Between Fences
A Smithsonian Museums on Main Street exhibition

Beginning in the fall of 2007, Between Fences, a traveling Museums on Main Street exhibition from the Smithsonian Institution, will spend six weeks each in Waupaca, Hales Corners, LaFarge, Sauk Prairie, Clear Lake, and Cable. Each community will celebrate the Smithsonian coming to town with related events and programs. Read more about the sites here.

Designed for communities of 10,000 residents or less, Between Fences reveals how central the fence is to the American landscape. The exhibition’s assemblage of tools, images, literature—and, of course, fences—prompt us to reflect on the role of the fence in our lives and see a common icon in new ways.

We live between fences—personal, national, geo-political, conceptual. And as we dismantle boundaries we no longer need, we also erect new barriers. From picket fences to chain links to barbed wire and beyond, fences imply security, decoration, ownership, and industry.

But who defines that property? How have rivals negotiated boundaries in the past? And how do we reinforce our borders today?