The Prairie Landscape

ILLINOIS HUMANITIES COUNCIL TO BRING SMITHSONIAN EXHIBITION TO ILLINOIS

12/06/2005

ILLINOIS HUMANITIES COUNCIL TO BRING SMITHSONIAN EXHIBITION TO ILLINOIS

Apply to the IHC to Bring "New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music" Exhibition to Your Illinois Community in 2007

CHICAGO –The Illinois Humanities Council invites smaller museums, libraries, and historical societies in towns of fewer than 25,000 residents to apply to host a Smithsonian Institution traveling exhibition called "New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music." The Smithsonian developed this portable 6-kiosk display especially for rural audiences and small museums with limited access to traveling exhibitions due to space and cost limitations.

The exhibit will tour six Illinois communities in 2007. Sites will be chosen based on geographic location, strength of proposed ideas for auxiliary programming, and physical display space. Applications are due by January 31, 2006. Selections will be announced by the end of February. To request an application, visit our website at www.prairie.org/moms, or call Ryan Lewis at 312.422.5585, ext. 231.

"New Harmonies" is a cultural history of America's musical landscape. It is the story of a diverse assortment of people interacting with a New World, a world where cultures and customs met, mixed, and mingled and created new sounds. The distinct cultural identities of all of these peoples are carried in song -- both sacred and secular -- and the music that emerges is known by names like blues, country, western, folk, jazz, and gospel. This exhibition tracks the unique history of many peoples reshaping each other into one incredibly diverse and complex people -- Americans. It also promises a fascinating, inspiring, and toe-tapping listen to the American story of cultural exchange with its multi-media components. As a unique traveling exhibition, it is full of surprises about familiar songs, histories of instruments, the roles of religion and technology in shaping new sounds, and the continuity of musical roots from the colonial period to modern day punk and hip-hop.

"New Harmonies" is part of the Smithsonian’s Museum on Main Street (MOMs) program. MOMs serves small-to medium-sized communities 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.

The IHC will provide the following for each host community:

  • Rental of the Smithsonian exhibit for $2,500 for a six-week period
  • An exhibit support manual covering installation, object collection and conservation, public relations, and evaluation
  • Exhibition brochures and posters for distribution
  • Assistance in program planning and ready-made promotional materials
  • Travel expenses for a project director to attend an installation and planning meeting at the opening site of the Illinois tour
  • $2,000 in grant funds in support of community programs in the humanities
  • A humanities scholar who will visit your town to consult on the exhibition and present an opening night lecture
  • A committee of experts that will provide technical assistance in all aspects of the exhibition

In return, host communities will be asked to:

  • Identify a staff member or volunteer who will serve as director of the project for its duration and who will attend the installation and planning meeting and site visit
  • Plan and implement public programs during the exhibition
  • Raise matching local funds for public programs
  • Track all staff and volunteer time, facilities, and other resources donated to the project and provide a report of this local cost share at the project’s conclusion
  • Pay and arrange for shipping

The Illinois Humanities Council is a nonprofit educational organization [501 (c) 3] dedicated to fostering a culture in which the humanities are a vital part of the lives of individuals and communities. Organized in 1973 as the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the IHC creates programs and funds organizations that promote greater understanding of, appreciation for, and involvement in the humanities. The IHC is supported by state, federal, and private funds.

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