The final day for the Highline Historical Society’s popular “Hope in Hard Times” exhibit about the Great Depression will be Saturday, January 4. The exhibit of Depression-era artifacts has been open since mid-October at a pop-up museum location at 216 SW 153rd Street in Burien.

The traveling portion of the exhibit, sponsored by Humanities Washington, will move to its next venue in Walla Walla. The majority of the artifacts, however, belong to the Highline Historical Society, and will be returned to the Society’s collections facility, which is open by appointment only.

Cyndi Upthegrove, managing director of the Highline Historical Society, noted that this temporary pop-up museum has been a good opportunity to display examples of the Historical Society’s diverse holdings. She was particularly pleased with the field trips the Society hosted during the exhibit, the visits by residents from several retirement living centers, and the exhibit’s ability to accommodate performances of the Burien Actors Theatre’s holiday show after that group lost its regular venue to an arson fire.

Now Upthegrove hopes to finish securing the funding to build a permanent museum for the community. The Society already owns the property at the southwest corner of Ambaum and SW 152nd in Old Burien. “There are so many good programs out there to share with the public,” she said. “We are eager to finish raising the funds we need.”

Some donors have pledged to give money to the building campaign based on the length of a ball of string that schoolchildren and others have been adding to over the duration of the exhibit. On Saturday, the Society will unspool the ball of string from the temporary pop-up museum venue all the way down the street to the future museum site, and measure the length. If anyone else wishes to make a pledge, please visit the reception desk at the Museum before 2 PM on Saturday.

For exhibit hours, visit http://www.wahopeinhardtimes.net