Growing Cultural Understanding Through a Public Art Garden

Minnesota China Friendship Garden Society will create and promote a public garden as a multi-cultural learning experience to preserve and honor cultural heritage for all Minnesotans. The new pilot project will have two educational elements: 1) Partner with two public middle schools to develop curriculum materials, host field trips and design preparatory materials to help foster all of the state middle school students collective understanding of the diverse art, culture and heritage demonstrated in the garden. 2) Create an interactive ArcGIS Map of the garden containing the curriculum level information and explaining Hmong, Chinese and Dakota cultural symbols, structures and knowledge, with access for everyone. This involves partner school curriculum developers, materials, buses, cultural lunches, an ArcGIS map producer, A Survey Data Coder for map input, and a manager for the complex project.