Artistry is seeking support to expand our partnerships with indigenous artists and to provide more programming on indigenous arts and culture. Our main goals are: 1) To provide exceptional arts education opportunities to Bloomington students and community members. 2) To bring the region's best indigenous artists to Artistry to offer masterclasses and other public art education programs. The pursuit of both of these goals will broadly help grow the cultural literacy of our area.
This project is supporting programming expansion in the Indigenous Food Lab, located in Minneapolis, which includes a professional Indigenous kitchen. In June the organization will open a demonstration and training studio, Spirit Kitchen, offering fresh food. It will also offer Indigenous market curated retail products from Indigenous producers. This program will design one meal kit per month (15 months), to distribute at two schools (30 families each), to families of Indigenous students, with an accompanying live demonstration and video on how families can prepare meals together.
Great Lakes Lifeways Institute will expand and deepen their work, launching a series of seasonal, traditional harvest camps that are designed to initiate a long-term elder/youth apprenticeship program. The project includes five harvest camps each year, over two years, with the support of community partners, as well as smaller cultural gatherings around specific knowledge and traditional ways.
Friendship Academy of the Arts will teach K - 8th grade students, their families, and the community, about the rich indigenous cultural history of Minnesota (past and present).
The Works Museum will design, fabricate, and install a new exhibit with partners from Minnesota's East African, Hmong, and Latinx communities that forwards elementary education goals and celebrates Minnesota's rich cultural diversity.
IARP is proposing to form a traditional Iraqi dance troupe to study and perform traditional dances from different regions across Iraq and to perform for the general public of Minnesota. Iraqi Minnesotan youth and young adults will be trained by transitional dance instructor and musician Hisham Shallal.
In summer 2020 Isuroon will be piloting a new program, designed by and for young Somali people. The focus is on creating a space for Somali youth to discuss the realities of being a first- or second-generation immigrant with the compounding factors of their racial, linguistic, ethnic and religious identities. This space will provide resources on how to both heal and lead in and through the arts and nature.
Ka Joog and Afro American Development Association (AADA) will partner to create a platform for Somali American youth to learn traditional Somali artistic mediums and present their learning through public presentations that will ignite community conversations. Art clubs and public forums will be implemented in Hennepin, Ramsey, and Clay counties and will promote inter-generational dialogue on taboo topics within the Somali American and cross-cultural acceptance with non-Somali audiences.
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.
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.
The Kairos Alive! Cultural Wisdom Immersion and Sharing Project collaborates with Centro Tyrone Guzman, Augustana Open Circle, Walker West Music Academy and outstate Developmental Achievement Centers to explore and exchange joyful cultural meaning through music, dance, song and story via 2-way Zoom webcast. Project explores cultural heritage and identity expression, and how it relates to the universality of human experience, in an environment of creative safety and intercultural exchange.
This project collaborates with 1) Minneapolis Hawthorne Neighborhood Council (multi-cultural/intergenerational); 2) Minnesota Independence College and Community (MICC), Richfield (neuro-divergent young adults); 3) an established network of 20+ senior centers and organizations serving people with developmental disabilities statewide (multi-cultural and intergenerational), such as Centro Tyrone Guzman (Latinx), Ecumen Prairie Lodge, Brooklyn Park, Wabasha County Developmental Achievement Center, Wabasha, and Adult Day Services, Bemidji; 4) community collaborations in Bemidji and New Ulm servi
In order to preserve Karen and Karenni culture and identity in Minnesota, The Urban Village proposes the creation of a collaborative learning program where participants will have an opportunity to connect and explore their identity and heritage. Through this program, our youth will be empowered to drive the development of the first ever Karen and Karenni history archive. The learnings and content birthed from this program will then be archived and organized for all Minnesotans to access.
Walker West Music Academy's Amazing Grace Chorus for elders is a unique receptacle of Black cultural heritage/a wealth of lived MN Black experience. This project will capture that rich experience/the memories of those aging keepers of an important part of Black culture through the vehicle of gospel music & a series of events/activities & will culminate in a 45-min. documentary. This will ensure that this interconnected culture & history are preserved & passed on to the next generation.
