SPARK! Places of Innovation – October 9 – November 19

Museum on Main Street (MoMS), an outreach of Smithsonian Institution, in cooperation with North Carolina Humanities presents SPARK! Places of Innovation, featured at May Memorial Library October 9 – November 19, 2025.

The story of human history is written in inventions and innovations. People are problem- solvers. Sometimes we invent. More often, we innovate—we introduce a fresh idea or an invention into use in some way that creates a new way of doing or thinking.

Invention can happen anywhere and it’s happening right now in small towns across America. Rural Americans are creating new products, taking risks, meeting challenges together, and seizing upon exciting opportunities that change local life and sometimes reach far beyond.

Spark! Places of Innovation will highlight innovation in rural America from the perspective of the people who lived it! Their words, images, and experiences gathered through an ambitious crowdsourcing initiative will be the heartbeat of the exhibition. Technical, social, cultural, artistic, or a combination of all of these–every innovation is as unique as each community. Explore the diversity, ingenuity, and tenacity of rural Americans in Spark! Places of Innovation.

Spark! Places of Innovation explores the unique combination of places, people, and circumstances that spark innovation and invention in rural communities. Inspired by an exhibition by the National Museum of American History, the exhibition features stories gathered from diverse communities across the nation. Photographs, engaging interactives, objects, videos, and augmented reality bring a multilayered experience to reveal the leaders, challenges, successes, and future of innovation in each town.

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 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.

Join us during regular library hours for this limited, one-of-a-kind exhibit!