Preserving the Preservers: What You Can Do To Support Your Local Museum or Historical Society

In today’s economic climate, nonprofit and other organizations all over the country are struggling to keep their doors open. With a large portion of funding often coming from corporate and private donors, stock market repercussions are reducing the dollars awarded in support. Particularly hit are those unique preservers of culture and history—the museum. A simple Internet query on the state of museums in the country reveals that even the heaviest of hitters are taking it on the chin. Recently the Queens Museum of Art in New York saw $400,000 cut from its budget.[1]

As a response, these institutions are looking at a host of possible solutions. Many start with reduced staff and business hours as a solution, while others, says a recent Wall Street Journal article, are forced to think outside the box for answers:

“Several of the country’s small and medium-size museums have been turning to the art-world equivalent of a bailout. They are partnering with a university or other academic institution, in some cases handing over artworks and changing locations, in a last-ditch effort to keep their doors open and their collections intact and available to the public.”[2]

Museums situated in smaller cities and towns often face financial strife on an even greater order of magnitude. They seldom receive the same level of funding as their urban counterparts, and thus rely more heavily on earned revenue from patrons. With little funding to bring in National-caliber exhibits, which in turn, draw more customers, outlying museums fight a vicious cycle just to stay viable. Moreover, these rural organizations don’t often have the same “bailout” options at hand as those in metropolitan areas, as mentioned above.

The Minnesota Humanities Center is taking an active role in helping small museums in greater Minnesota help themselves. Museum on Main Street is a one-of-a-kind cultural project that serves small town museums and residents of rural America by bringing national-caliber exhibits to rural historical societies and museums. It is a partnership of the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) and state humanities councils nationwide. Museum on Main Street combines the prestige of Smithsonian exhibitions, the program expertise of state humanities councils, and the unique histories of small rural towns.

These exhibits tell a national story and are complemented by a local exhibit, created by the host site, which provides a local story related to the Smithsonian material. While the Smithsonian name draws audiences in, it is often the local artifacts and stories assembled by host sites that visitors find most compelling, as they have direct connection to the material.

This is where you can help. If you would like to support local historical societies and museums by visiting a Museum on Main Street exhibit, please find additional information about the current schedule of tours by visiting http://minnesotahumanities.org/outreach/moms.

The Minnesota Humanities Center is also looking for local historical societies and museums to host a Museum on Main Street exhibit for the 2011-2012 year.  If you know of a community that would benefit from hosting a Smithsonian traveling exhibit, please visit our website at http://minnesotahumanities.org/outreach/moms for information about the call for proposals for the upcoming exhibit New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music.

The Minnesota Humanities Center is into its eighth year bringing these national-caliber exhibits to rural towns of 20,000 or fewer, resulting in additional resources and record-breaking numbers of visitors to small cultural organizations. Through Museum on Main Street, the Humanities Center leverages the Smithsonian’s national reputation to deepen awareness of and interest in local and regional Minnesota history, while enhancing the vitality of rural cultural organizations and greater Minnesota communities.

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[1] “Museums Exhibit Signs of Economic Distress”. National Public Radio. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99017732. Accessed May 24, 2010.

[2] “Hit by the Downturn, Museums Seek Bailouts”. Wall Street Journal. http://tiny.cc/za6x3. Accessed on May 24, 2010.

As the dust settles… we consider language

Summer has been quite busy here at the humanities center. We have had many professional development workshops for teachers and just came off of our successful conference on Equity and the Future of Black Education. Over 300 participants came to Normandale College in Minnesota to hear speakers from across the nation discuss the achievement gap and how we can improve the education system.

We head into the fall with more programs and projects than we have ever had before. Staff is coming and going quickly around here as we hire new people and other people move on to different jobs and states!

