About Museum on Main Street

Museum on Main Street (MoMS) is a Smithsonian outreach program that engages small town audiences and brings revitalized attention to underserved rural communities.  We partner with state humanities councils to bring traveling exhibitions, educational resources and programming to small towns across America through their own local museums, historical societies and other cultural venues.

Our exhibitions are designed to engage communities and become a catalyst for conversation about life in small-town America.  We want to start dialogue, build excitement, facilitate connections, and open doors to your community's history, culture, people, and sense of local pride.

Since 1994, we have visited more than 1,900 communities with a median population of 8,000. In addition, we curate and publish an online collection of community-sourced stories through our Stories from Main Street initiative.

We invite you to get involved with MoMS by visiting an exhibition near you or by submitting your story in our portal.

MoMS is part of Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and Smithsonian Affiliations (SITES | Affiliations), a unit that makes connections to create mutually beneficial reciprocal relationships among and between the Smithsonian and museums and other organizations across the country and beyond. SITES, Affiliations and MoMS expand the reach and impact of the Smithsonian and our network of collaborators, widely sharing knowledge, resources, and expertise. To learn more about the impact of our programs, please take a look at our 2021 Annual Report.