Smithsonian Exhibition Celebrating Sports in American Communities coming to the Pioneer Florida Museum

Baseball. Soccer. Hockey. Bowling. Kickball. Surfing. People around the country are drawn to compete in these sports and many others. Still more gather on the sidelines to cheer for their favorite athletes and teams. Nowhere do Americans more intimately connect to sports than in their hometowns. The Pioneer Florida Museum & Village in cooperation with Florida Humanities Council, will celebrate this connection as it hosts “Hometown Teams: How Sports Shape America,” a traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian’s Museum on Main Street program. “Hometown Teams” will be on view March 17 through April 28, 2018.

The Pioneer Florida Museum & Village and the surrounding community has been expressly chosen by the Florida Humanities Council to host “Hometown Teams” as part of the Museum on Main Street program—a national/state/local partnership to bring exhibitions and programs to rural cultural organizations. The exhibition will tour six communities in Florida from Dade City through Port St. Joe. A short video about the exhibition can be viewed at https://youtu.be/Nv6cxWLl-OU.

“Hometown Teams” will capture the stories that unfold on the neighborhood fields and courts, and the underdog heroics, larger-than-life legends, fierce rivalries and gut-wrenching defeats. For more than 100 years, sports have reflected the trials and triumphs of the American experience and helped shape the national character. Whether it is professional sports or those played on the collegiate or scholastic level, amateur sports or sports played by kids on the local playground, sports are everywhere in America.

2007 walk-off home run celebration at home plate

“We are very pleased to be able to bring ‘Hometown Teams’ to our area. This will be our 2^ndSmithsonian Exhibition at the Pioneer Florida Museum,” said Stephanie Bracknell Black, Executive Director. “It allows us the opportunity to explore this fascinating aspect of our own region’s sports history and we hope that it will inspire many to become even more involved in the cultural life of our community.”

“Allowing all of our state’s residents to have access to the cultural resources of our nation’s premiere museum is a priority of the Florida Humanities Council said Steve Seibert, Executive Director. “With this special tour, we are pleased to be working with Pioneer Florida Museum & Village and Pasco County to help develop local exhibitions and public programs to compliment the Smithsonian exhibition.” Such free events include Community Conversations “Hometown Teams” Themed Family Book Night Series that starts February 13 and runs four consecutive Tuesdays prior to the exhibition arriving. Food and books provided.” More programs and speakers will be announced and listed on the museum website and Facebook, www.PioneerFloridaMuseum.org.

Museum on Main Street invites the public to share their local sports stories through the “Stories from Main Street” website at www.storiesfrommainstreet.org or through the free mobile app available from the Mac App Store or the Google Play Store. Both platforms record and map the location reflected in the submission and will accept written and audio stories as well as videos and photos. Selected submitted stories to “Stories from Main Street” will be featured on the website and app. The archived stories will serve as a searchable record of the unique experiences of life in American small towns. Each story can be searched via location or by topic.

“Hometown Teams: How Sports Shape America” is part of Museum on Main Street, a unique collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES), state humanities councils across the nation, and local host institutions. To learn more about “Hometown Teams” and other Museum on Main Street exhibitions, visit www.museumonmainstreet.org.

Support for Museum on Main Street has been provided by the United States Congress. Florida Humanities Council, and Suncoast Credit Union.

SITES has been sharing the wealth of Smithsonian collections and research programs with millions of people outside Washington, D.C., for more than 60 years. SITES connects Americans to their shared cultural heritage through a wide range of exhibitions about art, science, and history, which are shown wherever people live, work and play.  For exhibition description and tour schedules, visit www.sites.si.edu.

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Pioneer Florida Museum Contact: Stephanie Bracknell Black, Executive Director, (352)206-7093, [email protected]

Florida Humanities Council Contact: Alex Buell, Program Coordinator (727) 873-2001 [email protected]

Smithsonian Contact: Jennifer Schommer (202) 633-3121; [email protected]

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The Pioneer Florida Museum is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving Florida’s pioneer heritage.  The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday 10 am to 5 pm.  General admission is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors, $5 for students and children under 5 are free.  The museum is located one-mile north of downtown Dade City, off of US 301 at 15602 Pioneer Museum Road. For more information, call the Museum at (352) 567-0262 or visit our website PioneerFloridaMuseum.org or our Facebook page www.facebook.com/PioneerFloridaMuseum