Brookings 2nd annual Fall Family Festival promotes fun at the museum

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) - Fall Family Festival was held in 2021 as a way to get parents and children back into the two Brookings museums after a lull brought on by covid.

After the success of last year’s event, the South Dakota Agricultural Heritage Museum and South Dakota Art Museum decided to bring it back for a second straight year.

”We decided to do this event last year and partner with the South Dakota Agricultural Heritage Museum because we are so closely located. We’re just a few blocks from each other, it’s walkable so it’s so easy for families to go to two stations throughout the day,” South Dakota Art Museum Curator of Education Abigail Ramsbottom said.

This year’s Fall Festival is aimed to be even bigger and better than ever before.

”We’ll have six activity stations throughout the galleries as well as in our outdoor plaza there will also be yard games and three different kids crafts with mostly Halloween and fall focus and we will also have a fall-themed photo booth,” Ramsbottom said.

Museum Education Coordinator Sarah Jacobs says events like this are a great way to teach kids about South Dakota’s main industry.

”Agriculture is such a big part of South Dakota and the midwest in general everybody is connected to agriculture so it is a great idea to educate people about agriculture not only about the past but about the present as well,” Jacobs said.

Jacobs is especially excited to show off a new exhibit the museum has on loan from the Smithsonian.

”The Smithsonian exhibit really focuses on change in rural America over the last 100 years and really focuses on identity and persistence and land and community and how those things have changed in rural life,” Jacobs said.

Fall Family Festival will be held from 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. Saturday, October 15.

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