Smithsonian traveling exhibit comes to Onslow County Museum

The Onslow County Museum is excited to be one of six museums selected to host a Smithsonian traveling exhibit highlighting rural America from Saturday, May 6 through June 9.

Story by Ena Sellers

The exhibition, Crossroads: Change in Rural America, examines the evolving landscape of rural America.

“We are so excited to have been selected to be a host venue for this traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian. We will be having our grand opening reception on Saturday, May

6,” said Lisa Whitman-Grice, Onslow County Museum Director.

This traveling exhibit o ers an opportunity for small and rural communities “to look at their own paths to highlight the changes that a ected their fortunes over the past century. The exhibit explores how rural America embraces the notion that their citizens and their cultural uniqueness are important assets” and invites participants to re ect on the stories of rural America’s successes as there is much that can be learned from examining the past.

“This exhibit is perfect for our area as it speaks to the changes that are occurring in rural America and how communities are responding to that change,” said Whitman-Grice. “The Museum will be working with our visitors as they go through the exhibit to speak to their experiences and observations about these changes and invite them to share their stories with us.”

According to Melanie Moore Richeson with North Carolina Humanities, one of the museum’s planned projects for the traveling exhibit that they produce post-Crossroads is to create a “then” and “now” of these intersections and other crossroads in the county.

Whitman-Grice added that the local version of Crossroads that they will create addresses the same themes found in the Smithsonian exhibit, explaining that it will address “identity, land, community, persistence, managing change, and what that means to our region.”

“With so many North Carolinians living and working throughout rural North Carolina, we are excited to tour this exhibit within our state,” said Sherry Paula Watkins, Executive Director of North Carolina Humanities. “Rural looks di erent depending on where you are in North Carolina, from the western mountains to the eastern coastline.”

In 2022, Crossroads: Change in Rural America toured through Arizona, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, and North Carolina, making its last stop at the Onslow County Museum in Richlands.