Think Water Utah (TWU) is a statewide collaboration addressing the critical topic of water presented by Utah Humanities and its partners throughout 2020-2022. It allows local museums and their communities to critically consider the role of water in shaping human experience and culture across the state. Visit the TWU website here. 

With the help of American West Center (AWC) staff, Utah Humanities organized the tour of two exhibitions from the Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition Services (SITES) - H2O Today and Water|Ways. These beautiful exhibitions blend the science and history of water with a lens that focuses on contemporary issues. Local museums across the state were selected to host these exhibits, allowing them to benefit from the national resources offered through SITES and to help their local communities connect to the critical topic of water through companion exhibits and public programming. 

As the state scholar for Think Water Utah, AWC director Gregory Smoak wrote an essay on the critical history of water in our state titled Utah Water Ways. Dr. Smoak was available for scholarly consultation as local museums developed their companion exhibits, and gave a number of virtual lectures as part of their public programming that can be viewed here. 

AWC program assistant Megan Weiss helped facilitate the curation and tour of H2O Today, which augmented Smithsonian-provided content with added Utah water stories. She also manages and hosts the weekly Utah Humanities radio show The Beehive Archivewhich airs weekly on KCPW, Utah Public Radio, and podcast streaming services like spotify.