Hmong Cultural Center Microgrant
This project will involve the creation of a new theater room to be included in the Hmong Cultural Center Museum and Library. The theater room will allow visiting groups and walk-in visitors to view clips of historical documentaries about the Hmong diaspora and Hmong American Experience as part of their museum experience.
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Kee Vang (St Paul, MN) Kee was a part of the Truth and Transformation conference/work with MHC, and is also serving on the immigrant cultural heritage panel. He is Hmong. |
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Ka Vang (St. Paul, MN) was a part of the Truth and Transformation conference/work with MHC. She is Hmong. |
Laura Benson
Minnesota Humanities Center
laura@mnhum.org
651-772-4244
$850,000 the first year and $850,000 the second year are for a competitive grants program to provide grants to preserve and promote the cultural heritage of Minnesota.
(1) Of this amount, $250,000 the first year is for a grant to one or more community organizations that provide arts and cultural heritage programming celebrating Hmong heritage.
Hmong Cultural Center requests funding for Marketing of a New Museum Theater. A Museum Theater will also be added in the Spring of 2020 to show screenings of classic Hmong documentaries including “Miao Year” (1968), Disappearing World (1972) and Becoming American (1982). Through enhanced marketing of our unique museum theater, Saint Paul and Minnesota residents will have greater opportunities to learn about Hmong heritage and culture in Minnesota. The proposed project to enhance marketing of our museum and library builds strongly on Hmong Cultural Center’s unique heritage over the past 27 years teaching the Minnesota public about Hmong culture and history. It is also strongly related to a key goal of the Legacy fund: “Arts, history and cultural heritage programs will engage our diverse communities from every corner of the state in celebrating the richness of our differences while building greater understanding and connection to the values that bind us together.” There are two central community needs that this project is intended to respond to in a substantive manner:
- Cultural heritage education for the Hmong Minnesotan Population
- Multicultural education for the broader Twin Cities and Minnesota Population
In March 2020, we bought the large screen TV (Samsung Electronics 4K Smart LED TV (2018), 75") for the museum. In January 2021, we printed 20,000 museum brochures for the purpose of marketing the museum to future visitors and touring groups including school groups. In March 2021, we ran a sponsored Facebook ad promoting the upcoming opening of our new museum theater in Summer 2021 which reached almost 29,000 unique people on Facebook. This ad may be viewed here: https://www.facebook.com/HmongCulturalCenter/videos/260576682245722 We were not able to do the theater launch yet due to the pandemic but we anticipate the launch event for the museum including the new theater space will take place in July 2021.