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SUMMER 2024 Spies and Space: Toys of the Cold War Era and More!
Lamont Gallery (May 25-Aug 31, 2024) This traveling exhibit of pop culture artifacts from SuperMonster市City! (of Minnesota) reflects how the drama and intrigue of real-world espionage and fascination with outer space seeped into American popular culture during the Cold War Era, circa the 1960s – 1990s. This exhibition features toys, games, posters, comic books, media, cultural artifacts and more from Minnesota-based collector David Barnhill, whose collection is estimated to include 200,000 items. Curator Stephen Rueff contextualizes the exhibition through informative texts, biographies, and profiles reflecting the social and political tensions of that time. Since 2014, SMC exhibitions has been enjoyed by thousands of people in a variety of cultural institutions across the United States. Rounding out the exhibit and adding to the display will be an assortment of vintage toys, games, posters, media, etc. reflecting on monsters, superheroes and villains from popular American culture.
FALL/WINTER 2024 Spark! Places of Innovation Lamont Gallery (Oct 12, 2024-Jan 11, 2025)
A traveling exhibit by the U.S. Smithsonian Institution, this display is circulated as part of the Smithsonian’s Museum on Main Street program and sponsored and toured within the state of South Dakota by the South Dakota Humanities Council. The exhibit celebrates invention, innovation, new ideas, and problem-solving, particularly in small towns across America in social, artistic, technological, and cultural contexts as it illustrates the concept that “all it takes is a spark–an idea—to get started.” The exhibit features stories of daring individuals who have come together to turn community problems into real solutions. This innovative spirit is crucial to sustaining the vitality of rural places and feeds the nation’s continuous need for fresh thinking and new solutions, but innovation flourishes in some rural places and not others. This exhibit seeks to answer the question, “Why?”