The Smithsonian’s Crossroads: Change in Rural America exhibit will spend the next two years traveling to towns across the country.
“We are actually the first location in Utah to have the exhibit,” North Summit Unite Treasurer Lynn Wood said.
Coalville is one of the first stops in the nation too. The exhibit will stop at seven other towns in Utah.
Crossroads is a history exhibit, but it also focuses on rural America’s future after population decline and dwindling resources.
“It talks about five primary themes that all deal with rural development and how change is happening and how you can manage that change,” Wood said.
That’s the national exhibit, but North Summit Unite is adding its own special local components to what the Smithsonian is bringing in collaboration with the Summit County Historical Society. Wood says that portion of the exhibit is called Making History Every Day.
Wood is most proud of a storytelling project they’ve worked on with 16 area students. Each one picked out a place that’s important to them.
“They did research all summer, and then we identified people in the community that could teach them more about that location,” Wood said. “And they went out and interviewed those people.”
The video interviews will be at a kiosk at the Crossroads exhibit. Wood said North Summit Unite has also mapped out the locations to create a driving tour.
Each place will have its own small exhibit created by the young people for those who visit.
“I don't think there's any project we've ever done that more clearly reflects our mission of connecting these young people with some older people in our community to learn about our history,” Wood said. “But also for them to learn from these young people and for them to get new ideas of where to go based on where our past has been.”
Crossroads: Change in Rural America runs Sept. 16 to Oct. 28 at the Ledges Event Center in Coalville.
The exhibit begins with a red carpet ceremony Saturday at 10 a.m. All 16 students will be there for the exhibit’s opening day.
Then Greg Smoak, who directs the American West Center at the University of Utah, will give a free informative talk. It will be the first of many special events and talks accompanying the exhibit.
Click here for event details.
