The Friends of the Great Falls Discovery Center are proud to announce the upcoming exhibit “Crossroads: Change in Rural America” arrives in February 2023. You won’t want to miss it!
Turners Falls, MA (January 19, 2022) – Through a partnership with the world’s largest museum complex, the Friends of the Great Falls Discovery Center is proud to announce that we will join five other local Massachusetts organizations to host “Crossroads: Changes in Rural America,” a traveling exhibit produced by the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum on Main Street program in partnership with Mass Humanities.
The Friends of the Great Falls Discovery Center will receive extensive training from the staff of the Smithsonian along with a $10,000 grant from Mass Humanities to develop public events during the exhibit, which will be on display for six weeks. Organizations located in towns with populations of 12,000 or less were eligible to apply. Mass Humanities receives major support from Mass Cultural Council (MCC), the state agency for arts and the humanities.
Crossroads will be on display in the Great Hall of the Great Falls Discovery Center from February 5 through March 18, 2023, in collaboration with the Department of Conservation and Recreation, the town of Montague’s RiverCulture, the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, the Shea Theater, Montague Public Libraries, and New England Public Media.
“Situated on four beautiful acres of Massachusetts state park land, the Great Falls Discovery Center is the embodiment of the “crossroads” theme; a restored 19th century mill building and machine shop now educating the public about the natural, cultural, and industrial history of the Connecticut River watershed,” said Friends Board Member Sarah Doyle. “This grant will help bring Franklin County residents together as a rural community and broaden the audience for the Great Falls Discovery Center itself and for all of the many cultural amenities of Turners Falls,” Doyle explained.
“Crossroads” explores how rural American communities changed in the 20th century. The vast majority of the United States landscape remains rural with only 3.5% of the landmass considered urban. Since 1900, the percentage of Americans living in rural areas dropped from 60% to 17%. The exhibition offers small towns a chance to look at their own paths to highlight the changes that affected their fortunes over the past century.
Organizations interested in learning about future grants should follow Mass Humanities on social media @masshumanities and visit their website.