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Community Activities Each Barn Again! host community plans such barn-related events and activities as living history exhibits, art and photography displays, local barn histories and educational programs with surrounding K-12 classes. Those events and activities are detailed on this page. Gering
At Cedar Canyon school, 5th and 6th graders learned that there's a lot more to barns than just old boards and rafters. How much can you learn from an old barn? Quite a lot if you are using the latest tools in technology along with oral history from your local community to conduct research. Lois Herbel, technology teacher at Cedar Canyon school, set out to teach her students more about using technology. Because she believes technology must be integrated into a project in order for students to get a full grasp of its lessons, Herbel organized a multimedia project called "If Barns Could Talk." The project was supported and funded by a grant from the Nebraska Humanities Council. Students have collected oral histories from their community and families, then turned that information into a slide presentation complete with photo, graphic art and oral and written reports. The students donated the slide show to the Farm and Ranch Museum in Gering, where the Barn Again! exhibit was displayed Nov. 15 to Dec. 28, 2001. In their research of barns, students learned much about their local history. Many of the 23 barns studied were built in the early 1900s. One barn, they learned, was used as a place form producing illegal alcohol during Prohibition. One protected cattle and the family from a killer blizzard in 1949, and another was constructed from a Sears and Roebuck kit. In addition to learning about research technology, the students honed their basic information gathering skills. They conducted interviews with owners of the barns, took notes and learned what questions to ask. They learned about architecture and the different skills that barn builders had to possess. They also learned how to speak in front of an audience, as they presented their project to parents at a special presentation. The Nebraska Education Technology Association invited Herbel to bring the finished project to its annual conference in Omaha. Herbel said it was a good opportunity for other teachers around the state to see how a small school can implement technology and preserve part of their local rural history.
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McCook
Jan. 2-Jan. 26, 2002 By Gene Morris
and Merrill Ream
On a January afternoon in 2002, the crowd of visitors to the Barn Again! exhibition in McCook, Nebraska, had dwindled to a precious few. A middle-aged farmer was there with his mother, a gray-haired lady in her 80s. As the son browsed among the barn kiosks, his mother sat alone in an adjacent viewing area, watching a homemade video about barns in the Golden Plains Region of southwest Nebraska and northwest Kansas. As she watched, tears trickled down her cheeks. Although the video presentation was filled with nostalgic images, the lady was not crying for the barns pictured; nor was she crying for the farmers who were telling the barn stories. Instead, her tears were shed for long-ago memories of farm life in the rugged plains of western Nebraska. Alone on that January day—surrounded by the pictures, videos and vivid displays of the Barn Again! exhibition—she was transported back in time to her childhood years. Those were tough times… and era in which life was simpler and demands, although harsh, were easier to understand. Thanks to the Museum on Main Street program, citizens of McCook and the surrounding Golden Plains had an opportunity to celebrate a true American icon, the barn, from Jan. 2 through Jan. 26, 2002. It was an awesome occasion. During the nearly month-long exhibition, 3,907 people visited the High Plains Museum in McCook to view the exhibition. School children came in droves. Extension club women visited by the hundreds. Couples and families from town and country arrived in a steady flow. The crowds were not just from McCook, but also from communities throughout the Golden Plains region of southwest Nebraska and northwest Kansas. The Barn Again! exhibit proved to be the perfect launch pad for community creativity. Upon being selected as a host community, McCook’s Barn Again! Committee became a buzz saw of activity, soaking up all the information it could from Rozanna Sokolowski of the Museum on Main Street program and Peter Beeson and Raymond Screws of the Nebraska Humanities Council. So many things happened in such a short amount of time. Barn Again! Committee members marched in a parade to promote the event… an 85-year-old farmer hosted an “open barn” kickoff in his aged but pristine barn… a videographer collected images of vintage barns in the region… the McCook Daily Gazette, in cooperation with the Barn Again! Committee, conducted a barn photography contest that attracted more than 200 entries… the Buffalo Commons Storytelling Festival staged a Barn Show which drew a crowd of 600 people… and the Museum of the High Plains and the Barn Again! Committee hosted a recognition reception to honor volunteers and photography contest winners. The good that Barn Again! and Museum on Main Street did for the Heartland of America is beyond measure. Some things can be counted, such as the near 4,000 visitors to the museum in January… a total that matched the annual museum visitation in the previous year. Participation in special activities was also impressive, including 200 entries in the barn photography contest and the attendance of 600 for the Barn Show. As happy as local planners are about those numbers, what is most meaningful to the committee is the impact that Barn Again! had on individual citizens in the Golden Plains. Barn Again! and the Museum on Main Street program touched our lives. For that, the people of McCook and the Golden Plains are lastingly grateful to the Smithsonian Institution, the Museum on Main Street program and the Nebraska Humanities Council. The agencies provided the spark that ignited anew this area’s loving respect for an American icon: The barn. In January 2002, the town of McCook and the surrounding countryside were uplifted by a moving and memorable exhibit. The planners’ and designers’ purpose was realized on the Golden Plains. We were truly “Barn Again!”
