Does our society over-emphasize sports? Do team games teach kids the right lessons?
A traveling exhibit from the Smithsonian will explore these issues at the Morris Museum in Morris Township, starting on Oct. 4, 2014.
Hometown Teams: How Sports Shape America is part of the Smithsonian’s Museum on Main Street program, which invites online participation by the public. The show runs through Nov. 16; details are below. Take special note of these upcoming talks:
Your Kid and Sports: What Every Parent Should Know
Thursday, October 9, 7:00-8:00 pm
Free with Museum admission
Presidential Golf
Saturday, October 11, 2:00 pm
Free with Museum admission
The Forgotten History of African American Baseball
Saturday, October 18, 11:00 am
Free with Museum admission
FROM THE MORRIS MUSEUM:
Hometown Teams: How Sports Shape America
Oct. 4 – Nov. 16, 2014
(Morristown, NJ)— 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 Morris Museum, in cooperation with the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, 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 in Morristown from October 4 through November 16, 2014.
The Morris Museum and the surrounding community has been expressly chosen by the New Jersey Council for the Humanities to host Hometown Teams as part of the Museum on Main Street program—a national/state/local partnership to bring exhibitions and programs to cultural organizations.
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.
“We are very pleased to be able to bring ‘Hometown Teams’ to our area,” said Linda Moore, Executive Director, Morris Museum. “It allows us to celebrate the incredible dedication and teamwork of athletes at all levels of competition.”
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 other Museum on Main Street exhibitions, visit www.museumonmainstreet.org.
Support for Museum on Main Street has been provided by the United States Congress. 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.
Public Programs
In association with Hometown Teams, the Morris Museum will present the following public programs. Further information on these programs can be found on the Museum’s website at www.morrismuseum.org.
Your Kid and Sports: What Every Parent Should Know
Thursday, Oct. 9, 7:00-8:00 pm
Free with Museum admission
Presidential Golf
Saturday, Oct. 11, 2:00 pm
Free with Museum admission
The Forgotten History of African American Baseball
Saturday, Oct. 18, 11:00 am
Free with Museum admission
About the Morris Museum
Founded in 1913, the Morris Museum is an award-winning, community-based arts and cultural institution which serves the public through high caliber exhibitions in the arts, sciences and humanities. The Museum also offers educational programs, family events, and is home to the Bickford Theatre and its wide range of performing arts offerings. Continuously serving the public since 1913, the Morris Museum has been designated a Major Arts Institution and has received the New Jersey State Council on the Arts’ Citation of Excellence, among other awards. The first museum in New Jersey to be accredited, the Morris Museum was re-accredited in 2013 by the American Alliance of Museums.
The Morris Museum is a Blue Star Museum, offering free admission to active duty military personnel and their families, from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
Location & Hours
The Museum is located at 6 Normandy Heights Road (at the corner of Columbia Turnpike) in Morristown, NJ, and is open Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,Friday and Saturday, 11:00am to 5:00pm and Sunday, 12:00 to 5:00pm. In addition, the Museum is open evenings from 5:00 to 8:00pm on the second and third Thursday of the month. Admission to the Museum is $10 for adults and $7 for children, students and senior citizens. Admission is always free for Museum members. For more information, call (973) 971-3700, or visit www.morrismuseum.org.
