Minnesota Humanities Center K-12

Total from 2013 Appropriation: $371,865.62
Total from 2014 Appropriation: $100,000

The primary goal of the Humanities Center’s Education Initiative is to increase student engagement and success; the foundation is strengthening the teacher-student relationship. Drawing upon the multiplicity of experiences and cultures represented in schools, educators gain insight into how to engage every student authentically and respectfully. Legacy funds supported the following Education Initiative projects between July 1, 2013 and January 15, 2016:

In-Person Professional Development
($181,568.87 of 2013 appropriation; $81,615.03 of 2014 appropriation)

The Humanities Center creates, conducts, and supports cultural and educational programs that encourage exemplary teaching and provide opportunities for teacher renewal. These professional development offerings emphasized humanities content as expressed in literature, history, and cultural studies to understand Absent Narratives as human experiences. In-person professional development inspired educators to incorporate Absent Narratives into their classrooms at the curricular level.

During this time period, Legacy funding supported In-Person Professional Development such as:

• Six Bdote fieldtrips for nearly 250 educators
• Three Increase Engagement Through Absent Narratives workshops for over 100 educators
• A year-long cohort experience for 42 Minnesota educators
• The development of a Somali Book Workshop for Educators

School Partnerships ($11,172.28 of 2013 appropriation)

The Humanities Center works to build partnerships with school districts in Minnesota that will allow educators to go deeper in their Absent Narratives learning. The Humanities Center used Legacy funding to support a portion of design and launch of the Culturally Responsive and Absent Narratives Cohort in partnership with Saint Paul Public Schools.

Online Professional Development ($1,674.93 of 2013 appropriation)

Knowing that many educators are unable to attend in-person workshops, the Humanities Center works to make available learning opportunities that individuals can take online on their own schedules. Legacy funds supported a portion of the development of a new online course being created in collaboration with the Minnesota Historical Society. 4

Resources ($66,767.66 of 2013 appropriation)

The Humanities Center creates and makes available educational resources which support and encourage exemplary teaching. The Humanities Center emphasizes humanities content as expressed in literature, history, and cultural studies to understand Absent Narratives as human experiences.

During this time period, Legacy funding helped support resources such as:

• Blues Vision: African American Writing from Minnesota, a groundbreaking collection of incisive prose and powerful poetry by forty-three black writers who educate, inspire, and reveal the unabashed truth, was co-published with Minnesota Historical Society Press in 2015
• The Absent Narratives Resource Collection is a free, searchable database of more than 900 videos, discussion guides, and books that help to restore relationships and amplify community voices. Legacy funds supported both the creation of additional resources for the collection and continued improvements to and maintenance of the online platform.

Public Events ($33,796.43 of 2013 appropriation)

The Humanities Center offers high quality, humanities-focused, learning opportunities for individuals. These public events offer participants the opportunity to engage in activities and dialogues to actively learn from the humanities and reflect upon issues raised.

During this time period, Legacy funding helped support Public Events such as:
• Three events featuring Minnesota artists, hosted in collaboration with tpt, attended by nearly 150 educators
• Two salons, including a three-part salon series with scholar Marty Case for 55 participants on public discourse and a salon with author Shannon Gibney for 18 participants on identity politics
• “Treaty Signers: Making the American Myth” attended by 66 participants

Collaborative Funds ($8,579.89 of 2013 appropriation)

The Humanities Center used a portion of our Legacy appropriation to support collaborative work with partner agencies.

Museum on Main Street: Water/Ways ($3,479.77 of 2013 appropriation)

In partnership with the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Services, the Humanities Center is preparing to bring Museum on Main Street back to Minnesota in 2016. The Humanities Center is partnering with multiple state agencies and organizations to tell the state story of water and support host sites. The Water/Ways exhibit will tour six communities across the state, with each community addition exhibit and programming that tells their local water story.

Program Planning and Design ($61,745.82 of 2013 appropriation; $18,384.97 of 2014 appropriation)

The Humanities Center listens carefully to the needs of Minnesota educators and community members, and works to design new programming and initiatives that meet real needs.