The traveling Smithsonian exhibit Spark! Places of Innovation will open in Belton at the Belton Area Museum Association on Sunday, March 2, 2025. The exhibition explores the unique combination of places, people, and circumstances that sparks innovation and invention in rural communities. The exhibit will be in Belton through April 12, 2025, and it is the last stop for the exhibit in South Carolina. Several collateral programs and events will take place while the exhibit is on display in Belton. The tour of Spark! Places of Innovation is made possible in South Carolina by SC Humanities.
The Belton Area Museum Association 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 have toured 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 Belton Area Museum Association is open Wednesday – Friday from 9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.; and Saturday from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. The Belton Area Museum Association is located at 100 N Main St, Belton, SC 29627.
There will be several collateral events and activities while Spark! is in Belton:
Sunday March 2 – April 12, 2025
Local Exhibit
See the range of inventions and innovation from Belton locals! This local exhibit has everything from patents held by Beltonians, with samples of their creations; a great display of items from a local man that started his own business creating racing bibs for events like the LA Marathon; to local musicians that created their own songs and singing styles; to amazing artwork created from “junk” around the house; to a young man that started his own business creating custom Lego builds for people.
Sunday, March 2 | 3:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Exhibit Grand Opening in Belton
Explore the exhibit
Watch the oral history project created by Belton Middle School 8th graders about the integration Anderson School District #2
Learn about the invention process from local citizens that hold US patents
Location: Belton Area Museum Association, 100 N Main St, Belton, SC 29627
Free and open to the public
Info: 864-338-7400
Saturday, March 15 | 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Communal Pen – Belton
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-belton/
Location: Belton Area Museum Association, 100 N Main St, Belton, SC 29627
Free and open to the public
Info: 864-338-7400
Friday, March 21 | 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Youth Art Wars
Children grades 1-12 will have an hour to create a unique artwork using a mishmash of mystery supplies that will be provided
Location: Belton Center for the Arts, 306 City Square, Belton, SC 29627
Registration Required
Info: 864-338-7400
Friday, March 28 | 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Invention Convention
Students from Anderson Institute of Technology and Anderson Career & Technology Center (the two career centers supporting all 5 school districts in Anderson County) will be presenting their inventions to a group of judges from local industries. The winning entries will earn cash prizes and money for their school program.
Location: Belton Area Museum Association, 100 N Main St, Belton, SC 29627
Free and open to the public
Info: 864-338-7400
Saturday, April 5 | 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Farm To Table
Attendees will tour a variety of area farms to learn about innovations in agriculture. They will also sample foods made from produce at each farm.
Location: the event will start at the Belton Area Museum Association, 100 N Main St, Belton, SC 29627
This event will be ticketed. Price TBD.
Info: 864-338-7400
Saturday, April 12 | 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
SC State Chili Cook-Off
Last day to see the exhibit!
Location: Belton Area Museum Association, 100 N Main St, Belton, SC 29627
Free and open to the public
Info: 864-338-7400
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 Belton Area Museum Association’s purpose is to collect, exhibit, preserve, and interpret the artifacts, sites, antiquities, and genealogical, archival, cultural, and natural history of Belton, SC, Anderson, SC, and the State of South Carolina. BAMA also provides cultural enrichment, intellectual stimulation, learning opportunities, and activities to increase the appreciation of the traditional, visual, and performing arts. https://beltonalliance.com/belton-museum/
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.
