Crossroads: Change in Rural America, an installment of the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, began its journey through small towns across the country in the summer of 2018. With support from the Texas Historical Commission and the combined efforts of 20 local and regional heritage groups, the exhibition arrives in Rockport on Jan. 25.
The Crossroads display features interactive panels corresponding to rural life pillars: land, community, persistence, identity and change. For the cross-country tour, state humanities councils selected host cities whose proposals imbued the Smithsonian’s structure with local history and culture.
After beginning its 2024-25 Texas tenure in the piney woods of San Augustine, Crossroads visited the Central Texas towns of Clifton and Brenham before landing in Rockport for the new year. From there, the exhibit will travel to Buffalo Gap near Abilene, then San Elizario outside El Paso and finish its Texas run in the Hill Country’s Bandera.
Rockport’s interpretation of Crossroads involves casting a wide net across the entire coastal region of South Texas. “We feel like the Smithsonian has a lot of clout, and people are going to want to come just because it’s a Smithsonian production,” said Pam Stranahan with the History Center for Aransas County, one of the regional history groups that formed the exhibit committee. “Once people come here, we will send them out to see these other sites.”
Organizations from across the Coastal Bend will host weekly programs in Rockport, and 19 of the groups will occupy display space surrounding the main exhibit. The satellite displays at off-site locations include Fulton Mansion and ticketed bus excursions to the Blackland Museum in Taft.
According to Jennifer Day with the Rockport Cultural Arts District, the core exhibit opens at 10 a.m. on Jan. 25 with a Vietnamese Cultural Festival that doubles as a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the brand-new Aransas County Community Center.
The fully staffed exhibit will be open seven days a week for six weeks, so the community spirit extends to a call for volunteers — locals and winter Texans alike.
It’s no surprise that Rockport, with its bustling art scene and quaint, coastal, small-town charm, was a destination for an exhibition of this kind. Visit Crossroads daily Jan. 25-Mar. 9 at the Aransas County Community Center.
