Between Fences Exhibition

We live between fences. We may hardly notice them, but they are dominant features in our lives and in our history. Built of hedge, concrete, wood and metal, the fence skirts our properties and is central to the American landscape. We use them to enclose our houses and neighborhoods. They are decorative structures that are as much part of the landscape as trees and flowers. Industry and agriculture without fences would be difficult to imagine. Private ownership of land would be an abstract concept. But fences are more than functional objects. They are powerful symbols. The way we define ourselves as individuals and as a nation becomes concrete in how we build fences. Through an examination of boundaries, place, and space, the Between Fences exhibit will explore how neighbors and nations divide, protect, offend, and defend through the boundaries they build.

This exhibit is scheduled to display fromNovember 29, 2008 - January 11, 2009.

"Between Fences" is part of the Illinois Humanities Council's partnership with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street (MoMS) program. MoMS serves small-to medium-sized communities with populations of less than 30,000 by bringing Smithsonian-quality exhibitions to local museums, historical societies, libraries, and community centers that traditionally have limited access to traveling exhibitions due to space and cost limitations.

For more information about the MoMS program visit the Council's website at www.prairie.org/MoMS or the official Smithsonian MoMS site.

For more information, please contact Ryan Lewis at 312.422.5580.

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