Minnesota Historical Society staff are working to serve Twin Cities area schools with increasingly diverse demographics. Staff are providing more support services for students competing in History Day and American Indian History Day. Staff are also promoting and recruiting students for programs that engage students in history like the American Indian Museum Fellowship Program and the Summer History Immersion Program. These funds also provide general staff and logistical support for diversity outreach efforts.
Partners: Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities (ACTC), Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MNSCU), Minneapolis Public Schools, St. Paul Public Schools, Through this program, partners are extending the reach of Minnesota History Day while providing History Day support for students from diverse backgrounds and strengthening the mentoring skills of Minnesota college students. Undergraduate students from ACTC and MNSCU colleges are trained to become History Day mentors and work with History Day students at local schools.
This program provides critical assistance to MN DNR Parks and Trails Division Regional and District offices to assist with renewal and rehabilitation efforts prioritized locally by field staff. Projects include the following types: State Park Building and Facilities Emergency Repair and Maintenance, Paved Trail Maintenance and Asset Preservation, and State Park and State Forest Trail Renewal. This project is a newly reorganized budget area that consolidates these three smaller project areas reported on in previous years.
We used a programmatic approach to achieve prioritized aquatic habitat protection, restoration, and enhancement for lakes, trout streams, and rivers across all LSOHC planning regions of Minnesota.
We will use a programmatic approach to achieve prioritized aquatic habitat protection, restoration, and enhancement of lakes and streams across all the LSOHC planning regions of Minnesota.
To meet increasing demand for digital books, 136 Minnesota Historical Society Press (MHS Press) books have been converted and are available as e-books from popular e-book vendors. Six short form e-books will be released by the end of January 2013. Digital editions of more than 80 MHS Press books are available to libraries, researchers and students via Project Muse, a leading provider of digital humanities and social sciences content. In addition, an enhanced e-book about Minnesota in the 1970s is now being written and developed and will be published in fall 2013.
Through this partnership, undergraduate students representing all five ACTC college campuses participated in a summer-long course designed to increase knowledge about the museum field. Students also interned at Minneapolis and St. Paul public schools, mentoring students participating in the History Day program. ACTC Fellows also visited leading museums in the midwest to compare and contrast the Minnesota Historical Society with other cultural institutions regarding content learned in class.
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.
The Parks and Trails Division is creating innovative programs to attract new audiences to Minnesota state parks and trails. Skill-building programs, such as "I Can Camp!," provide a trial opportunity by eliminating the barriers of needing to have pre-existing knowledge or gear for the activity.
The Minnesota Historical Society strives to attract high school and college interns from underrepresented communities to encourage engagement and diversify the institution. Students are placed across the Society in various departments and sites and have the opportunity to work alongside museum professionals to enhance their skills and apply their knowledge in a professional environment. College students participate in learning activities together over a semester-long period to enrich the internship experience and network with other interns in their cohort.
The Minnesota Historical Society strives to attract high school interns from underrepresented communities to encourage engagement and to diversify the institution. Legacy funds supported five gallery assistants in spring 2015. High school students placed in this program get professional on-the-job experience interacting with visitors in the History Center galleries and at public events. These students contributed more than 400 hours to MNHS. Eighty percent of these students were from communities of color.
This project used a combination of invasive tree removal, seeding, and prescribed fire to improve habitat quality, diversity, and productivity on public lands in Minnesota. As we lose habitat to conversion and encroachment, it is increasingly important to maximize wildlife production on existing permanently protected lands. Today's public lands are expected to function at the highest level for not only wildlife usability but now also for other non game rare and threatened species, pollinators, and for water quality efforts in the state.
To hire a qualified and experienced HVAC engineer to evaluate current system preparatory to better control of the Clearwater County History Museum environment
To enhance the viewer's ability to see fine arts exhibits by upgrading the lighting in the Fine Arts Building and modifying the display area to allow for additional exhibits.
