The traveling Smithsonian exhibit Spark! Places of Innovation will open in Bennettsville at the Marlboro County Museum’s Murchison School Building on Saturday, September 21, 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 Bennettsville through November 2, 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 Marlboro County 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 Marlboro County Museum’s Murchison School Building is open on weekday afternoons from 2:00 – 5:00 p.m. and on weekends. Weekday mornings are by appointment. The Murchison School Building is located at 216 Fayetteville Avenue, Bennettsville, SC 29512.
There will be several collateral events and exhibits while Spark! is in Bennettsville:
Ongoing
Local Exhibit: Jubilee: The Rise and Fall of the Marlboro Area Arts Council
The museum will present a local exhibit titled “Jubilee: The Rise and Fall of the Marlboro Area Arts Council.” The Marlboro Area Arts Council was an innovative idea in its day. In 1970, the South Carolina Arts Commission rolled out a plan to establish arts organizations in small, rural towns far from cultural centers like Charleston and Columbia. The idea was to see if the infusion of the arts in these communities would have a positive impact on economic development. Bennettsville/Marlboro County was one of the three pilot communities chosen for the project, and the Marlboro Area Arts Council (MAAC) was born. It enjoyed success for many years, with the annual Jubilee Arts Festival serving as its flagship program. But as the community struggled, so did MAAC and Jubilee. Industries closed, and with them went the forward-thinking leaders who championed the arts. Volunteers dwindled, vendors chose more lucrative venues, and Jubilee grew smaller and smaller, until one day, it was gone. The exhibit will look back at the glory days of MAAC and Jubilee, allowing visitors to experience it again through photos, music, relics, and first-hand accounts. It will also examine how and why it succeeded, and how and why it failed, in hopes that our community can recapture some of the energy we once had.
Ongoing
Poster Exhibit – “Choosing to Participate”
“Choosing to Participate” is a Smithsonian poster exhibit for middle and high school students that is “designed to encourage dialogue, engagement, respect, and participation in classrooms and communities.” It will be available as a traveling exhibit to participating schools and will be on display near the “Spark!” exhibition.
Saturday, September 21
Grand Opening of Spark! | 10:00 a.m.
SC Rep. Patricia Henegan will speak, and a Community Vision Board will be unveiled.
Location: Murchison School, 216 Fayetteville Ave, Bennettsville, SC 29512
Saturday, October 19
Art Walk | 2:00 – 5:00 p.m.
The Art Walk will include the dedication of a community mural as well as an exhibition of local art inspired by “Spark!” Two “Little Free Art Shops” (like Little Free Libraries) will also be created during the event.
Location: the backyard of the Marlboro County Museum, (123 South Marlboro Street, Bennettsville)
Monday, October 21
Speaker Laura Casselman | 7:00 p.m.
Laura Casselman is a native of the Marlboro County town of Clio, became a Radio City Rockette, and is now the CEO of a tech firm, JVZoo, and a best selling author.
Location: Murchison School, 216 Fayetteville Ave, Bennettsville, SC 29512
Saturday, October 26 |10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Communal Pen Workshop
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-bennettsville-marlboro-county/.
Location: Murchison School, 216 Fayetteville Ave, Bennettsville, SC 29512
Free; but registration is strongly encouraged.
Friday, November 1 | 5:30 p.m.
Closing Reception and Innovation Awards
The Innovation Awards will recognize people/projects in Bennettsville that have already used innovation to make positive changes.
Location: Murchison School, 216 Fayetteville Ave, Bennettsville, SC 29512
There will also be an essay/video contest for middle and high school students asking them to identify a problem in their community that either has been, or could be, addressed with an innovative idea, as well as field trip opportunities for students around the county.
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 Marlboro County Museum is the community’s connection to history, art, and culture. Learn more: https://marlboromuseum.com/.
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.
