Youth Partnerships

MNHS partners with diverse organizations to create in-depth, meaningful learning experiences for young people that help them develop career and life skills. One example is the Mazinaakizige: American Indian Teen Photography Program. Over 10 weeks, six American Indian high school students worked with MNHS to investigate historic and contemporary images of American Indians, learn digital photography, and create a gallery show of photographic prints chosen for their interpretation of the theme, "What Brings Us Together." The opening was expected to bring in more than 100 people from the community to the Two Rivers Gallery on Dec. 4, 2015, to celebrate the students' work. Two Rivers Gallery graciously contributed the gallery space for the opening exhibition, gallery cards showcasing the event to the community, and frames for showing the students' prints. The evening event was part of a community art crawl in collaboration between Two Rivers Gallery, All My Relations Gallery, and Minneapolis Institute of Art. The student photography show will open at the Minnesota History Center on Jan. 23, 2016, and will continue to travel to Mille Lacs Indian Museum and Lower Sioux Agency in spring and summer 2016. MNHS Inclusion and Community Engagement staff also created opportunities to engage with community members telling their personal histories through two programs, the Summer Technology Workshop and Teen Advisory Council. Summer Technology Workshop is a two-and-a-half week program that highlights career readiness through a community-identified assessment of technology skills needs. Students explored the Google suite of tools and web design through immersive opportunities held at the Minnesota History Center and Saint Paul College. They explored the lack of Latino representation in the historical record and identified topics for future in-depth research. Final products were five-minute documentaries and websites that showed off students' newly acquired knowledge. The goal of the Teen Advisory Council is to increase teen presence and voice at MNHS. The council works with community advisers such as the Minnesota Council on Latino Affairs to create teen-produced programming for MNHS Family Day events. Students learn about the history of the community and issues surrounding diverse narratives. They then create original programs and performances (such as spoken word and webinars) with guidance from community advisers and MNHS staff. Students learn about what it means to be a Minnesotan and how to present those narratives in a museum setting.