One of our latest projects was a partnership with Anton Treuer and many Ojibwe elders. The Ojibwe language is a language in danger of extinction. As fewer people pass on the language to young people and more elders pass on, taking their knowledge of the language with them, the number of people who are fluent in the language dwindles. Thankfully, there are a few Ojibwe Language Immersion schools in Minnesota where a new generation of children are learning the language. With the advances in technology, one of the challenges to any language is that it must grow and change with the pace of society. How do you describe Algebra in Ojibwe? Or describe the procedures in a science lab? Aaniin Ekidong is the Ojibwe phrase for “how do you say?”, and it is also the name of our new book.

Read more about it on our website http://minnesotahumanities.org/resources/aaniin or purchase a copy of your own from lulu.com. It will also be available through Amazon.com in the coming weeks.

But now it is your turn. What is the role of language in your life? How often do you think you learn new words? Have you ever found yourself cursing “new-fangled” technology because you just learned the old technology?

Please be patient…

We know things are getting rather dusty around here–oh and it appears there’s a cobweb forming over there…hrm–and we’re very sorry.

We’re in the process of revisiting how best to focus this blog in order to share the differences we are making while best interacting with our audiences. As soon as we have it figured out, you will be the first to know.

If you have suggestions, please comment below or e-mail info@minnesotahumanities.org. Thank you!

Poetry Month with Guest Blogger, Michael Gause, Part IV

Poetry 2.0

Well, April is on its way out; another National Poetry Month comes to a close. I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to talk about poetry and hope you have gotten something out of it, too. For the last guest post, I thought I would talk about two related issues regarding poetry: popular perception and its place in the (very) digital age.

For part the first, I have been asking people what they think of poetry. It seems for every person who loves poetry out there, there are at least three who roll their eyes at the very mention of it. In response, I have even been asked to defend my own affinity for it. For years I hemmed and hawed about its rich heritage in cultures all over the globe. I’ve defended its existence in counterpoint to the greed and selfishness we see around us at increasing levels. I think I even once proclaimed that the right poetry could save us all. These answers were usually met with a second eye roll relegating me to some artsy dimension where sonnets flow from loudspeakers and teachers hand out daisies at lunchtime. Only lately have I really come up with my real answer to the question of why I like poetry: “Because I found mine.” After years of reading, studying, and attempting to write poetry, I have realized that saying you don’t like poetry is very much like saying you don’t like music. With its styles and flavors ranging from Chopin to Dizzy Gillespie to Low to Ice-T, it is laughable to most of us that someone would, part and parcel, proclaim not to like music. The same goes, believe it or not, for poetry. Go read “Archaic Torso of Apollo.” Not your style? Try a page from Bukowski’s Dangling in the Tournefortia. How about Howl by Ginsburg? In each generation there is a wide breadth of style and voice at your disposal. I honestly believe those who say they don’t like poetry just haven’t found the poetry that speaks to them. If you do, watch out. Your world just might open up right in front of you.

Moreover, the written page is but one medium through which to experience poetry these days. Musical accompaniment of performed poetry has around for decades and still flourishes today. Either recorded or in person you can find a range of work read with everything from jazz (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.html?curid=17347443) to classical music (http://americanpublicmedia.publicradio.org/press/archive/pr_030309.html) to experimental sound art. I come across new sites on the Internet regularly which are taking poetry’s words and facilitating their next evolutionary step. Collaborations with digital media are offering up some very engaging possibilities on sites like Born Magazine (http://www.bornmagazine.org/) seek to connect penster and tech artist to create something leveraging both worlds. The Hold (http://the-hold.blogspot.com/) opens the door for uploadable mixes of your own. These new combinations, made possible by a technology that might seem in opposition to poetry are, in fact, taking it to new levels-levels which just may help it connect better with our 21^st century psyches.

So, as National Poetry Month comes to a close, I have to smile. I know it doesn’t end with April. It never does. Whether it’s being mashed with multimedia or wafting above an alto sax in some jazz club somewhere or just dancing on the pages an old, worn book; go look and listen for poetry. It’s popping up in more places than ever. It IS spring, after all.