Minnesota Civic Youth is dedicated to helping kids and young adults develop the knowledge, skills, confidence and desire to be informed, active citizens. We do this by engaging them in authentic civic experiences and activities that respect their viewpoint and celebrate their voice. We have three primary program areas: Kids Voting Minnesota Network, Governing Youth and Teens Speak Out.
Legal rights Center, Inc. will provide a critical missing component to civics education for youth in our communities, ensuring they have the information and practical skills necessary to fully utilize their constitutionally protected rights. This project builds upon a foundation of existing Know Your Rights curricula to 1) develop curriculum around new topics; 2) develop zines, 1-page explainers, videos, and other new assets to be accessed digitally as well as circulated throughout schools and community spaces; 3) host a Know Your Rights camp and convening for Twin Cities youth.
826 MSP will expand school partnerships in two keyways: 1) add a new 6-8 week in-school workshop program where 826 MSP staff and volunteers facilitate antiracist creative writing units in elementary and middle-school classrooms; 2) expand community engagement work through the addition of Whole-Family Workshops, in partnership with local schools and community organizations.
Lanesboro Arts will launch the Equitable Systems Change project for the Lanesboro Arts Gallery as a commitment to a thorough review and change of current systems and processes, based on detailed recommendations to align practices with equity values and more deeply serve BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ artists.
The vision of Language Attitude is to research, promote and create culturally sustaining and revitalizing practices in the fields of education, media, and communications. In collaboration with teachers and artists, we will develop and implement an educational toolkit focused around culturally relevant learning activities. This toolkit will empower teachers to create a classroom environment sustaining students’ languages, literacies, and cultures.
Lao Culture Dance & Traditional Fashion Show will be implementing training youth for new leadership program. We are focusing on teaching students by passing on the skills & knowledge of traditional Performing art to a young generations to continue the tradition. We will make sure that the students that completed the program will be able to teach & passing on & continue the work to keep our tradition & rich Lao heritage and Culture. The youth leader will be great asset for our Communities.
A project to build capacity for poets to actively document and correct historical gaps in the Lao Minnesotan journey as we approach 50 years in the US. The project will include interdisciplinary exhibits and performances giving traditional artists a chance to develop new work with Lao poets that address ancient and modern history, myth, and cultural traditions, additionally publishing innovative and experimental collections on the Lao experience.
This project is a fall 2024 exhibition of art created by self-identifying Latina women and non-binary, Latinx Minnesota-based artists with ancestral roots in Latin America. The exhibition is being co-curated by local visual artist, community muralist and educator, Zamara Cyan, and William Gustavo Franklin, an independent art curator, educator and author of the recent volume, Latin Art in Minnesota Conversations and What's Next (Afton Press, 2023).
Learning Law and Democracy: Principles of Democracy – Connecting civic education to principles that guided the nation's founders and continue to be our foundation today is the goal of LLAD's "Principles of Democracy" project for Minnesota's young people. By focusing on the why, how, and who of our system of government, K-12 students in and out of the classroom will be prepared to carry on Minnesota's civic tradition of informed civic participation. They will learn about the Constitution, structures of government, politics and active citizenship.
Learning Law and Democracy will enhance civic education across Minnesota by increasing the value of teachingcivics.org through redesigned architecture and an updated look and feel along with the addition of new lessons and user instructions. Student programs supported with this grant will also experience a redesign to capitalize on the renovated State Capitol and new Senate Building and will benefit from new partners and teachers with increased capacity to teach through professional development.
Life House will develop an in-depth strategic planning process lead by Northspan Consulting to 1) develop a three-year strategic plan; 2) analyze contradictions; 3) create an action plan.
ASAL Charities will empower Oromo elders and the wider Oromo community to preserve, celebrate, and honor our identity and culture. This proposal would fund both 1) an intergenerational culture-bearing training program and, 2) add a new cultural celebration component to the annual Ireechaa Festival.
