Smithsonian Institute's Between Fences Museum Exhibit

Photography Courtesy of ©Nativestock Pictures

Communities across America will be hosts to the Smithsonian's traveling exhibit "Between Fences" as a part of the institutes Museum on Main Street series.

We live between fences. We may hardly notice them, but they are dominant features in our lives and in our history. Thousands of types have been invented, millions of miles have been produced, and countless rivals have seized post, rail, panel, and wire to stake their claims. In 1871, the Department of Agriculture estimated the total value of fences in the United States at 1.7 billion, a sum almost equal to the national debt. Our past is defined by the cutting point of barbed steel and the staccato rhythm of the white picket. Built of hedge, concrete, wood and metal, the fence skirts our properties and is central to the American landscape.

One of these hosting sites in Idaho will be the Ketchum Community Library who will be featuring an assortment of speakers. One presentation in particular, titled "Red Earth, White Fences" is a multimedia slide show by award winning photographer Angel Wynn. Documenting Native American communities is her passion and business. Wynn's focus is to reveal how fencing the west nearly destroyed America's First Nations and how tribal communities are managing today. "Generally, I'm trying to avoid fences and other objects while taking pictures", says Wynn, "so trying to dig up any buried images was way more difficult than expected." Wynn also added, "Historically, American Indians did have boundary markers. Traditionally they used the mountains, rivers and distinct landmarks that acted as fences to marked their territory."

The United States as we know it could not have been settled and built without fences; they continue to be an integral part of the nation. Fences stand for security: we use them to enclose our houses and neighborhoods. They are decorative structures that are as much part of the landscape as trees and flowers. Industry and agriculture without fences would be difficult to imagine. Private ownership of land would be an abstract concept. But fences are more than functional objects. They are powerful symbols. The way we define ourselves as individuals and as a nation becomes concrete in how we build fences.

It examines human relationships on an expanding scale: neighbor to neighbor.

Between Fences is about defining ourselves as Americans- our philosophies, our lifestyles, our values and beliefs.