Question:

Have you discovered any poetry this month? What has struck you and why? We’d love to hear about it!

Poetry Month with Guest Blogger, Michael Gause, Part III

Poetry and the Power of Place

 

Walking by the waters,

down where an honest river

shakes hands with the sea,

a woman passed round me

an a slow, watchful circle,

as if I were as superstition;

 

or the worst dregs of her imagination,

so when she finally spoke

her words spliced into bars

of an old wheel. A segment of air.

Where do you come from?

‘Here,’ I said, ‘Here. These parts.’[1]

 

Region…Residence…Home. Call it what you will, the idea of one’s place holds meaning for each of us, regardless of where or how we live. For those who never stop moving, home is a rest stop between city limits. For those more sedentary, home can simply end where the rest of the world begins. Some of us are comfortable in our place, while others feel like plants struggling in the wrong soil. Our place affects how we are perceived by others (Yankees, Southerners, New Yorkers) and even how we perceive ourselves. I have found place to be of particular importance in the minds and hearts of Minnesotans. Duluth, Superior, Edina, and Red Wing all bring with them feelings and stereotypes stronger than any I knew in my native home of Nashville, TN. See, originally a southerner, I see Minnesota (my place of 14 years) from a more objective vantage point.

 

Nor is the power of place lost on poetry. Poets from all walks and generations have written their lines about the connection (or disconnection) to the ground they walk. From Blake’s London to Baudelaire’s Paris to Baca’s New Mexico, some places seem to inspire poetry with ease—even the desperate, winter vistas of Minnesota. The late Bill Holm was known to many as the voice of this land. He was an elemental of cold and frost and molded people and places from the very hoarfrost around him, barely outlined against their landscape as in his piece “Barbed-wire Winter.”

 

“–Boy! 
When we got married–now, that was cold weather. 
At least twenty-five below, 
winter solstice, nineteen forty, 
war and rinderpest. 
Road to the church was blocked with barbed wire. 
I remember we clambered over the rail fence of the parsonage. 
–Hey, your dress is caught 
–no, not there–over there. 
We tramped the furrows of an ice-crusted 
potato field, up to the minister 
who was in his surplice and had 
the Scriptures ready. 
–Love is a path you must walk, he ways, Yes, we said. 
But my lord what muddy feet we had! 
When we got in bed that night 
we cried a dab–both of us. God 
knows why. 
And then the long life began.”[2]  

 

 

Reflecting on the power of place, I am reminded of a project taking place here at the Humanities Center—The Bdote Memory Map. Bdote refers to the confluence of two bodies of water for the local Dakota communities. In this instance it refers to the place where the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers converge, for according to the origin stories of the Bdewakantunwan Dakota this place is the center of the earth. It is where Dakota people began. The Minnesota Humanities Center is working with local indigenous communities and American Indian-led media companies on this digital resource for acquiring and preserving stories and thoughts, across generations, on this area of deep meaning for the Dakota in Minnesota. The map is in development; its current iteration can be found here: http://web.mac.com/alliesms/Memory/MEMORY_MAP_.html. Content acquired here will be leveraged in a number of ways for our local educators to more effectively connect with their American Indian students and to educate their non-Indian peers on their rich cultural heritage. The Bdote Memory Map is but one tool the Humanities Center uses in its work with cultural competency and educational equity. For more information see the Humanities Center web site: http://minnesotahumanities.org/culturalcompetency.

 

I leave you with another look at place, by Heid Erdrich, local poet, editor, and member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe.

 

“We were the land before we were a people,
earthdivers, her darling mudpuppies, so the stories go,
or emerging, fully forming from flesh of earth —
  
The land, not the least vaguely, realizing in all four directions,
still storied, art-filled, fully enhanced.
Such as she is, such as she wills us to become.”[3]

 

Special Note: Heid Erdrich will be the lead scholar for our American Indian Literature Series workshop for educators on June 11 and 12. Register now!

 

I encourage you to seek out the poetry of place, both locally and beyond. It cannot help but affect how you see your own place in the world.

