For release Tuesday, March 16, 2004

For more information: Bonnie Bjork 605-773-6001

Changing Times to tell the history of South Dakota in the 20^th Century

PIERRE -- The South Dakota Heritage Fund is pleased to announce the commencement of production of the final phase of the permanent exhibits at the museum of the South Dakota State Historical Society.   

The final phase, called Changing Times: South Dakota in the 20^th Century, joins the two previous exhibit phases, Oyate Tawicoh’an (The Ways of the People) and Proving Up. Together the three phases form The South Dakota Experience, which provides a comprehensive exhibit on the history of the South Dakota. The museum is located at the South Dakota Cultural Heritage Center in Pierre.  

Changing Times will portray the challenges and successes South Dakotans experienced in the 20^th Century from the Great Depression to the building of the great dams on the Missouri River, installation of electricity and the telephone service, and bringing radio and television coverage to the state. The exhibit celebrates South Dakota’s proud heritage, and at the same time encourages visitors to think critically about the past and to ponder the state’s future. 

Changing Times will use dioramas and period structures, including a bungalow style house, a general store, and a gas station to display museum collections. One interactive component will allow visitors to compare milking a cow by hand with the speed and convenience of an electric milking machine and another invites visitors to weigh the pros and cons of building the Missouri River dams. The exhibits will also allow visitors to share their stories and memories of the 20^th Century in sections on the Great Depression and 20^th Century Wars.   

Among the hundreds of museum objects that will be displayed in Changing Times are a Civilian Conservation Corps arm patch, a WNAX gasoline pump, Joe Foss’ World War II aviator goggles, a collection of George McGovern 1972 presidential campaign buttons, and Captain 11’s bright blue and yellow uniform.  

          Changing Times: South Dakota in the 20^th Century is scheduled to open at the Cultural Heritage Center in May 2005. Planning for Changing Times was made possible in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

          The cost of the Changing Times exhibit is $1.5 million. The funds are being provided by donations to the South Dakota Heritage Fund, the private nonprofit support group of the South Dakota State historical Society.  

The South Dakota Heritage Fund is conducting a $4.5 million capital campaign to raise funds for the State Historical Society. The funding will be provided to complete the final permanent museum exhibit, provide 10 traveling exhibits, suitcase education kits for classrooms, a web-based museum exhibit and expansion of the State Archive resources, underwriting original research and publications by the South Dakota State Historical Society Press, and an endowment for future expansion and maintenance needs of the State Historical Society.

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