The 11th Grade English and Social Studies students of Windom Area High School (WAHS), the Cottonwood County Historical Society (CCHS), and the American Legion (AL) Post #206 developed a project centered on collecting the experiences of living war Veterans by interviewing, writing, publishing in book format, and promoting the stories of Veterans from CC who have served in the military.
To mark our 30th anniversary, Teatro del Pueblo will produce a new LatinX adaptation of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, titled Love in the Time of Hate. This show will celebrate Chicano identity and tackle contemporary issues of race and diversity in the LatinX community. Set at the southern border, we will present Shakespeare's timeless play through a uniquely LatinX perspective by blending Shakespearian verse with contemporary Chicano spoken word, Hip Hop Dance, and original music.
The goal of the Dakota History Symposium at Lower Sioux Agency is to reclaim Dakota voice in a narrative that under-represents Dakota perspective and cultural worldview while providing opportunity for exiled Dakota to reconnect to their shared history, disrupting dominant power dynamics that restrict Dakota truth-telling. Hosting a Dakota-led educational event will enhance public understanding, broaden worldviews perspective and increase access to historic truths of the State of Minnesota.
This project will create enhanced and expanded capacity for Cultural Heritage expertise within the Cansayapi Cultural Department. This project will help to enhance the collection and protection of cultural artifacts and help to hire an archaeology firm to identify key areas for survey and investigation within the ancestral territories of the Mdewakanton Dakota (MN). The project includes hosting a series of tribal community events targeted for retired elders (knowledge keepers), college students (qualified skilled personnel) and other interested candidates.
This project will create a series of Hmong language booklets, photographically illustrated, comprehensively exploring the refugee experience, with narratives written by elementary school language students, based on their interviews with family elders and impressions of the photos, and edited by their teachers and dual language coaches.
Katha Dance Theatre (KDT) will produce a mainstage program of three world premiere dance concerts to share the art, culture, and history of India through the art of Kathak dance - the 2,000-year-old classical dance style of North India. These productions will include the world premiere of GANGA. The Myth and Reality, the world premiere of PANCHATANTRA, and the world premiere of PRAKRITIR PRATISODH Nature's Revenge. The first will premiere in St. Paul, the second in Minneapolis, and the third will play in another Twin Cities venue (TBD).
Many Faces of the White Bear Lake Area will provide opportunities to listen, learn, reflect, and engage in conversations and actions that promote equity, diversity, and inclusion. The theme, Many Faces: Many Expressions, will bring awareness to the heritage and traditions of our American Indian neighbors through a Wacipi; continues by highlighting stories of recent immigrants to our area through innovative artwork; and culminates by celebrating and building community through a multi-cultural festival.
Wiyounkihipi (We Are Capable) Productions will be a platform for Dakota voices to publish and pass on their teachings to future generations. We will be a resource hub that publishes children's books of the Dakota culture and language. Writers and artists will be professionally supported through profile pages, encouraging educators from around the state to invite them into their schools through in-person or virtual meetings, so that there is authentic Native representation in our classrooms.
This project will support a solo exhibition of new work at the American Indian Community Housing Organization's AICHO Galleries in Duluth, MN tentatively scheduled to run from June 7- August 30, 2024. The presentation will include community engagement activities in the form of an artist reception, and public facing cultural workshops, discussions, and related programming. The work presented is a meditation on the artist's creative practice before, during, and after the Global pandemic, and Global uprising of 2020.
Memorialize the Movement (MTM) will embark on an archiving and conservation project of the 1,000+ plywood panels in our stewardship from the Minneapolis Uprising of 2020 and beyond. Since the murder of George Floyd, MTM has collected and preserved the protest plywood murals created by community members, artists, and protesters that displayed their anger, pain, grief, and hope. These murals were used to board up storefronts and businesses all across the Twin Cities.
The majority of this funding will support our largest public art exhibit ever Alebrijes: Creatures of a Dream World and promoting the associated artists and community art classes during the critical period of July through November 2025 (as well as preparation for those exhibit months during the first half of 2025). The exhibit will take place in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