 

What does ‘home’ mean to you? Tell us—we’d like to hear!

 

Until next week. Keep reading poetry.

 

 

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[1] “In My Country” by Jackie Kay. Accessed April 15, 2009 from http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePoem.do?poemId=5685.

[2] Accessed on April 16, 2009 from http://www.northfieldlibraryfriends.org/bill_holm_poetry.html.

[3] Excerpt from “National Monuments” accessed on April 16, 2009 from http://www.swjournal.com/index.php?&story=13372&page=152&category=64.

Poetry Month with Guest Blogger, Michael Gause, Part II

I hope poetry is helping keep your April from becoming, as Eliot declares, “the cruellest month.”[1] Have you pulled down some old favorites from the bookshelf? Ventured out to a reading? We’d love to hear what you’ve been doing to celebrate National Poetry Month.

As synchronicity would have it, just today I was friended on Facebook by John D. Evans, organizer of an intriguing online event to take place this month in support of expanding the reach of National Poetry Month. With this event fifteen poets from around the world-including Saint Paul, Minnesota-will unite and discuss the need for a World Poetry Month. On April 13th and 20th from 8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. the poets will , per Evans “engage in educational, inspiring, and meaningful discussions on poetry and they will explain how poetry empowers.” All visitors can chat live in the chat-room during the show live at: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Black-Author-Network. More information is available by contacting Evans directly at 877-4MY-TEPC (877-469-8372). If any of you take part in this event in any way, I would love to hear about your experience. An intriguing concept and hopefully a prosperous one.

Here at the Minnesota Humanities Center we conduct professional development workshops for educators on a wealth of topics. The goal is to strengthen their content knowledge and resources for their work in the classroom. This in mind, as I was perusing the web site of the American Academy of Poets (www.poets.org), I came across free resources for teaching poetry available to educators you should know about. The Academy makes available free poetry lesson plans and curriculum units, as well as tip sheets for teachers, with ideas and success stories from past years. All of these can be found on their For Educators page: http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/6. To all interested teachers, I encourage you to check out these free resources and comment back on their usefulness to you. The Academy itself suggests sharing any success stories you have with them, as well. Just email them at npm@poets.org and they may even post your story on their web site.

In my last post I talked briefly about how poetry parallels the humanities in how they can and should both provide a type of foundation or vantage point from which to engage our days. Be our endeavors firmly in the world of business or charity, be they filled with academic research, city planning, or physical labor; poetry, like the humanities, can help guide what we do from the realm of emotion, of intellect, and of usable common sense. Their wisdom can be rudders in the violent waters, rudders that always fit our hands and will not give out when we need them most. Former Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, Dana Gioia’s classic essay “Can Poetry Matter”[2] is an engaging look at poetry and its power and its perception in modern times. Originally published over ten years ago, it still speaks well to poetry’s place in our ever complicating society.

That said, I leave you with some lines from William Carlos Williams on pertinence.

My heart rouses
          thinking to bring you news
                    of something
that concerns you
          and concerns many men.  Look at
                    what passes for the new.
You will not find it there but in
          despised poems.
                    It is difficult
to get the news from poems
          yet men die miserably every day
                    for lack
of what is found there.[3]

As we celebrate National Poetry Month, let’s ask ourselves “What can poetry offer us today?” Tell us what you come up with.

 Until next week…

 

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[1] From “The Waste Land”, Part I: The Burial of the Dead. Accessed on April 4, 2009 at http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/18993.

[2] Available on Gioia’s web site, http://www.danagioia.net/essays/ecpm.htm.

[3] From “Asphodel, That Greeny Flower”. Accessed April 4, 2009 from http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/williams/1333.

Poetry Month with Humanities Guest Blogger, Michael Gause

April is National Poetry Month!

