In December 2004, the Chippewa Valley Museum opened a 5,000-square-foot exhibit about farm families and communities, with major funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).

This exhibit, Farm Life: A Century of Change for Farm Families and Their Neighbors, is a story of profound change for farm families and rural communities. As visitors travel to the various parts of the exhibit -- the farmhouse, the fields, the barn, and various local gathering spots -- they will explore how the political, economic, and cultural roots of the Chippewa Valley influence families today on and off the farm.

Said NEH spokesman Clay Lewis, the review panelists were impressed by CVM’s “seamless integration of scholarship and the stories of real people,” and by the innovative ways the museum intends to present the exhibit components, which include everything from scrapbooks to computer stations.

Wrote one panelist, “The exhibit should appeal to those from both farm and non-farm [backgrounds], not only because the larger themes of family and community are universal, but because it also plays off of the image of the farm in popular culture.

“The exhibit,” the panelist continued, “is a welcome departure from traditional farm exhibits that focus on the technology of farming divorced from its social and cultural context.”

You can get a good feel for the exhibit content (or build your own Farm Life exhibit!) by following the Farm Life Workbook here.