Vermont Humanities is partnering with New Hampshire Humanities and the Smithsonian’s Museum on Main Street program to bring a traveling exhibit, Spark! Places of Innovation, to small towns in Vermont and New Hampshire from Spring 2026-Winter 2027. Each state will support three host sites, and each location will host the exhibit for six weeks.
Each host site collaborates with the local community to plan, shape, and implement the exhibit, defining what the project means to them.
Thank you to all of the locations involved in making this exhibit possible. More site specific information to be released in the new year.
Hear more about the experience of hosting the exhibit in Bellows Falls on their community radio station Wool 91.5 Black Sheep Radio. Hosted on the Rise and Shine show from Wednesday, July 8th.
July 30
Spark! Places of Innovation explores the unique combination of places, people, and circumstances that sparks innovation and invention in rural communities. Inspired by an exhibition by the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, the exhibition features stories gathered from diverse communities across the nation.
September 11
Spark! Places of Innovation explores the unique combination of places, people, and circumstances that sparks innovation and invention in rural communities. Inspired by an exhibition by the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, the exhibition features stories gathered from diverse communities across the nation.
Spark! Places of Innovation explores the unique combination of places, people, and circumstances that sparks innovation and invention in rural communities. Inspired by an exhibition by the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, the exhibition features stories gathered from diverse communities across the nation. Photographs, engaging interactives, objects, videos, and digital stories bring a multilayered experience to reveal the leaders, challenges, successes, and future of innovation in each town. Technical, social, cultural, or artistic– every sort of innovation story is as unique as each community and will be represented in Spark! Places of Innovation.
The story of human history is written in inventions and innovations. People are problem solvers. Sometimes we invent. More often, we innovate, introducing a fresh idea or an invention into use in some way that creates a new way of doing or thinking. Rural Americans are creating new products, processes and experiences that change local life and sometimes reach far beyond. Yet, invention and innovation truly flourishes in some places and not others. Why?
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 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.
The exhibit is organized into six sections (including an introduction) that explores creativity and innovations in rural communities: social, art, technology, and heritage.
Spark! Places of Innovation has been made possible in Vermont and New Hampshire by Vermont Humanities and New Hampshire Humanities.
Crossroads is part of Museum on Main Street, a collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution and state humanities councils nationwide. Support for Museum on Main Street has been provided by the United States Congress.
Our seasonal “Words in the Woods” program allows Vermonters and visitors to enjoy our state’s natural beauty while listening to and reading literature in the outdoors.
Humanities Camps are filled with reading and writing projects, field trips, and outdoor activities.
We won a 2020 Schwartz Prize for best public humanities programming in the U.S. for Vermont Reads 2019: “March: Book One.”
We supported the Chandler Center for the Arts’ Global Connections Youth Outreach program, which highlights artists from around the world.
Our free public events help bring the power of the humanities to communities across Vermont.
