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.
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.
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 hire a qualified historian to complete a local historic designation for the 1907 Fire Station No. 24 in Minneapolis, the only known all-African American staffed fire station in City history.
To hire a historical architect to conduct a conditions assessment of the George Gardner House, listed in the National Register of Historic Places and currently in use by the Germanic-American Institute.
To contract with qualified professionals to prepare a Historic Structure Report for the George Stoppel Farmstead, listed in the National Register of Historic Places, now used as an open air museum.
To conduct and transcribe oral history interviews of several Hamline University School of Law faculty members, to commemmorate the 40th anniversary of the school's founding.
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.
“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.
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.
