​Main Street Manning

It’s not often that a town the size of Manning gets the chance to host an exhibit from the Smithsonian Museum in Washington. But that’s just what happened when Manning was selected as one of six South Carolina small towns to host a traveling exhibit called Hometown Teams: How Sports Shape America.

Main Street Manning joined with Clarendon County, the Historical Society, the Clarendon County Archives, Harvin Clarendon County Library and the City of Manning to apply for a grant from the SC Humanities Council to bring this exhibit to the city’s Weldon Auditorium.

The Smithsonian exhibit included interactive displays of how sports shape our everyday lives. But the Smithsonian exhibit was only part of this community-wide project. In addition, a localized sports exhibits featured area sports legends and memorabilia. An additional grant from the Smithsonian supported a student-produced documentary of local sports history.

A local art competition featuring the softer side of sports drew more than 30 entries from artists of all ages. The competition was held in conjunction with the Main Street Manning Annual Meeting, introducing many participants to this program for the first time.

The Central Carolina Community Foundation helped fund the opening night tailgate event and sports parade.

This community-wide event showed what partnerships and creative funding can do to enhance economic vitality downtown.

Contact Carrie Trebil at ctrebil@cityofmanning.org or 803.435.8477 Ext. 5132.