Since 2006, the Guam Humanities Council has participated in the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum on Main Street (MoMS) exhibition program. MoMS provides rural or underserved communities access to Smithsonian-quality exhibits and educational resources, and helps local organizations highlight their unique contributions within their communities.  The exhibits are developed by MoMS and focus on broad topics of national history. The Council works with MoMS to bring the exhibits to Guam, finds local organizations to host the tour, and provides funding, technical assistance and training.  Participant organizations develop a companion exhibit and associated programs highlighting the experiences and cultural traditions found in Guam. Core humanities content for hosting MoMS includes history, anthropology, politics, language, literature, performing arts and religion of Guam and Micronesia.

The primary audience includes local nonprofit organizations and their staffs that participate as hosts.  Local residents of all educational, economic and ethnic backgrounds, especially students and educators, are also primary visiting audiences for MoMS exhibits and programming. Tourists and non-resident visitors to the island are targeted as well.

The program goals are to provide access to quality exhibit and educational resources; give local groups an opportunity to fulfill their organizational mission and vision, and gain experience in marketing, fundraising, exhibition programming and development.

In 2009-10, the Council coordinated and presented a special Guam tour of Key Ingredients: America by Food, an exhibition from the Smithsonian Institution. From hotdogs to pizza, fiestas to Thanksgiving dinner, Key Ingredients presents a provocative and thoughtful look at the historical, regional and social traditions that merge in everyday meals and celebrations.  Developed as part of the Museum on Main Street (MoMS) program, Key Ingredients explores the connections between American citizens and the foods they produce, prepare, preserve and present at the table. Through a selection of artifacts, photographs and illustrations, Key Ingredients examines the evolution of the American kitchen and how food industries have responded to the technological innovations that have enabled Americans to choose an ever-wider variety of frozen, prepared and fresh foods.

Key Ingredients also offers a multitude of opportunities for hosting organizations to link their own collections and local food specialties to the panoramic story told in the exhibition. Designed for institutions that lack regular access to traveling exhibitions due to space and cost limitations, MoMS exhibits such as Key Ingredients are particularly aimed at small institutions in rural areas and underserved communities. The exhibit traveled to four venues on island, and complimentary local components were developed for each venue. 

Museum on Main Street is a collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES), the Federation of State Humanities Councils (FSHC), and the different humanities councils in the 56 states and territories, which are eligible to host a MoMS exhibition tour.  With support and programmatic assistance from the Guam Humanities Council, supplemental exhibitions are created at each venue with their own objects, stories and programs that celebrate Guam’s unique cultural heritage and inspire community pride.

Local exhibit components were developed as a celebration of Guam’s culture and history, and were presented in four different venues to offer our residents an opportunity to examine local food traditions, consider their own heritage, and reflect on the dishes and associated memories that are important to their communities.

• The tour opened with Rice Festival, a local interactive component presented by the Guam Council of Women’s Clubs in collaboration with U’zeum Children’s Discovery Museum. Rice Festival highlighted the diverse cultural traditions of rice and featured contributions from the various women’s organizations of Guam.  The exhibit ran from August 1 through September 12, 2009 at the Agana Shopping Center.  Programming for the six-week venue included storytelling, cooking demonstrations, cultural performances, and arts and crafts workshops.  Sponsors included Castro Art Studios, U’zeum Children’s Discovery Museum, Agana Shopping Center, Pay Less Supermarket, and IP Coffee.
  
  
• The Council hosted the second leg of the tour and partnered with the War in the Pacific National Historical Park and the Arizona Memorial Museum Association to present Transitional Table, a look at Guam’s shifting food traditions during and after World War II.  The exhibit ran from October 13 through November 21, 2010 at the T. Stell Newman Visitor Center. Programming for the six-week venue included storytelling, cooking demonstrations with World War II Naval Stewards and contemporaries, cultural performances, and film and discussion presentations. Sponsors and partners included Arizona Memorial Museum Association, the Guam Museum, Guam Council on the Arts and Humanities (CAHA), Isla Center for the Arts, MARC UOG, Belt Collins Guam, Ltd, Meskla Restaurant, and Pacific War Museum. 
  
  
• The host for the third venue was the Guam Community College Culinary Arts Program, which presented Secret Ingredients to Our Cultural Cuisine, focused on the evolution of Chamorro food traditions through the introduction of numerous ingredients. The exhibit ran December 3 – 31, 2009 at the GCC Multipurpose Room. Programming for the four week venue included cooking demonstrations and cultural presentations.  GCC’s Culinary Arts and Tourism program sponsored the third venue of the exhibit. 
  
  
• The Guam Humanities Council also hosted the fourth and final leg of the tour with the presentation of Food is Life, exploring Micronesia’s diverse food traditions specifically those of Yap, Kosrae, Chuuk, Pohnpei, Palau and the Marshall Islands.  Exhibit themes included feasting customs and celebrations, food and folklore, the transport and transition of food traditions from basket to basin, and everyday food exchanges and practices.   The six-week exhibition venue included a series of programming events, such as cultural performances and demonstrations, lectures by scholars, film and discussion presentations, storytelling about the techniques used to gather, prepare and store food, and a visit to a taro garden.  The exhibit ran from February 27 through April 10, 2010 at Palm Village, Harmon Loop Road, in Dededo. A planning committee of Micronesian community members on Guam worked with GHC, including Irma Abwe, Betwin Alokoa, Billy Billy, Emelihter Kihleng, Elfrieda Koshiba, Nedine Songeni, and Rose Yanfag.  Sponsors and partners included E.C. Development, Isla Center for the Arts, Belau National Museum, Dr. Donald Rubinstein of MARC, UOG, Dr. Philip Ritter of Stanford University, Dededo Mayor’s Office, Barrigada Mayor’s Office, Hagatna Mayor’s Office, Guam Museum, Guam CAHA, Salvation Army, Nana’s Garden, and Phat Pixel Design Studio.

The Council coordinated and presented its first Guam tour of a Smithsonian Institution Exhibition, New Harmonies – Celebrating American Roots Music in 2007, as part of their Museum on Main Street (MoMS) program.

The MoMs program is the collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES), the Federation of State Humanities Councils (FSHC), and the different humanities councils in the 56 states and territories, which are eligible to host a MoMS exhibition tour. With support and programmatic assistance from the Guam Humanities Council, supplemental exhibitions are created at each venue with their own objects, stories and programs that celebrate Guam’s unique cultural heritage and
inspire community pride.

New Harmonies provides a fascinating, inspiring, and toe-tapping approach to the American story of multi-cultural exchange and how song carries unique cultural identities and histories of many peoples.  Their music is the roots of American music.  The story is full of surprises about familiar songs, histories of instruments, the roles of religion and technology, and the continuity of musical roots from "Yankee Doodle Dandy" to the contemporary hip-hop.  The music that emerges is known by names like blues, country western, folk ballads, and gospel. The instruments vary from fiddle to banjo to accordion to guitar to drum. Nothing expresses the tensions -- or the triumphs – in American history and democracy quite like the music. 

Four local exhibit components were developed to observe Guam’s unique and diverse musical history.  Isla Center for the Arts at the University of Guam, the Guam Territorial Band Society (GTBS), Historic Inalahan Foundation (HIF) and the Peleliu Club of Guam (PCOG) were each awarded funds from Guam Humanities Council’s community grant program to participate in the exhibition tour of New Harmonies.