CMSM opened its new permanent site with increased capacity to serve as an informal learning center that playfully engages children, families, and school groups in interactive experiences with the art and cultural heritage of southern Minnesota. With its current appropriation, CMSM is poised to strengthen its core as an institution that promotes arts and cultural heritage learning through continued
CMSM will build upon the work that began with its 2015-16 appropriation by (1) Remediation and further development of exhibit areas that promote Arts & Cultural Heritage (ACH) learning (2) Expanding ACH learning opportunities for new audiences at off-site locations; (3) Engaging an outside Evaluation Consultant to help plan/implement strategies that meaningfully assess ACH learning outcomes and impacts; (4) Boosting the Museum’s capacity to serve more school/early learning groups.
The Children's Museum of Rochester, Inc. will be implementing a program called Passport To Play aiming to increase the number of children and families of all ages, ethnicities, abilities and incomes to participate in hands-on arts and cultural programming and educational exhibits at the museum. Passport To Play would reach over 1,500 children and families a year from underserved communities in Southeastern Minnesota. The Children's Museum of Rochester, Inc.
Composing and recording traditional Hmong song poetry now that I'm in the third phase of my life, focused on my responsibilities as an old man, a grandfather. I want to do an album of song poetry about the things I am leaving behind. My voice is not as young or as handsome as it once was, scarred by time and circumstances, I now sing with an older man's tones. But even this is valuable for the human experience.
The Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota (CMSM) will build upon a strong foundation of Minnesota Arts, Culture and Heritage (ACH) learning experiences made possible with prior MN Legacy funding support to:
The Children's Museum of Southern Minnesota planned for the cultural alignment of the permanent Children's Museum's art curation, signage, and interactive experiences. The primary focus of this cultural content related to southern Minnesota including Dakota art, culture, and heritage and complemented the Exhibit Development and Fabrication Legacy grant goals.
This project includes artist workshops for the Hispanic Community Outreach program. Workshops include: 1) puppet making; 2) paper Mache classes; 3) Guatemalan weaving classes; 4) mural and painting classes by Gustavo Lira, Mexican muralist/painter/sculptor/mosaic artist/ceramicist/art educator; 5) an Alebrijes workshop, with Aaron Johnson-Ortiz/Gustavo Boada. Johnson-Ortiz is a Latino cultural arts worker/organizer/public artist/muralist focused on workers' struggles, immigrant rights, and Latino culture.
The Department of Public Transformation will hire a Development Consultant to lead the Board and staff toward more sustainable and intentional fundraising strategies. Specifically, a consultant teaches skills in building annual giving programs, creating audit systems and policies, coach staff and board on effective fundraising strategies, and implement processes that can evolve as the organization continues to grow.
The Why Treaties Matter exhibit made possible by previous Legacy funding explores the relationships between Minnesota's Dakota and Ojibwe tribes and the United States Government. The Minnesota Indian Affairs Council and the Humanities Center will take the work and impact of the exhibit deeper by creating a curriculum to complement the exhibit.
This project will preserve and celebrate the Anishinaabe Art & Culture through a series of meaningful workshops. Each workshop (12 total), is designed to engage 10-12 participants, providing them with valuable cultural experiences and knowledge.
The Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota (CMSM) will complete the innovative community engagement process started with the previous Legacy grant. CMSM will build upon the progress created with the previous Legacy grant by transitioning the team's focus to carrying-out of strategic access strategies that engage a diversity of community members in the exhibit development process, resulting in the completion of fabrication plans for exhibits and environments that are accessible; engaging; and reflect the diverse art, culture, and heritage of southern Minnesota.
Building on the exhibit development community engagement process carried through three successive Legacy grants, the Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota used the 2013 direct appropriation to prepare for and begin building exhibit components for its permanent facility by combining professional museum expertise with local resources, volunteers, and community involvement.
In 2007, the Children's Museum of Southern Minnesota (CMSM) conducted an environmental scan of early learning opportunities for children in southern Minnesota. It became apparent that the region creates few opportunities for children to engage in self-directed learning experiences in social settings; in particular, opportunities that create access to arts, culture, and heritage. This is still true today.
Building on the exhibit development community engagement process carried out through four successive Legacy grants, the Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota will use the 2014-15 direct appropriation to complete fabrication and installation of several exhibit components for its permanent facility. Local resources, volunteers, and community involvement will be combined with museum expertise to complete this process.
This project will produce content for the Headwaters exhibit including: 1) creation and content development of Meet Your Neighbor stations; 2) creation of two murals and a sculpture celebrating diversity; 3) new exhibit design in partnership with Stearns County History Museum; 4) design an art fence for the Outdoor Adventures exhibit.
In 2018 the Great River Children's Museum, (GRCM) received a building worth $1,500,000 from Liberty Bank. Since receiving this gift, the Board of Directors has completed a Museum Strategic Master Plan with Vergeront Museum Planning, a predesign plan and building condition assessment with JLG Architects, a hazardous building materials assessment with Braun Intertec, and a marketing plan with Gearbox Marketing.
Great River Children's Museum: Moving Forward Project encompasses the development of new exhibits & programs with and for the families of Central MN. We are expanding upon partnerships formed with community groups, developing exhibit areas that open doors to new experiences and cultures, and working to create program guides that will highlight some of the many informal learning opportunities to be found in our exhibit areas.
This project will support new exhibit components, including an agriculture heritage exhibit, that will showcase the farming way of life and the importance of family farms for the country's food source. It includes workshops and hands-on learning in roles such as gardener, farmer, processor, seed agronomist, farmers market vendor, and consumer.
