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
The Equity Alliance MN will bring to life absent narratives of Latino, Hmong, Native, Asian, African American, and women of the Civil Rights Era in a collaboration among youth, social studies teachers, Full Circle Theater (FCT), and St. Paul Neighborhood Network. The narratives, researched by youth, will be transformed by FCT into a six person play that will be presented, video recorded, and distributed with accompanying curriculum written by social studies teachers for teachers across the Equity Alliance MN and the state.
The Children's Discovery Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota aims to strengthen its highly successful School Service Program by retaining a Program development coordinator, changing core interactive exhibits and creating new curriculum for pre-school and K - 5 students in ten northern Minnesota counties.
MNHS is working to engage Twin Cities youth in programming in order to increase their interest in history and the Minnesota Historical Society. MNHS promotes and recruits diverse students for programs that engage them in understanding how public organizations present historical narratives. One of these programs is the American Indian Museum Fellowship program (above). The funds also provide logistical support for diversity outreach efforts, which includes having tables at events and community engagement activities.
Partners: Northland Schools, Remer, and Washington Technology Magnet School, St. Paul
Improving the educational achievement of Minnesota's students is a strategic priority for MNHS. The Educational Achievement initiative allows MNHS to create partnerships with two school districts
Partners: Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MNSCU), University of Minnesota (U of M), Minneapolis Public Schools, St. Paul Public Schools
Through this program, partners are extending the reach of National History Day in Minnesota. MNHS professional staff members coordinate school services with an emphasis on support for students from diverse backgrounds. Higher education partnerships help build college readiness skills for middle and high school students and strengthen the mentoring skills of Minnesota college students.
This project had three components: 1) An arts club that meets weekly and provides arts education and peer mentoring; 2) A theater play that will showcase issues/challenges within the Somali community in the community. The workshops are designed to introduce youth to traditional Somali arts and encourage them to extend the tradition through their own artistic practice. 3) Showcasing Somali Art, presentation and intercultural community engagement at the Somali Independence day Festival in 2016.
To strengthen a large partnership, including American Indian partners, as they improve and make available more historic information about the Minnesota River Valley.
In the third year of this project, MNHS staff continued to inventory and rehouse archaeological collections from Historic Fort Snelling. As part of MNHS involvement with the University of Minnesota's Heritage Collaborative, student interns spent the 2015 fall semester assisting project staff with inventory and research. Artifact data was shared with University faculty for use in their courses. To date, over 98,000 catalog records have been created, describing more than 180,000 artifacts recovered during archaeological excavations at Historic Fort Snelling.
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, 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.
