Crossroads: Change in Rural America
Crossroads: Change in Rural America
October 16, 2021 to November 21, 2021
24 Reid Street, Chatham VA 24531
Monday – Saturday | 11am - 2pm • Sunday | 2 - 4pm
The Danville Museum of Fine Arts and History (DMFAH), in partnership with the Smithsonian, the Virginia Association of Museums (VAM), and their Crossroads Community Partners: Chatham First, Old Dominion Agricultural Complex, Pittsylvania County Historical Society, and the Reid Street Gallery in Chatham Virginia, have teamed up to bring you Crossroads: Change in Rural America.
Crossroads is part of Museum on Main Street, a collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution and state humanities councils nationwide.
About Crossroads: Change in Rural America
In 1900, about 40% of Americans lived in rural areas, by 2010 less than 18% of the U.S. population lived in rural areas. In just over a century, massive economic and social changes led to massive growth of America's urban areas. Yet, less than 10% of the U.S. landmass is considered urban.
Many Americans assume that rural communities are endangered and hanging on by a thread—suffering from outmigration, ailing schools, and overused land. But that perception is far from true in many areas. Many rural Americans work hard to sustain their communities. Why should revitalizing the rural places left behind matter to those who remain, those who left, and those who will come in the future? All Americans benefit from rural America's successes. We can learn great things from listening to those stories. There is much more to the story of rural America!
Crossroads: Change in Rural America offers small towns a chance to look at their own paths to highlight the changes that affected their fortunes over the past century. The exhibition will prompt discussions about what happened when America’s rural population became a minority of the country’s population and the ripple effects that occurred.
