Between Fences: Smithsonian Exhibit in Pinckneyville
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ We live between fences. We may hardly notice them, but they are dominant features in our lives and in our history. Thousands of types have been invented, millions of miles have been produced, and countless rivals have seized post, rail, panel, and wire to stake their claims. In 1871, the Department of Agriculture estimated the total value of fences in the United States at $ 1.7 billion.. Our past is defined by the cutting point of barbed steel and the staccato rhythm of the white picket. Built of hedge, concrete, wood and metal, the fence skirts our properties and is central to the American landscape.
Between October 16 and November 23 one of the Smithsonian Institution's most well-traveled exhibits--called "Between Fences" -- comes to the city park exhibition hall in Pinckneyville.
"Between Fences" is a truly remarkable snapshot of America and involves the Pinckneyville chamber, all of our communities and hundreds of local school children.
The United States as we know it could not have been settled and built without fences; they continue to be an integral part of the nation. Fences stand for security: we use them to enclose our houses and neighborhoods. They are decorative structures that are as much part of the landscape as trees and flowers. Industry and agriculture without fences would be difficult to imagine. Private ownership of land would be an abstract concept. But fences are more than functional objects. They are powerful symbols. The way we define ourselves as individuals and as a nation becomes concrete in how we build fences.
Between Fences focuses on every region of the United States. Its subjects include the defining of home, farm, and factory; the settling of the United States; and the making of fences. It examines human relationships on an expanding scale: neighbor versus neighbor; gated communities; and the Mexican and Canadian borders of the U.S. The exhibition tells American stories through diverse fence types. The worm fence, one of the most widely built types in American history, attracted the attention of many eighteenth and nineteenth-century visitors to the United States; its unique design contributed to international understanding of American society.
Young student artists from schools throughout Perry County have been asked to become part of the exhibit.
The Pinckneyville and Du Quoin FFA chapters are working with the 5th and 6th graders of Perry County. Each student has received a fence picket ( 1" x 4" x 4" ) which they have decorated according to the theme that each classroom selects. The pickets are being collected this week by the local FFA chapter. Once collected, the Pinckneyville FFA will create an artful fence inside the exhibition hall for all museum visitors to see. Construction of the exhibit itself will begin Wednesday at the Pinckneyville fairgrounds, in time for the upcoming Mardi Gras.
In addition to showing our students' art skills, visitor will be able to vote for their favorite fence picket by donating money (1 penny = 1 vote). The class that receives the most votes/money will be named the winner. All of the money collected will then be donated to a local charity chosen by the winning classroom. At the end of the Between Fences program, four-foot sections will be returned to local classrooms.
Du Quoin art instructor Jean Ellen Bullock has been working alongside home room teachers to accomplish the project. Art students displayed their finished pickets at the middle school this morning.
Participating teachers include: Mrs. Bandy, mrs. Lantzy, Mrs. Montgomery, Mr. James, Mrs. Pursell, Mrs. Ritter and Mrs. Bullock.
The picket fence plays a legendary role in the United States: it is the very symbol of home. Battles between farmers and ranchers, fought with barbed wire fence, were flash points in the nationwide debate over enclosure and access to land and resources.
The chain link fence has come to surround playgrounds, factories, and houses. The industrialization of the fence -- and with it, land and house -- is essential for understanding contemporary life.
The exhibition will engage children and adults while providing a setting for family communications and interaction between unacquainted visitors. The subject of the exhibition - boundaries, place, and space - will be central to the visitors' physical experience, as they walk between fences and through gateways. Each fence will be selected to represent a theme and tell a story that illustrates its theme in provocative ways. In addition to objects and images relating to the exhibition stories, fence materials will include tools, photographs, and publications including product literature, journals, postcards, and posters.
The Pinckneyville Chamber of Commerce and Foundation for Pinckneyville needs your help! Volunteer docents are needed to help with the upcoming Smithsonian Institution exhibit Between Fences. In the museum world, volunteers that work with visitors are called docents. Volunteering during the exhibit is simple and docents can work as little as they want. The shifts will be broken into two and four hour shifts. The chamber hopes that individuals work at least two shifts through our six week period. "Docents do not need to be an expert on Between Fences or our local exhibits. Docents greet people as they enter the exhibit, give them general information on our exhibit, and then let the people tour the exhibits on their own.
The chamber hopes to have over 2,000 visitors to the museum during the six-week exhibit. This will require many docents to greet visitors, explain how the exhibits are laid out and where they are located, and help answer any questions visitors may have.
Hours of operation will be Thursday and Fridays 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm. Saturdays 10:00 am - 6:00 pm and Sundays 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm. and additional hours by appointment. Between Fences has been made possible in Pinckneyville, IL by the Illinois Humanities Council and is part of the Museum on Main Street Program, collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution and the Federation of State Humanities Councils. Support for Museum on Main Street has been provided by the United States Congress.
All docents will also be invited to the exhibit preview on Wednesday October 16, 2008. To volunteer, contact Tibretta Reiman, General Manager, Foundation for Pinckneyville at 618-571-1171 or pvfuture@gmail.com