Humanities Nebraska (HN) is now accepting community applications for “SPARK! Places of
Innovation,” a Smithsonian Museum on Main Street (MoMS) exhibition that will tour
Nebraska from June 2026 through March 2027. Applications are due February 15, 2025.
Inspired by an exhibition at the National Museum of American History, SPARK! is specially
designed for small museums by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service
(SITES). It uses art, photography, artifacts, and interactives to explore the unique combination of places, people, and circumstances that spark innovation and invention in rural communities across the nation.
SPARK! offers a springboard for diverse local programming in the humanities, sciences, and
arts. Visitors will be inspired to learn how innovation has shaped their own communities
and how they may be innovators themselves. Community members will come together in
conversation about their history, present, and future.
Applications will be accepted from libraries and other community centers as well as from
museums. Nebraska sites will be selected to host the exhibition for about six weeks each
between June 2026 and March 2027, with support and materials from Humanities Nebraska and the Museum on Main Street program. The selected hosts will be asked to help
promote the exhibition, develop a companion local exhibit, and offer educational programming related to the theme.
An application and more information about hosting SPARK! is available on the HN website at
humanitiesnebraska.org or by contacting Mary Yager at mary@humanitiesnebraska.org or
(402) 474-2131. Applications are due February 15, 2025.
This exhibition will be brought to Nebraska with the help of local funding support.
Interested sponsors may contact Erin L. Moran, director of development, via email:
erin@humanitiesnebraska.org.
“SPARK! Places of Innovation” is part of Museum on Main Street, a collaboration of
the Smithsonian Institution and Humanities Nebraska. Museum on Main Street is a
partnership between the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and state
humanities councils nationwide that serves the small-town museums and citizens of
rural America. Support for Museum on Main Street has been provided by the United
States Congress.
Humanities Nebraska is a private nonprofit with a mission to help people explore what
connects us and makes us human. HN is funded in part by the National Endowment
for the Humanities, an appropriation from the Nebraska Legislature, private donations,
and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment, a public-private partnership with state dollars
matching private dollars to benefit the arts and humanities in Nebraska.