|
|
Items such as this dance card from the Hollyhock Ballroom in Hatfield could be featured in an upcoming exhibit about dance halls that the Pipestone County Historical Society is working on with other area
historical societies. It will be the first traveling exhibit that the six southwest Minnesota historical societies have collaborated on.
Photo by Kyle Kuphal
Six area historical societies, including the Pipestone County Historical Society, are collaborating on an exhibit about dance halls in southwest Minnesota.
The Pipestone County Historical Society, Jackson County Historical Society, Cottonwood County Historical Society, Murray County Historical Society, Nobles County Historical Society and Rock County Historical Society received a $35,000 Legacy grant from the Minnesota Historical Society for the first phase of the project. That includes hiring a research consultant to develop an interpretive plan about the history of dance halls in the six counties involved by gathering and documenting research, establishing an interpretive framework and finalizing the interpretive planning.
Pipestone County Museum Executive Director Susan Hoskins said the county historical societies involved are referred to as the southwest six and they meet together every other month to bounce ideas off each other and work on best practices. She said this is the first time they’ve collaborated on a group project.
“The idea is to create a traveling exhibit that we could all participate in, and then we would take turns hosting it,” Hoskins said.
The first phase of the project, for which the historical societies hired Bluestem Heritage Group, of St. Paul, will result in a design for the exhibit and is expected to be completed by spring. Phase two will involve creating the exhibit. Hoskins said the entire project could take a few years to complete.
Once it’s completed, she said, there will be informational panels with text and photos that will travel from one museum to another. In addition to that, there will be information and artifacts specific to each county to personalize the exhibit.
“So it’ll be unique in every location,” Hoskins said.
She said the historical societies involved were inspired in part by another museum alliance in the area that had collaborated on a traveling exhibit. They looked at a variety of broad topics that relate to all the counties and that each historical society would have information about and artifacts from. They also wanted the topic to be upbeat and fun.
The Pipestone County Museum has previously had exhibits that it created about the Hollyhock Ballroom in 2015 and local rock and roll bands in 2011, and Hoskins said some of the items and information that were featured in those exhibits will be included in the upcoming dance hall exhibit. Hoskins said she’s hopeful that the exhibit will be the first of many collaborative exhibits for the six area historical societies.
“It just kind of broadens the base a little bit,” she said. “We’re still working out all the logistics, but, of course, this is just the first step.”