Smithsonian Exhibit “Spark: Places of Innovation” Opens in Aiken

The traveling Smithsonian exhibit Spark! Places of Innovation will open in Aiken at the Aiken Train Museum on Saturday, November 9, 2024. The exhibition explores the unique combination of places, people, and circumstances that sparks innovation and invention in rural communities. The exhibit will be in Aiken through January 4, 2025, and several collateral programs and events will take place while the exhibit is on display. The tour of Spark! Places of Innovation is made possible in South Carolina by SC Humanities.

The Aiken Train Museum was chosen by SC Humanities through a competitive application process to host Spark! as part of the Museum on Main Street program—a national/state/local partnership to bring exhibitions and programs to rural cultural organizations. The exhibition will tour six communities in South Carolina from June 2024 through April 2025; an itinerary of all six stops on the tour and more program details can be found at https://schumanities.org/projects/spark/.

Spark! Places of Innovation highlights innovation in rural America from the perspective of the people who lived it! Their words, images, and experiences gathered through an ambitious crowdsourcing initiative are 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.

The Aiken Train Museum is open Wednesdays – Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. The Aiken Visitors Center and Train Museum is located at 406 Park Ave SE, Aiken, SC 29801.

There will be several collateral events and exhibits while Spark! is in Aiken:

Ongoing
Local Exhibit: “A Tale of Two Horses: Innovation, Aiken, and Southern Railway
The Aiken Train Museum is thrilled to present “A Tale of Two Horses: Innovation, Aiken, and Southern Railway.”
Before Aiken was a horse town, it was an iron horse town! Through primary materials such as promotional posters, booklets, and other historic artifacts, this exhibit explores Southern Railway’s development as the nation’s leading railroad innovator, and the debt it owed to early railroading in Aiken and elsewhere in South Carolina.  

October 26 | 10:00 am – 3:00 pm
Spark! at SEED STEM
Location: Ruth Patrick Science Center
The Aiken Train Museum will be participating in SEED STEM, an annual science education program at the Ruth Patrick Science Center. Students will love participating in “Train Wheel Science,” an experiment that utilizes physics and mathematics to demonstrate how trains navigate curves and stay on the tracks! Spark! materials will be available to enrich their experience.

November 17 | 2:00 pm – 5:30 pm
Southern Railway Presentation
Location: Aiken Train Museum, 406 Park Ave SE, Aiken, SC 29801
Join us as local railroad expert Howard Wayt and Southern Railway Historical Association President Carl Ardrey discuss how the railroad contributed to Aiken’s unique identity. Topics include Aiken’s inclined plane, early innovations on the Charleston to Hamburg line, Southern Railway’s willingness to invest in and create new rail technology, and how the Southern Railway was integral to the development of Aiken’s equine identity.
2:00- 3:30 – Spark! viewing at Aiken Train Museum
3:30-5:30 –  Presentations at Center for African American History, Art, and Culture conference room
Shuttle service will be provided. Light hors d’ouevres will be served.

December 2 | 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Aiken Railroad History Presentation
Location: Aiken Train Museum, 406 Park Ave SE, Aiken, SC 29801
Esteemed local historian and professor Bill Shelburn will present a talk about the early history of railroading in South Carolina, and its impact on the founding of Aiken.
2:00 pm – Spark! viewing at Aiken Train Museum
2:30 pm- presentation at Aiken Train Museum (in Pullman car)

December 7 | 10:00 am – 2:00 pm
Communal Pen – Aiken

Location: Aiken Train Museum, 406 Park Ave SE, Aiken, SC 29801
In the Communal Pen workshop, participants write to celebrate and explore our connections to place and community. No writing experience is necessary. The free workshop is led by poet and community innovator Bobby Harley. Learn more about the workshop and register here: https://communalpen.com/event/spark-workshop-aiken/.

Designed for small-town museums, libraries and cultural organizations, Spark! will be the springboard for diverse local programming in the humanities, sciences, and arts. Visitors will be inspired to learn about 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.

The exhibition is part of Museum on Main Street, a unique collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES), state humanities councils across the nation, and local host institutions. To learn more about Spark! Places of Innovation and other Museum on Main Street exhibitions, visit museumonmainstreet.org.  Support for MoMS has been provided by the U.S. Congress.

The Aiken Visitors Center and Train Museum is a beautiful facility which was rebuilt according to the original plans of the train depot that opened in Aiken 1898. Learn more: https://aikenrailroaddepot.org/.

The mission of SC Humanities is to enrich the cultural and intellectual lives of all South Carolinians. Established in 1973, this 501(c)3 organization is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors comprised of community leaders from throughout the state. It presents and supports literary initiatives, lectures, exhibits, festivals, publications, oral history projects, videos, and other humanities-based experiences that directly or indirectly reach more than 250,000 citizens annually. South Carolina Humanities receives funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities as well as corporate, foundation and individual donors. The National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom.

SITES has been sharing the wealth of Smithsonian collections and research programs with millions of people outside Washington, D.C., for more than 65 years. SITES connects Americans to their shared cultural heritage through a wide range of exhibitions about art, science and history, which are shown wherever people live, work and play. For exhibition description and tour schedules, visit sites.si.edu.