Cultural Alignment Project
The Children's Museum of Southern Minnesota planned for the cultural alignment of the permanent Children's Museum's art curation, signage, and interactive experiences. The primary focus of this cultural content related to southern Minnesota including Dakota art, culture, and heritage and complemented the Exhibit Development and Fabrication Legacy grant goals.
Children's Museums Grants. $500,000 the first year and $500,000 the second year are for a competitive Arts and Cultural Heritage Grants Program-Children's Museums. The board of directors shall solicit proposals and award grants to children's museums for projects and programs that maintain or promote our cultural heritage.
1. The addition of cultural contributors to the Museum’s on-going advisory teams, and proactive communication and engagement between the Museum and local Dakota communities.2. The participation of Interim Site visitors in the development of cultural content through prototype testing and survey feedback.3. The creation of fabrication plans that include integrated cultural content.
- Addition of two advisors with Dakota culture expertise: Grace Goldtooth-Campos and Amanda Taylor
- 40 visitors provided cultural content survey feedback. As part of exploring a direction for Dakota cultural offerings, CMSM developed a visitor survey tool to better understand its visitors’ knowledge and perceptions of Dakota culture. Surveys were verbally administered by CMSM staff and volunteers to adults visiting the Interim Site during regular museum public hours as well as during a targeted museum Access event.
- 32 families participated in a museum Access event that included a Dakota language activity and a “Tanka Bar” taste-testing experience.
- Cultural content gallery concepts related to Dakota people, language and culture were developed. These include: Home Place, Guardian Garments, Dakota: Living Language, Ways of Sharing, We Are All Connected: Wellness
Nick Hinz - Finance Chair, Kaaren Grabianowski - Events Chair, Laura Stevens; Marketing Chair, Brain Benshoof; Mary Jo Hensel; Lyle Jacobson; Eric Lennartson; Naomi Mortensen; Jean Peterson; Tom Riley; Christine Powers; Beth Serrill; Sara Steinbach; Karen Wahlstrom; Pam Willard