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Belvidere
Barn Again! visited the Belvidere Community Center at Ninth and C streets for the first three weeks of February.
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Bassett
This exhibition featured the Smithsonian Institution Main Street exhibit plus an exhibit put together by the Washington County Historical Society called "Barns of Ethnic Communities of Nebraska. In addition, the Bassett Arts Council hung pictures and stories of barns from Cherry, Brown, Keya Paha, Holt, Loup and Blaine counties in Nebraska and a few from southern South Dakota.
Linda May had a large jig saw puzzle that visitors were asked to help piece together. In the office space was a TV and VCR playing a tape of the Nebraska public television show "Barn Again!. On March 21, the arts council hosted a grand opening at the Rec Center (old NAPA building). We hope you were able to spare a few minutes to view this special exhibit and sign the guest book.
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Broken
Bow
April 15-May 12, 2002 The BARN AGAIN! exhibit is on display April 15 through May 12 at the Custer County Historical Museum in Broken Bow. Broken Bow planned a number of related activities, including a cowboy poetry reading, music by the Custer County Orchestra, a living history visit with "Grandma Kellenbarger," genealogy workshops and programs for area school children. On display throughout the “Barn Again!” visit are antique quilts, model farm implements, photos and histories of Custer County barns, paintings of area barns, and a collection of saddles, plows, horse collars and other barn-related articles. John Carter, special projects coordinator for the Nebraska State Historical Society, spoke April 23 on “American Bounty: The Story of Food,” an overview of Nebraska’s agricultural history. A partial list of activities: April 15, official grand opening 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Chamber of Commerce ambassadors, city council, county supervisors, Senator Jones and museum board members. Ribbon cutting and open house with refreshments served all day. April 16, visits by Broken Bow 4th grade students and teachers, 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Living history visit with "Grandma Kellenbarger," an acquaintance of pioneer photographer Solomon Butcher. April 18, "An Evening with R.P.," cowboy poet with new poems about barns. Music by Custer County Orchestra. April 29-May 3, school week at the museum, with special programs designed for each school. May 7, "Reaching for Our Roots," a geneaology workshop by Mary Landkamer and Tami Hendricksen. May 9, second session of "Reaching for Our Roots" workshop.
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Nebraska
State Fair
Aug. 24-Sept. 2, 2002 “Barn Again! Celebrating an American Icon” stops at the Nebraska State Fair in Lincoln through Sept. 2. “Barn Again!” was displayed in the Lancaster Building at the east end of State Fair Park.
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Stuhr
Museum, Grand Island
Sept. 6-29, 2002 “Barn Again! Celebrating an American Icon” completes its yearlong tour of Nebraska with a stop at the Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer in Grand Island. The Nebraska tour began in November 2001 in Gering, then traveled for extended stays to McCook, Belvidere, the Nebraska State Capitol, Bassett, Broken Bow, Madison, Tekamah and Springfield. “Barns of Nebraska's Ethnic Communities,” a traveling exhibit produced by the Washington County Historical Association with funding from the Nebraska Humanities Council, accompanied “Barn Again!” throughout the state. At each stop, John Carter of the Nebraska State Historical Society spoke on the history of Nebraska agriculture in a lecture entitled “American Bounty.” The Stuhr Museum in Grand Island planned several events surrounding the exhibit. In conjunction with the Nebraska Book Festival, state poet Bill Kloefkorn conducts barn-related workshops Sept. 14. On Sept. 29, the last day of the “Barn Again!” visit, the Stuhr celebrates “A Day at the Farm,” a slice of 19th century farm life on the site of the 1893 farmstead that is displayed on the Stuhr grounds.
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The BARN AGAIN! exhibit was on
display March 15 through April 11at the
Kaleidoscope Gallery #113, located
next to the Goeke Variety Store on the main street of Bassett.
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Phone 402-474-2131 or e-mail nhc@nebraskahumanities.org |
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