We are the third stop in Kansas for the Smithsonian exhibit, Crossroads: Change in Rural America. The Crossroads Kansas tour is sponsored by Humanities Kansas in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum on Main Street program. The Smithsonian’s traveling exhibit will be shown in the Kauffman Museum special exhibit gallery. Admission to the exhibit is free on Saturdays.

Crossroads: Change in Rural America, offers small towns a chance to look at their own paths to highlight the changes that affected their fortunes over the past century. The exhibition will prompt discussions about what happened when America’s rural population became a minority of the country’s population and the ripple effects that occurred. The exhibit covers themes such as: Identity, Land, Community, Persistence and Managing Change with photographs, hands-on activities, and audio and video clips provided by the Smithsonian in the Crossroads exhibition to tell the history and culture of local rural life in Kansas and spark conversations about our state’s future.

Crossroads: Change in Rural America is accompanied by a local companion exhibit, Of Land and People: Our Community at the Crossroads of Change celebrates the land on which our museum and community is placed, honors the people who have lived and worked on it, and invites visitors to reflect on the profound changes that have occurred here.

Crossroads: Change in Rural America is part of Museum on Main Street, a collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution and Humanities Kansas.