I could never have dreamt that there were such goings-on
in the world between the covers of books,
such sandstorms and ice blasts of words,,,
such staggering peace, such enormous laughter,
such and so many blinding bright lights,, ,
splashing all over the pages
in a million bits and pieces
all of which were words, words, words,
and each of which were alive forever
in its own delight and glory and oddity and light.[1]

Welsh poet Dylan Thomas begins the Minnesota Humanities Center’s first post for National Poetry Month. The Academy of American Poets established National Poetry Month as a month-long celebration to increase the visibility and availability of poetry in popular culture. Since 1996 April has played host to a surge in readings, publications, podcasts and more centered around what Christopher Fry calls “the language in which man explores his own amazement.”

I find that poetry travels parallel the humanities as a concept. The humanities are a set of disciplines which study the human condition, which analyze and speculate, as opposed to the more empirical approach of the natural and social sciences. Through literature, philosophy, religion and more, our perceptions are reflected back to us through the wisdom of others in an attempt to lead more meaningful and engaged lives. So, too, in this way can poetry be seen not to measure or prove the machinations around us, but observe, distill, and even enlighten through “ice blasts of words”, to quote Thomas. Like the humanities, poetry involves engagement of both the soul and the cerebellum in its appreciation and application in daily life.

That said, how does one celebrate National Poetry Month? Good question. Poets.org (http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/47 ), created by The Academy of American Poets, features no fewer than 30 ways we can celebrate the occasion. I’ll mention a few to consider:

1. Read a book of poetry. Revisit an old favorite, or challenge yourself and explore an unknown! Minnesota itself is a hotbed of poetry activity.
2. Attend a poetry reading. Like poetry itself, there is a variety of formats to choose from. The “Readings” sections of both the City Pages (http://www.citypages.com/events/category/readings-and-lectures-118494/) and Pulse (http://www.pulsetc.com/topics.php?op=viewtopic&topic=24) publications maintain a steady flow of what’s up with the local word.
3. Read a poem at an open mic. There are a number of open mics in the Twin Cities. St. Paul’s historic jazz club, the Artists’ Quarter, features an open poetry mic on Monday evenings at 9 p.m. Challenge yourself and share some poetry in this great subterranean grotto. Note: April is also National Jazz Month!
4. Support literary organizations. Read international; buy local. Minnesota has a healthy number of literary organizations from The Loft to big-name presses like Coffeehouse Press, Milkweed Editions, Graywolf Press, and smaller presses such as Whistling Shade, Spout Press, and RockSaw Press. Buy their books. Attend their readings.
5. Promote public support for poetry. Let your Senators and Representatives in Congress know that the arts are important to you and either thank them for funding literature among the other arts or encourage them to increase funding levels. On a smaller level tell your friends! Leave a poem on a café table. You might even consider writing a blog post on National Poetry month.

 Next week we’ll take a look at World Poetry Month (yes, World) and some great, free resources for teachers wishing to share poetry in their classrooms.

 How will YOU celebrate National Poetry Month? We want to know!

 Michael Gause is a poet, humanities enthusiast, and grants manager for the Minnesota Humanities Center and will be providing poetry posts for poetry month.

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[1] Notes on the Art of Poetry. Accessed on March 18, 2009 at http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/46382-Dylan-Thomas-Notes-On-The-Art-Of-Poetry.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

The Humanities Center wishes you a very happy St. Patrick’s day!

Did you know that…

• Saint Patrick’s Day is the day of his Saint Patrick’s feast and also marks the anniversary of his death?
• Saint Patrick was actually born in Britain, then taken as prisoner to Ireland by a group of Irish raiders who had attacked his parents estate?
• In Ireland, Saint Patrick became a shepherd and may or may not have warded off snakes?
• It was reportedly God himself who told Saint Patrick to return to Britain, and then later changed his mind by telling Saint Patrick to return to Ireland as a Christian mission?
• Saint Patrick became a beloved missionary as he incorporated Irish traditions into Christian ceremony, making the religion more familiar to the Irish?
• It is argued that St. Patrick’s day is a larger celebration here in the U.S. than it is in Ireland thanks to the pride of early Irish immigrants in America?

