In 2000, the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities partnered with the Smithsonian Institution through its Museum on Main Street (MOMS) program to bring traveling exhibits to rural audiences and small museums that do not have access due to space and cost limitations. Museum on Main Street brings rural Americans one-of-a-kind access to prestigious Smithsonian exhibitions and first-rate educational programs. Most importantly, Museum on Main Street gives rural museums a chance to demonstrate their enormous talents and their meaningful contributions to small town life. Click here to learn more about Museum on Main Street.
Through a Request for Proposals and competitive application process, every three years, the LEH selects 6 rural communities to host a Museum on Main Street exhibit. Besides covering all exhibition costs and providing a total of $36,000 in grants for ancillary exhibits and public programs to the 6 host sites, the LEH provides continuous technical assistance to the sponsoring organizations on exhibition and program development, fundraising and grantwriting, publicity and promotion, collaboration and budget planning, all of which will benefit these organizations long after the Smithsonian exhibit has left town. |
 TOURING LOUISIANA 2011-2012
The Museum on Main Street exhibition Journey Stories will examine the intersection between modes of travel and Americans’ desire to feel free to move. The story is diverse and focused on immigration, migration, innovation and freedom. It is accounts of immigrants coming in search of promise in a new country; stories of individuals and families relocating in search of fortune, their own homestead, or employment; the harrowing journeys of Africans and Native Americans forced to move; and, of course, fun and frolic on the open road. The story of the intersection between transportation and American society is complicated, but it tells usmuch about who we are – people who see our societal mobility as a means for asserting ourindividual freedom. The Museum on Main Street exhibition Journey Stories will use engaging images with audio and artifacts to tell the individual stories that illustrate the critical roles travel and movement have played in building our diverse American society.
- St. Martinville – The Acadian Memorial – May 28-July 9, 2011
- Leesville – Vernon Parish Tourism Commission – July 16-Aug. 27, 2011
- Denham Springs –Old City Hall Museum – Sept. 3-Oct. 15, 2011
- Lake Providence – Louisiana State Cotton Museum – Oct. 22-Dec. 3, 2011
- Long Leaf – Southern Forest Heritage Museum – Dec. 10, 2011-Jan. 28, 2012
- St. Francisville – West Feliciana Historical Society – Feb. 4-March 19, 2012
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