Project grants to support the artistic traditions and customs practiced within community and/or cultural groups by identifying, documenting, preserving, presenting, and honoring Minnesota's folk arts and traditions.
| Grantee, City |
Grant Amount |
Justin Anderson, Duluth | $ 24,800 | | Justin Anderson and his mentor and collaborator John Finkle will complete and launch a twenty-five foot traditional Scandinavian style boat. This project will involve numerous volunteer workshops and water recreation opportunities. |
Away Runakuna, Minneapolis | $ 5,000 | | Away Runakuna dancers will learn, practice, and perform a new Ecuadorian traditional dance and presentation focused on the celebration of San Pedro de Cayambe. |
Black Storytellers Alliance, Minneapolis | $ 19,000 | | Black Storytellers Alliance will celebrate the thirtieth annual Black Master Storytellers Festival, promoting and perpetuating the African/African-American art form. |
CHAT, Saint Paul | $ 32,288 | | Center for Hmong Arts and Talent will teach traditional Hmong dance and traditional Hmong cross stitch/embroidery and hold a public exhibit and performance. |
CLUES, Saint Paul | $ 33,097 | | CLUES will undertake a year-long program highlighting Latino folk arts, specifically traditional Maya backstrap loom weaving and folkloric Mexican paper arts such as piñatas, cartonería, and papel picado. The program will include exhibits, workshops, documentation, and promotion. |
Cultural Society of Filipino-Americans, Maplewood | $ 5,000 | | The Cultural Society of Filipino-Americans will present Pamana XI, consisting of thirty folk dances that represent the uniqueness of the various regions of the Philippines and the people they represent. |
Dakota Wicohan, Morton | $ 31,405 | | Dakota Wicohan's Tawokaga program reclaims and sustains Dakota arts. This project will pass on knowledge from a master artist to four adults in southwest Minnesota, focusing on beaded Dakota florals. |
Gao Hong, Northfield | $ 20,211 | | Gao Hong will teach traditional Chinese music and ensemble playing in three Twin Cities locations. The project will culminate in final performances by the three ensembles. |
Division of Indian Work, Minneapolis | $ 5,000 | | Division of Indian Work's Youth Leadership Development Program staff and elder consultants will teach youth the traditional art forms of storytelling, doll making, quilting, and cradle board making to preserve the traditions of American Indian culture. |
Hmong Cultural Center, Saint Paul | $ 26,500 | | Hmong Cultural Center will implement the first Minnesota Qeej Festival in September 2020, involving a weekend of comprehensive programming to educate Hmong and nonHmong about the instrument, while also providing a forum for master performers to be recognized for their skills. |
Karen Organization of Minnesota, Roseville | $ 49,500 | | The Karen Weaving Circle will promote and preserve the traditional art of Karen textile weaving in Minnesota. The project will join master weavers with Karen youth, who will learn traditional weaving skills and express themselves artistically. |
City of Minneapolis, Minneapolis | $ 46,875 | | The City of Minneapolis will host Mexico based folk master artists to pass down Mexican traditional art forms to local artists through the Cultural Districts artist in residency program which will culminate with a community celebration honoring these traditions. |
New Arab American Theater Works, Minneapolis | $ 13,500 | | New Arab American Theater Works will create an Arabic Drum Ensemble group led by artist Khaldoun Samman with the purpose of training community members in a traditional cultural form to perform for the community. |
Pooja Pavan, Minneapolis | $ 15,850 | | Pooja Goswami Pavan will present Songs of Awadh, comprising two concerts, each with an accompanying lecture demonstration, creating and presenting rarely heard, semiclassical and folk music from the Awadh region of North India. |
Nirmala Rajasekar, Plymouth | $ 18,000 | | Nirmala Rajasekar and percussion master Boopathi will conduct workshops and lectures and perform two concerts by eighteenth century composers of South Indian Carnatic music on the theme of the elements and nature. |
The Somali Museum of Minnesota, Minneapolis | $ 50,000 | | The Somali Museum of Minnesota will build Somali artists' capacity to teach and advance the art forms of weaving and dance in the Twin Cities, Mankato, Saint Cloud, Rochester, and Willmar. |
TaikoArts Midwest, Minneapolis | $ 7,125 | | TaikoArts Midwest will produce HERbeat: Women in Taiko ALL STARS, an artist incubation residency and concert designed to be a catalyst for gender equity, creating tangible change in taiko communities locally and nationally. |
Minnesota Tamil Sangam, Minnetonka | $ 34,780 | | The Tamil Association of Minnesota will train community members on Tamil traditional instruments Nadhaswaram, Thawil, and Parai, as well as vocal and Therukkoothu folklore with a final performance at the Muthamizh Vizha Tamil traditional festival held in July and August 2020. |
Turkish American Association of Minnesota, Saint Paul | $ 6,509 | | The Turkish American Association of Minnesota will offer Turkish culture classes to two cohorts of children and their families, introducing them to folk dances, costumes, music, stories, and art. The children will perform and exhibit at three public venues. |
Twin Cities Community Gospel Choir, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | The Twin Cities Community Gospel Choir will share the art of singing traditional African American gospel music through two workshops for the public. |
Urban Arts Academy, Minneapolis | $ 13,537 | | Urban Arts Academy will engage twenty diverse, low-income South Minneapolis high school youth in a workshop series with two community events in Haitian dance, led by Afoutayi. |
Leah H. Yellowbird, Grand Rapids | $ 45,075 | | Leah Yellowbird will design and complete a traditional Native American beaded table cover. Her work will engage the communities of Grand Rapids and Duluth through her public studio, workshops and demonstrations, and exhibition of the finished piece. |
Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theatre and School, Minneapolis | $ 16,011 | | Zorongo will present a series of Flamenco performances, workshops, lectures, and events designed to share the emotional power of Flamenco with Minnesota audiences, and to impart the skills of Flamenco masters to students and apprentice performers. |