This information and more is available on the History Channel’s web site.

Landmark Center is hosting the Irish Music and Dance association todayand of course, many other social and cultural activities will be taking place in MSP to celebrate today and tonight, check out Vita.MN for some ideas!

A Minnesota Humanist Remembered

Last Friday, it was announced that Minnesota author, poet, and teacher, Bill Holm, passed away.

Both daily papers here in the Twin Cities wrote lovely articles on Holm’s life and his work, doing their best to pay tribute to a man described as “the polar bear of American literature”  and “the sage of Minnesota”.

(Click here to read Laurie Hertzel’s article in the Star Tribune)
(Click here to read Mary Divine’s article in the Pioneer Press)

As an organization devoted to the humanities in Minnesota, we are of course saddened by this loss. It’s people like Bill Holm (whose work is so vast and deep and enjoyed by so many) who help to perpetuate Minnesota’s rich and intelligent culture.

We welcome your thoughts and memories of Bill Holm in the comments below.

Super Bowl XLIII and the Humanities

As I’m sure you know, this Sunday is Super Bowl Sunday.

This day is a near-holy day for many football fans and it’s always a great excuse to get together with friends and family to enjoy an American past time and to partake in some delicious culinary traditions–cocktail wienies, nachos, bean dip, beer, to name a few–regardless of your team preference.

Although, there are a few of us whose team preference happens to be “the humanities”, but that’s not to say we don’t get excited about the Super Bowl.

For starters, the Super Bowl has a rather interesting history. Take into account these fun facts:

• The first Super Bowl was held on Jan. 15, 1967.
• The first Super Bowl was played by the NFL championship team and the AFL championship team; it wasn’t until the leagues merged in 1970 that it became the championship game of the NFL.
• Legend has it that then NFL commissioner had wanted to call the first game “The Big One”.
• The first celebrity appearance at a half-time show was Ella Fitzgerald in 1972
• Since Super Bowl XXXVI, the Super Bowl has been considered a “National Security Event” (which is also why we don’t see blimps any more).

Additionally, sports references and the often-cliched play-by-plays of commentators are chock-full of humanities references:

• The over-used sports cliche of the “Cinderella Story” is fairly explanatory in its reference to the classic folktale with roots all the way back to the 1st century b.c.
• Iconic football commentator, John Madden, once said in reference to a play ”Had this worked, that would’ve been a thing of beauty. The fact that it didn’t work, makes it very, very ugly.” He may not realize, but this references a very famous poem by John Keats (A Thing of Beauty (Endymion)).
• Packer’s player Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila has been nicknamed “KGB” by various commentators. Although obviously his initials, it also conjures up a sense of intimidation because of its dual reference to THE KGB: the former Soviet Union’s secret police who once aimed to control through suppression of unorthodox beliefs.
• Dennis Miller, formerly of ABC Monday Night Football has made such references as “When the hell is Warren Moon going to retire? I mean, this guy is older than the cuneiform in Nebuchadnezzar’s tomb”  and “Their offense is shakier than Katherine Hepburn after an all-night espresso bender at Starbucks”–although kind of rude, they are indeed both humanities references.

SO, in the spirit of football and the humanities, we are asking you to keep your eyes open and ears out for anything that occurs during the Superbowl that you can tie to the humanities–commentary, references, half-time events, even commercials. Make a note if it and then come back here at your leisure and share your findings in the comments. By 4 p.m. next Monday, the reader who can make the most connections–even if they’re stretches–wins. “Wins what?” you ask? Well, it won’t be anything as shiny as the Vince Lombardi trophy but you’ll have bragging rights, for sure.

Actually, due to the current economic climate and our non profit status…that’s about all you’ll get, but hey, that’s pretty awesome!

Information in this post was compiled from www.wikipedia.org, www.nfl.com, http://ag.nfl.com, and various Minnesota Humanities Center staff.