Smithsonian exhibit to put Atlanta on the map

The next year and a half are going to be very busy for the Tourism and Visitor’s center of Atlanta. Atlanta has been chosen as one of six small towns in the nation to be part of The Smithsonian’s Museum on Main Street program and will host a traveling exhibit for six weeks in early 2027. The theme of the traveling exhibit is “Spark! Places of Innovation,” which aims to highlight the ingenuity and tenacity of rural Americans that have kept their small towns alive and thriving.

Kelsey Knox, Director of the Tourism and Visitor’s Center, sat down with the Journal-Sun to explain a little more about how Atlanta was chosen.

“The Texas Historical Commission, they kind of wait until they feel like there’s a theme that fits well for heritage tourism; and so, every few years, what they’ll do is they’ll do a grant program where cities under 20,000 people can apply, and they select six.” Knox said they applied for the program after it was brought to their attention and encouraged by Judge Travis Ransom.

It was a lengthy application process, according to Knox. With a lot of information needed and things prepared, the application took about a month to complete before it was sent off in February of this year. Now that Atlanta is on track for the exhibit, she’s looking forward to this next chapter in Atlanta’s history. “We’re excited. We felt it was kind of a long shot, because 20,000 is a big number and we’re quite a bit under that, but they really try to focus on communities that are trying to expand their heritage tourism, and they want to help strengthen that.”

The Tourism and Visitor’s Center is partnering with the non-profit organization, Atlanta Grade School Friends, to host the exhibit at the historic Atlanta-Miller Grade School. The grade school, which fell into disrepair and was on the list to be condemned as early as the 1990s, was purchased by the Atlanta Grade School Friends in the early 2000s and its exterior restored. It received a historical marker from the Texas Historical Commission in 2006. Renovations and restoration for the inside are currently underway in preparation for the exhibit’s arrival in 2027.

According to Knox, Atlanta will be the last stop on the exhibit’s tour and the Atlanta Grade School Friends is confident the grade school will be completely restored before then, making the exhibit the first event that will be held there following its completion.

The exhibit itself, which will be traveling from the Smithsonian, is approximately 800 square feet. It will be shipped in and a team of volunteers will put it together. Knox explained it will be fairly extensive, with interactive audio and video components. The exhibit will focus on innovation in rural areas—Atlanta is representing the Texas Forest Trails region—but in addition to that, our town will be doing their own exhibit focused on innovation in Atlanta.

“We’ll also invite communities and cities from our region. So, there will probably be another thousand-squarefoot of exhibits focused on the East Texas region.”

Knox, along with the Tourism and Visitor’s Center, will be doing a lot of programming and events leading up to the exhibit’s six-week tour. They are expecting visitors to be in the thousands. From what Knox has learned, St. Augustine, which is an East Texas community that held the exhibit last year, saw between 7,000 and 8,000 visitors come through. Knox has high hopes that Atlanta will see just as many visitors, if not more, given its prime location on a main highway and proximity to larger towns and cities.

“If you draw a line straight down through Austin, through the middle of the state, we are the only city selected that is on the Eastern half. If folks are wanting to see [the exhibit], we’re hoping they’ll travel here. I think it’s going to be a pretty big deal.”

The exhibit is set to last through January and February of 2027, which is typically a slower time in Atlanta for businesses. Knox hopes it will provide a nice boost to the community. There will be extra events held around the same time, encouraging visitors to book overnight stays and shop downtown.

“We feel very lucky they selected us. I’m actually headed [in two weeks] to Austin for orientation. So, it’s a threeday orientation with the other cities selected,” Knox said.

The Tourism and Visitor’s Center will be needing volunteers and community partners, as they will have to pay for advertising and all of the additional events.

“It will be very involved, but I think it will really showcase Atlanta and bring people here who would normally not come here, and hopefully they’ll see what we have to offer and come back. My goal is to bring people to Atlanta. We are trying really hard to focus on heritage tourism. We have a lot of history in Atlanta and our surrounding areas, and we want to promote that and have people come see it.”

Atlanta is the best of both worlds, with its small-town charm and the larger towns and cities nearby providing excellent day trips for visitors to the area. Knox hopes the exhibit, and the subsequent uptick in tourists, will open up new opportunities for Atlanta in the future. The Journal- Sun will continue to update the community as the details develop.