MNHS exhibitions are supported by diverse programming that complements the content of the exhibitions. These additional programs augment and promote the rich stories of Minnesota's history. In FY16, programs included lectures, musical performances, hands-on family activities, and other events. In particular, three exhibitions
Minnesota Association of Museums collaborates with the Minnesota Historical Society in providing professional development and support to history museum professionals across the state. In FY15, this partnership will assist with the funding of a part-time managing coordinator to begin implementing findings on history museum continuing education needs.
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.
Since 1981, the downtown Minneapolis nightclub First Avenue has been the regional standard-bearer for contemporary music, recognized the world over as the premier venue for the "Minneapolis Sound"
The DNR works with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the Minnesota Department of Health to determine the level of contamination from mercury and other harmful chemicals in fish from Minnesota's lakes and rivers and to track the success of efforts to reduce mercury pollution. Clean Water Legacy funding is being used to significantly increase (more than double) the number of lakes and rivers that are assessed for mercury contamination on an annual basis. Fish are collected during DNR fishery surveys, processed for laboratory testing, and analyzed for contaminants.
The Minnesota DNR and the Minnesota Forest Resources Council work with forest landowners, managers and loggers to implement a set of voluntary sustainable forest management guidelines that include water quality best management practices (BMPs) to ensure sustainable habitat, clean water, and productive forest soils, all contributing to healthy watersheds. This project will monitor the implementation of these forest management guidelines and BMPs on forested watersheds in MN.
Four new and unique views of Fort Snelling from various points in history will be available for students, teachers and the general public to access online. The Minnesota Historical Society has been collaborating with the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities at the University of Virginia to build four computer models that illustrate a dynamic and changing Fort Snelling from 1820 to 1945. The models will be linked to a rich and interrelated set of materials from all parts of the Society's collections, including photographs and manuscripts.
Development is underway on a number of future History Center exhibitions that will explore rich stories of Minnesota's past. Major exhibitions will center on how Minnesotans have played, the national impact of the 18th Amendment and Prohibition, the Vietnam War experience and its legacy, and professional football and the Vikings. Other exhibitions will highlight the variety of communities in the state and will bring the fascinating collections of the Minnesota Historical Society to public view.
In order to implement its Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund (ACHF) projects, the Minnesota Historical Society employs an ACHF Manager to oversee the program administration. The Society is also supporting administration of the grants program and expanded financial management and administrative functions. The Society is diligently working to keep administrative costs low while adhering to the legislative mandate that costs be "directly related to and necessary for a specific appropriation."
Partner: The Minnesota Geospatial Information Office
In the spring of 2013, students and the general public will be able to choose a specific place on an online map of Minnesota and historical images and information related to that spot will automatically appear. The site will give students and the general public a deeper knowledge of the history of particular places in the state. Geo-tagging staff has been adding geographical markers to more than 300,000 of the Society's historic photographs, maps and artifacts.
This funding supports and ensures the success of the ACHF-funded Minnesota Historical and Cultural Heritage Grants Program. It allows Society staff to seek out potential grant applicants, lead statewide grant-writing workshops and webinars, and help applicants with technical information critical to submitting a successful grant application, as well as supporting recipients throughout the life of their projects.
This funding supports and ensures the success of the ACHF-funded Minnesota Historical and Cultural Heritage Grants Program. It allows Society staff to seek out potential grant applicants, lead statewide grant-writing workshops and webinars, and help applicants with technical information critical to submitting a successful grant application, as well as supporting recipients throughout the life of their projects.
The administration of the Minnesota Historical and Cultural Heritage Grant Program ensures rigor, fairness, honesty, integrity, and consistency in the distribution of ACHF funding. Grants staff consult on, review, evaluate, respond to, mentor, coach, shape, and monitor grant projects from initial applicant contact to project closeout, reporting, and monitoring.
This project is established by the Minnesota Legislature, directing the Department of Natural Resources to provide a grant to the Greater Minnesota Regional Park and Trail Coalition.
Minnesota’s use of groundwater has increased over the last two decades. An increasing reliance on groundwater may not be a sustainable path for continued economic growth and development. The DNR is establishing three pilot groundwater management areas (GWMA) to help improve groundwater appropriation decisions and help groundwater users better understand and plan for future groundwater needs associated with economic development.
