Spark!: Places of Innovation

December 2–January 14 

The story of human history is written in inventions and innovations. People are problem solvers. Sometimes we invent—create a completely new thing or a process based on new ideas. More often, we innovate—that is, we introduce a fresh idea or an invention into use in some way that creates a new way of doing or thinking. All it takes is a spark—an idea—to get started. Those sparks are happening right now in small towns across America. Daring individuals are coming 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. Spark! Places of Innovation seeks to answer the question, “Why?” 

Spark! Places of Innovation has been made possible at the Laramie County Library by Wyoming Humanities.  

Spark! Is a Museum on Main Street exhibition developed by the Smithsonian Institution. It is inspired by Places of Innovation, an exhibition developed by the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation. 

Museum on Main Street is a collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution and State Humanities Councils nationwide that serves the small-town cultural organizations and citizens of rural America.