brian Crockett, MoMS, Albuquerque, NM

Elkton, Maryland Welcomes Key Ingredients

Congratulations to the Historical Society of Cecil County for a fab Key Ingredients: America by Food opening last Friday night in Elkton, Maryland! After a successful six week run at the Washington County Rural Heritage Museum, Key Ingredients is now at its second stop in Maryland. For the Elkton opening, Eric and company did a fantastic job of linking up 17 downtown businesses, galleries, restaurants, bars, even the hospital cafeteria, the "new age" shop, and my favorite, the local (homemade) ice-cream shop!

So with your Key Ingredients cup, you got to see the exhibit at the Historical Society/Cecil County Arts Council gallery and the Historical Society's companion exhibit on farming (incorporating their new touch screen electronic exhibit and kiosk -- made possible by institutional enhancement funds from MHT) and then head off into the streets of Elkton to visit all the other places and sample free food (or beverages) at each stop!  It was great to see hundreds of people of all ages walking around town with the KI gallery guide and a history/food scavenger hunt in hand.

I am including the link to the podcast and blog from the Cecil County Historical Society.  Check it out:

http://www.cchistory.org/media/index_files/podcast.htm

http://cecilhistory.blogspot.com/

Note the background music -- the band at the at the Historical Society is playing an original piece highlighting the food John Smith and crew ate (or didn't eat) as they explored the Bay four hundred years ago.

Contributed by Jean Wortman, Maryland Humanities Council

Celebrating Palauan Heritage on Guam

The Peleliu Club of Guam kicked off its showing of New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music with a rousing program, "Palauan Music: A Life of Song and Dance." Palau is a Micronesian nation in an island chain southwest of Guam. Thousands of people of Palauan heritage make their homes on Guam. New Harmonies provided an excellent opportunity to showcase the richness of the music and dance Palauans brought with them to Guam. The exhibition, sponsored by the Guam Humanities Council, and related programs remain on display through September 16 at the Royal Orchid Hotel in Tumon.

 

Dancers perform for more than 200 program participants. Photo courtesy of the Guam Humanities Council

 

Visitors enjoy an excellent local exhibition on the roles of music and dance in Palauan culture. Photo courtesy of the Guam Humanities Council

The online edition of Guam's Pacific Daily News also features a photo gallery from the event at:

http://www.guampdn.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=M0&Dato=20070811&Kategori=NEWS01&Lopenr=811001&Ref=PH

Festival Celebrates Diverse Music

The Down from the Hills Heritage Music Festival on the courthouse lawn in New Albany, Mississippi, represents the richly diverse music heritage of Union County. Performers include Sacred Harp Singers, Celtic music and Irish dancers, country and bluegrass music, along with champion fiddler Wayne Jerrolds, and national thumb-picking champion Ben Hall. The event is held in conjunction with the Smithsonian exhibit, New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music, hosted at the Union County Heritage Museum.

Bound Street Celtic Band uses authentic Irish instruments in the performance

Jam session of local musicians at the Festival

Ben Hall, National Thumb-picking Champion

-- Contributed by Carol Harsh, MoMS