If you haven’t been to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, you can take advantage of its coming near you. They will bring a traveling exhibit to Sylacauga for a month of viewing, from June 20 to July 19.
"SPARK! Places of Innovation" will be at the Isabel Anderson Comer Museum in Sylacauga. It is located at 711 N. Broadway, the main north-to-south highway through “the Marble City.”
There is no admission charge for the museum or exhibit. No ticket or RSVP is needed. Groups of 10 or more should contact the museum at 256-245-4016 for free arrangements.
The philosophy of SPARK is explained by the Smithsonian:
The story of human history is written in inventions and innovations. People are problem-solvers. Sometimes we invent. More often, we innovate—we introduce a fresh idea or an invention into use in some way that creates a new way of doing or thinking.
Invention can happen anywhere, and it’s happening right now in small towns across America. Rural and small-town Americans are creating new products, taking risks, meeting challenges together, and seizing upon exciting opportunities that change local life and sometimes reach far beyond.
When the exhibit opens in Sylacauga, it will demonstrate how the local Sylacauga area and its people have sparked invention and innovation in a number of roles in life:
Spark! Places of Innovation will highlight innovation in Sylacauga from the perspective of the people who lived it! Their words, images, and experiences gathered through an ambitious crowdsourcing initiative will be the heartbeat of the exhibition. Technical, social, cultural, artistic, or a combination of all of these. Every innovation is as unique as the Sylacauga community. Explore the ingenuity, and tenacity of Sylacaugans in Spark! Places of Innovation.
Spark! Places of Innovation explores the unique combination of places, people, and circumstances that spark innovation and invention in rural communities and small towns. Inspired by an exhibition by the National Museum of American History, the traveling exhibition features stories gathered from diverse communities across the nation. Photographs, engaging interactives, objects, videos, and augmented reality bring a multilayered experience to reveal the leaders, challenges, successes, and future of innovation in each town.
Spark! Places of Innovation will be the springboard for local programming in the humanities, sciences, and arts. Visitors will be inspired to learn how innovation has shaped their own community and how they may be innovators themselves. Sylacauga community members will come together in conversation about their history, present, and future.
When you walk into the Comer Museum in Sylacauga, you will see the SPARK exhibit:
Six stand-alone sections of panels over a wielded aluminum structure with exhibition elements that include: audio, three video monitors including a touchscreen of youth-produced stories, one flipbook, three object cases, multiple mechanical interactives, visitor comment cards about innovation in their own towns, a "Citizen Innovation" game designed to inspire visitor conversation, and digital stories launched with image recognition to display additional videos, images, and text via personal mobile or provided handheld devices. Spanish translation of all content will be provided digitally and in print.
The Smithsonian is the world's largest museum, education and research complex.
Living is like tearing through a museum. Not until later do you really start absorbing what you saw, thinking about it, looking it up in a book, and remembering - because you can't take it in all at once.
Jim ‘Zig’ Zeigler’s beat is the colorful and positive about Alabama -- her people, places, events, groups and prominent deaths. He is a former Alabama Public Service Commissioner and State Auditor. You can reach him for comments at [email protected].
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