Smithsonian exhibit on rural communities coming to North Vernon

The Smithsonian Institute is coming to North Vernon. The Smithsonian’s “Crossroads: Change in Rural America” exhibit will be on display for six-weeks at the Jennings County Historical Society, located at 50 Short Street, beginning Thursday, Dec. 12.

The display offers small towns a chance to look at their own paths to highlight the changes that affected them over the past century. The exhibition is meant to prompt discussions about what happened when America’s rural population became a minority of the country’s population and the effects on society that followed. Chris Asher, an organizer, explains that this display will be focused on the changes to rural communities in and around Jennings County over the past 100 years. She stresses that each community is different, noting that what happened to rural communities in other parts of the country can be very different from what happened locally.

Asher says that a ribbon-cutting for the display will be held at 4 p.m. Thursday at the Stellar Building, at 22 N. Madison Street. At 6 p.m., a concert by the Woodshop Boys will take place at the Park Theatre Civic Centre. At 7 p.m., a showing of the 1956 Hollywood movie “Friendly Persuasion,” will begin. Parts of that movie were filmed in Jennings County.

The Smithsonian exhibit will be on display through Jan. 26.