This project provided documentation of the oral histories of former local directors of Special Education who were involved in implementing changes in policy and services for children with disabilities and their families in Minnesota during the 1950's to the 2000's. Seven interviews and a three-person panel discussion were conducted, recorded and transcribed. The interviews and transcriptions are available at the Minnesota Administrators of Special Education (MASE) office and the Minnesota History Center.
Minnesota, home to the largest Somali population in the United States, lacks resources for students to access knowledge and representations of Somalia. The Somali Museum of Minnesota will offer students immersive field trips illuminating the history and arts of traditional Somali society by subsidizing admission fees, integrating elders as immersive guides on tours, and developing take-home curriculum materials.
Through this partnership, University of Minnesota and ACTC students from diverse backgrounds explored the museum field and issues related to diversity and museums during a semester-long course followed by a paid internship. The program also engages students in discussions on the underrepresentation of communities of color and American Indian nations in historical organizations and public history graduate programs. The class is offered in the fall for ACTC students and as a spring semester course at the University of Minnesota.
Through this partnership, U of M and ACTC students from diverse backgrounds explored the museum field and issues related to diversity and museums through a fall semester-long course for ACTC students and a spring semester course at the university, followed by a paid internship at MNHS, the Somali Museum of Minnesota, Mia, and other organizations.
This project will involve the creation of a new theater room to be included in the Hmong Cultural Center Museum and Library. The theater room will allow visiting groups and walk-in visitors to view clips of historical documentaries about the Hmong diaspora and Hmong American Experience as part of their museum experience.
The Hmong Cultural Heritage Initiative is intended to both preserve and spread awareness and knowledge of Hmong culture in a comprehensive and multifaceted manner by supporting several outreach initiatives of the Hmong Cultural Center Museum.
Hmong Museum proposes developing a 400 sq feet traveling exhibit around the importance of Hmong's oral culture. It will be a research phase with collaboration between Hmong Museum and community members. Topics would include Hmong stories that are passed on including history narratives, skills that are taught orally, and folktales. It will also provide an opportunity for visitors of all backgrounds to be inspired to share their own stories about their lives and experiences.
“Preserving Hmong Cultural Farming Traditions” is a project devoted to documenting, through photography, videography, and oral interviews, the unique agricultural practices, traditions, and stories of Hmong farmers. Farming is an intrinsic element of Hmong heritage and identity. But very little of the knowledge and experience of Hmong farmers is being passed down to Hmong youth. This project will document and preserve Hmong farming stories and agricultural traditions for future generations.
The Legacy of Hmong Immigrants: Wat Tham Krabok Project will encourage communications and understanding between generations and across cultures, specifically the legacy and experiences of the last wave of Hmong refugees, the Wat Tham Krabok immigrants. We hope that this new project will encourage communications and understanding between Hmong generations and across cultures; especially the project encompass the experiences of a minority within a minority.
Hmong Museum will develop and streamline its online educational offerings through a series of online web exhibitions, collections, and enhanced curriculum.
Photograph all items of the Martha Kaufman-Zimmerman Collection of needlework and four archival boxes of objects from ca. 2000 to 2019 of Wat Tham Krabok with accession information and several hundred digital photos, and post them on our website so they may be viewed at any time and place. Publish books in Hmong and English with selected images and texts from our accession record, with additional information about common design elements and audio-video interview information.
The Hmong American Day non-profit would like to collaborate with Hmong for Native Speakers courses in the Osseo School District at Park Center Senior High and at Osseo Senior High to provide a culturally relevant education.
The New HCC Storefront Museum Implementation Project will involve the development of a guided tour app & new curriculum for school groups based on MN's K-12 standards. The project will also include a new strategic marketing plan to assist the museum in achieving future attendance & outreach goals. Finally, a new tour guide will be hired to meet public demand for tours in the new museum space which is intended to promote cross-cultural awareness and understanding of Hmong culture and history.
Filmmakers Kazua Melissa Vang, Yeej Moua, and May Lee-Yang will complete a documentary that look at how the pandemic transformed the way the Twin Cities Hmong community say goodbye to the dead.
This project is a workshop series project aimed to preserve cultural heritage by transferring knowledge on HMong batik and indigo textile art, a traditional practice lost to HMong Minnesotans. Workshops will be led by Artist Ka Oskar Ly, and include HMong elders, youth, families, educators, and broader community members, who will immerse in the HMong batik practice. These sessions will provide valuable insights into shared oral history, symbolism, and techniques, emphasizing comprehension of the entire process and its cultural significance.
Our book titled Staring Down the Tiger: Stories of Hmong American Women, provides a platform to tell stories of Hmong women—stories that are often left unheard. The collection of the stories in the book were developed during a writing retreat that provided emotional and technical writing support to nearly 30 women. The writing retreat was invaluable in helping non writers uncover and creatively share their stories. We are requesting $5,000 to create a personal development workbook that will supplement the book offering readers their own virtual experience of the writing retreat.
While Hong De Wu Guan, Inc., will continue and expand its current roster of cultural programs and classes through FY24/25, much of the organization's increasing efforts during the time period of this grant will be towards the successful launch of a 6- or 12-week after-school Lion Dance program. This pilot program will be a model upon which all subsequent programs can iterate and expand upon.
While Hong De Wu Guan, Inc., will continue and expand its current roster of cultural programs and classes through FY24/25, much of the organization's increasing efforts during the time period of this grant will be towards the successful launch of a 16 week after-school Lion Dance program. This pilot program will be a model upon which all subsequent programs can iterate and expand upon.
Our new project, Honor the Past, Preserve the Future: Hmong 18 Clans Custom and Cultural Preservation Project, is to preserve the history, traditional, and changing lives of the Hmong Minnesotans.
To document in 10 oral history interviews the history of basketball in and around Minneapolis as a lens onto the issues and dynamics of race/racism, community engagement, politics, unrest, and social change in Minnesota and around the nation.
This project requests funding to conduct and transcribe twelve oral history interviews focusing on the religious experience and interactions among immigrant groups in nine Twin Cities neighborhoods in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The goal of this project is to construct, calibrate, and validate a watershed model using HSPF. RESPEC will produce a HSPF model that can readily be used to provide information to support conventional parameter TMDLs.
This project will support new, community-focused programming that expands our current work, and explores community desire for a future gathering space magnetized around the humanities. We're calling our project The Park-Lynn Community Archive and Reading Room,Parks-Lynn for short.
To hire a professional historian to complete research and documentation of the Hamline United Methodist Church building, in preparation for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places.
