BELLOWS FALLS, Vt. – Vermont Humanities is partnering with New Hampshire Humanities and the Smithsonian’s Museum on Main Street program to bring a traveling exhibit, “Spark! Places of Innovation,” to small towns in Vermont and New Hampshire from spring 2026 to winter 2027. Each state will support three host sites, and each location will host the exhibit for six weeks.
The exhibit will be on display at the Rockingham Free Public Library, 65 Westminster Street in Bellows Falls, Vt., from June to July.
“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 Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, the exhibition features stories gathered from diverse communities across the nation. Photographs, engaging interactives, objects, videos, and digital stories bring a multilayered experience to reveal the leaders, challenges, successes, and future of innovation in each town. Technical, social, cultural, or artistic – every sort of innovation story is as unique as each community and will be represented in “Spark! Places of Innovation.”
The story of human history is written in inventions and innovations. People are problem solvers. Sometimes we invent. More often, we innovate, introducing a fresh idea or an invention into use in some way that creates a new way of doing or thinking. Rural Americans are creating new products, processes, and experiences that change local life and sometimes reach far beyond. Yet, invention and innovation truly flourish in some places and not others. Why?
“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. This exhibition will be an opportunity for community members to come together in conversation around their community’s history, present, and future with innovation.
More information about the exhibit and host location events can be found online at www.vermonthumanities.org/programs/attend/museum-on-main-street/spark. For more information, please contact Community Programs Officer Jacob Pelletier at jpelletier@vermonthumanities.org or 802-262-1353.