With the centenary of the U.S. involvement in the Great War in Europe, the experience of predominantly German New Ulm and Brown County continues to have national significance and relevance to current events. The Brown County Historical Society created an exhibit, "Loyalty and Dissent: Brown County and World War I" on the second floor of their museum to illustrate and interpret the war experience of 1917 and 1918 as it pertained to Brown County.
MNHS exhibits are supported by diverse programming that complements exhibit content while extending the rich stories of Minnesota's history. MNHS staff are able to partner with community organizations on innovative programs for visitors of all ages. In FY17, programs included lectures, panel discussions, film screenings, musical performances, readers theater programs in the exhibit gallery, hands-on family activities and other events.
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.
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.
The program that we are proposing has three components; 1) weekly arts club that provides arts education and peer mentoring for youth that are designed to introduce youth to traditional Somali arts. 2) A Somali arts show and cultural learning opportunity taking place at The Southern Theater in Minneapolis through The Southern’s Arts Residency and Art Share Programs. 3) Showcasing Somali art at the Somali Independence day Festival in 2017.
This exhibit about the iconic Minneapolis club, First Avenue, will explore the 1980s when the club was at its peak as a trailblazing venue that put Minnesota music on the map. For four decades, the First Avenue has been a launching pad for local talent like Prince, The Replacements and Husker Du and a place national touring acts loved to play. It booked African American rock, soul and hip-hop artists unable to get gigs at other downtown venues, and it fostered a growing punk, hardcore and indie rock scene.
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.
This proposal would acquire forest lands of significant natural resource and strategic location values and then resell those same lands previously acquired with this grant, subject to a Conservation Easement. Process would be repeated with land sale proceeds.
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.
In the fourth year of this project, MNHS staff completed inventory and rehousing of most artifacts excavated from Historic Fort Snelling between 1957 and 1981. The Collections Management System now has 118,500 records for Fort Snelling artifacts. Three hundred items were photographed and are now accessible to the public online. In 2016, an exhibit featuring patent medicine bottles found at Fort Snelling was developed and installed in the Fort Snelling Visitor Center.
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.
Gridiron Glory: The Best of the Pro Football Hall of Fame is a national traveling exhibit produced by
the Pro Football Hall of Fame of Canton, Ohio.
On display just as the new U.S. Bank Stadium opened, the exhibit featured a "Hometown Tribute" to the Minnesota Vikings with additional items from the MNHS collections related to Minnesota's football history.
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.
The Minnesota Historical Society is developing creative, hands-on learning projects for K-12 students that adhere to state social studies standards and introduce students to important aspects of Minnesota and U.S. history. For example, students will explore the role of slavery in American history by examining historical newspapers, letters and laws and by watching a series of dramatic portrayals of Dred and Harriet Scott who lived at Fort Snelling in the 1830s. These projects will be made accessible to teachers around the state and around the country in 2013.
Pheasants Forever provides coordination, mapping, and data management for the Habitat Corridors Partnership. Funds are being used to coordinate the partnership, guide strategic outreach and implementation efforts, manage project data, and provide reporting and mapping of accomplishments.
The Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe is working within the Leech Lake Reservation boundaries to address loss and degradation of aquatic habitat for wild rice and waterfowl. Efforts will include regulating water levels on shallow lakes by controlling beaver activity and conducting periodic water level draw-downs, reseeding of approximately 200 acres of wild rice, and implementing adaptive management based on analysis of wild rice productivity.
An estimated 200 acres of lands acquired through this phase of the Habitat Corridors Partnership are expected to be transferred to the state for designation as Wildlife Management Areas (WMA). The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is using these funds to conduct habitat restoration on these new WMA lands, as well as develop the infrastructure necessary for public access to them.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is coordinating efforts to improve habitat for aquatic species and protect water quality on lakes, streams, and their surrounding sensitive shorelands. A total of up to 3.5 miles or 35 acres of water bodies in Kandiyohi, Otter Tail, Rice, or Stevens Counties are expected to benefit from restoration activities including installation of aeration systems, development of spawning areas, installation of native vegetation, and stabilization of stream banks.
With this appropriation, the Minnesota Land Trust plans to protect approximately 500 acres of critical shoreline habitat along Minnesota's lakes, wetlands, rivers, and streams by securing permanent conservation easements and dedicating funds for their perpetual monitoring, management, and enforcement. Lands being considered for permanent protection in this round of funding are located in Becker, Beltrami, Blue Earth, Itasca, Kandiyohi, Lac Qui Parle, Le Sueur, Otter Tail, Pope, and Wabasha counties.
