Spark! Places of Innovation
Museum on Main Street
About Spark! Places of Innovation
Spark! Places of Innovation (Spark!) is a traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian’s Museum on Main Street (MoMS) program. The exhibit dives into innovation and invention happening in rural America. Spark! features stories from over 30 rural communities across the nation that reveal the dynamic relationship between place and creativity.
Every town is a potential place of innovation. People in small towns are revitalizing old neighborhoods, rejuvenating historic business districts, establishing local industries, creating new festivals and cultural attractions, and so much more. All it takes is a spark—an idea—to get started. Those sparks are happening right now in small towns across America. This innovative spirit is crucial to sustaining the vitality of rural places and feeds the nation’s continuous need for fresh thinking and new solutions. Small towns have big ideas for creating a better today and a more hopeful tomorrow.
Spark! Places of Innovation will be the springboard for diverse local programming in the humanities, sciences, and arts. Visitors will be inspired to learn about innovation that has shaped their own communities and how they may be innovators themselves. This exhibition will be an opportunity for community members to come together in conversation around their community’s history, present, and future with innovation.
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Questions? Contact Rachel Busse-Aswar |
Minnesota Tour 2027-2028
The application to host a Spark! Exhibition for 2027 and 2028 is now open. Applications must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. on May 31, 2026.
We invite Minnesota-based organizations to apply that meet the following requirements:
- Located in towns and communities with a population of 20,000 or under;
- Have 650-700 square feet of exhibit space with at least eight-foot ceilings; and
- Can commit to a six-week exhibition window and a training workshop October 2-3, 2026 in St. Paul.
Organizations will be notified of decisions by July 17, 2026.
Contact Rachel Busse-Aswar, rachel@mnhum.org, with application questions.
About Museum on Main Street
MoMS is a Smithsonian outreach program that engages small town audiences and brings revitalized attention to under-served rural communities. The Smithsonian partners with state humanities councils like MHC to bring traveling exhibitions, educational resources and programming to small towns across America through their own local museums, historical societies, and other cultural venues.
MHC has a long history with MoMS and has hosted more than a dozen exhibits over the last twenty-five years. The exhibitions are designed to engage communities and become a catalyst for conversation about life in small-town America.
Spark! Places of Innovation has been made possible in Minnesota by the Minnesota Humanities Center.
Spark! is a Museum on Main Street exhibition developed by the Smithsonian Institution. It is inspired by Places of Invention, an exhibition developed by the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation.
Museum on Main Street is a collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution and State Humanities Councils nationwide that serves the small-town cultural organizations and citizens of rural America
