The Granary Rural Cultural Center is a unique gathering place for people to celebrate the culture and art of the Northern Plains.
The Granary Rural Cultural Center is a unique gathering place for people to celebrate the culture and art of the Northern Plains. The 2.3 acre campus is located in rural Brown County, South Dakota, in the heart of the fertile James River Valley, one of the greatest grain producing regions in the US.
The park-like campus includes the Granary Memorial Gallery, a 1928 wooden granary converted into five art exhibition rooms; Putney Hall, a restored 1912 town hall moved to the campus in 1996; a gazebo with seating for 40 and an outdoor barbeque pit.
The Granary’s “Walk with Dakota” interpretive landscape and sculpture garden tells the story of the region’s Native American people and the coming of the white settlers searching for a brighter future as they claimed thousands of acres of free land in Dakota Territory. The purpose of the Walk is to examine the relationship between humans the Dakota environment through art, landforms, and natural vegetation.
John Sieh, Granary founder, once said about his vision for the cultural center “We want to celebrate the land and the animals and the people who live here through the arts. We think the fact that it’s rural—and very rural—is what makes it unique.”
Mr. Sieh and his family donated the Granary to the people of Brown County in the spring of 2012. The Dacotah Prairie Museum, a longtime program partner of the Granary, has accepted responsibility for maintaining the Granary, its campus, its programs, and its purpose for the benefit of the public.