Telling Queer History will support the collection and preservation of personal oral histories from LGBTQIA+ communities in rural Minnesota; historical research for our archives and LGBTQ+ history walking tours; and community outreach in greater Minnesota. This grant will also support the early development of a series of supplemental curriculum products detailing Minnesota LGBTQ+ history, creating a potential new earned revenue stream for TQH.
The Oshki-Filmmakers Project is a series of film workshops and opportunities for the White Earth Ojibwe Reservation. Focusing on Indigenous youth, these workshops bring established Indigenous filmmakers from across our region together with youth artists to share stories and knowledge as our young artists begin to shape their artistic craft. We provide work space and equipment to empower our youth to share their own stories and those of our community for many generations to come.
Red Wing Arts will facilitate a collaboration beginning the process of healing the historical trauma that
divides the Dakota and Red Wing residents. Leaders of the Prairie Island Indian Community, Goodhue County
and Red Wing Arts will use the power of the arts to host engagement and cultural education arts experiences
that provide space for healing, improved mental health and connection. A mural designed by tribal members
will be installed in downtown Red Wing will symbolize this initiative.
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.
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.
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.
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.
(Neo)Muralismos de Mexico will develop and launch new youth programming in partnership through Mankato Youth Camp (MN State University Mankato), Austin Area Children (Austin folk artist Flor Soto, City of Austin, Austin Area Arts, and Riverland Community College), Saint Paul's West Side (Wellstone Center, St. Paul Parks and Recreation, and local schools), and South Minneapolis (Lake Street businesses and organizations). Including a two-week camp, workshops, hands-on art activities, painting, papier-m?ch?, and public art.
This project includes a new exhibit component that includes a variety of farm production machinery, diverse agriculture commodities, and livestock, and provides an interactive learning experience about agricultural production and the art of manufacturing food for every culture.
Legacy-funded programs at the Minnesota Humanities Center demonstrate our determination to collaboratively create humanities programs for the broader public by forging strong partnerships with local, state, and national cultural organizations. These programs show the broader community how the humanities can be used to address issues important to their everyday lives. Each activity, event, and program shares an Absent Narrative with participants, which help residents across the state engage in a more sophisticated understanding of their community.
The Civics Education Coalition will create opportunities for students, enrich teacher capacity to engage students, and build state-wide networks. Work will include an interactive website, online youth summit, youth conference, new lessons for educators, teacher institutes, and expansion of the statewide Civic Education Network and its activities.
Year 1: Arts and Cultural Heritage funding will allow us to identify and plan a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) exhibit experience, design and develop the exhibit, select a fabrication partner, and fabricate the exhibit components between July 1, 2019 and June 30, 2020. The STEM exhibit will be designed to help children practice critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Minnesota Youth in Government (YIG) is a youth-led experience that engages middle and high school youth in democratic governing leadership. Students learn about government process and gain an understanding of local, state, national and international concerns. They research and debate, participate in model Assemblies, United Nations, Youth Conferences on National Affairs, retreats and trainings, and National Judicial Competition, and gain an appreciation of diverse viewpoints in respectful ways.
The M requests funding to create a Native Arts Partnership Council that will guide the expansion of our Native Arts Initiatives. Consisting of key Indigenous artists, elders, and educators, the group of 7-10 individuals will represent the diverse tribes and tribal demographics of the region. Members of the council will be invited to engage in a process of co-creation that will work to deepen our focus on Native Arts and launch an ongoing Native Arts Council that is Native- and community-led.
Founded on the centennial of the Mexican Muralist movement, (Neo)Muralismos de México (NMM) aims to revitalize and reclaim our Mexican cultural heritage through culturally-specific, socially-informed, historically-grounded, and community-engaged public art. To this end, NMM will lead and coordinate 5 community-engaged muralism and public art projects that will uplift our cultural heritage around the state, including projects in the Twin Cities, Duluth, Red Wing, and Austin, MN.
New Arab American Theater Works is requesting funds for a community project exploring the impact of immigration from historic Syria (including modern day Lebanon) to the Americas over the last 100 years through an exploratory multi-disciplinary work of art and the input of community members. This will culminate in a 3 week production and 9 community dialogues exploring the complex subject of Lebanese and Syrian migration to the Americas.
The Niibi Center and White Earth Land Recovery Project (WELRP) will collaborate to establish a Medicine and Three Sisters Garden teaching and learning space on land owned and managed by WELRP located on White Earth Reservation. They will engage community members, especially young people and families, in the planting and cultivation of the gardens and offer and host year long teaching, learning and cultural immersion activities aligned with our existing mission and goals.
(Neo)Muralismos de Mexico will 1) develop internal capacity as they develop a "Mexican & Latino Museum of Minnesota". Key objectives include: 1) hire a consultant to support strategic planning; 2) hire an HR consultant; 3) hire a legal consultant; 4) website development.
Otter Cove Children's Museum will be a state-of-the-art educational and cultural center in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, providing a much-needed accessible, indoor play space for the children of Otter Tail County and beyond. Otter Cove was started and driven by a group of moms but the actual place, Otter Cove, is for children and the "critters" who live there; the otter in the Otter Romp Playground, the fox at the cafe, the beaver at the dentist office, the raccoon at the grocery store, the swan on the stage, the mice at the bookstore, and the skunk at the veterinarian.
This project includes new exhibit components and enhancements; facilitating diverse workshops and performances for children and families, and four mini camps for children ages 6-12 during school/summer breaks.
