This program supports activities that share, explore, pass on, express, or celebrate culture through the arts. Culture may be defined by a common ethnicity, tribal affiliation, geographic or regional identity, occupation, language, or recreation. Traditional and contemporary forms of cultural expression may be funded in this program. Funds could be used to support practicing a cultural art form; presenting cultural festivals, community celebrations, performances, media or exhibitions; offering demonstrations, etc. Funds could also be used to deepen or pass on cultural traditions through apprenticeships or documentation.
| Grantee, City |
Grant Amount |
Afrocontigbo, Golden Valley | $ 35,000 |
| Afrocontigbo will present a three-month program to promote various West African cultures through the art of dance. Participants will learn from experienced instructors and exhibit their newfound skills at a cultural showcase and at the Little Africa Festival. |
Petrina M. Arnold, Duluth | $ 23,300 |
| Arnold will offer ten porcupine quill classes, offering free tuition for enrolled Native Americans to take the class. |
Sam Aros-Mitchell, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 |
| Aros-Mitchell will present an Indigenous arts festival to foster cross-cultural exchange between Minnesota's intertribal Native people. The festival will include community engagement activities that will also engage a broader Minnesota audience. |
Association of Sino-American Neocultural Exchange, Plymouth | $ 25,000 |
| Association of Sino-American Neocultural Exchange will host the fifth annual Mid-Autumn Festival at Phalen Park in Saint Paul, with Chinese and ethnic performances and cultural displays. Attendees will learn Chinese culture while experiencing and enjoying cross-cultural exchanges and friendships. |
Gustavo A. Boada, Minneapolis | $ 24,000 |
| Boada, a master puppeteer and papier-mache sculptor, will engage participants and audiences in Minneapolis and around the state through the magic and color of the Latinx folk art tradition of alebrijes. |
Brownbody, Vadnais Heights | $ 35,000 |
| Brownbody will hold apprentice workshops and a public showcase centering African dance forms including lamban (Mali); mendiani (Guinea); and umfundalai, a contemporary African dance technique developed by Dr. Kariamu Welsh. |
Courtney F. Bunker, Mahnomen | $ 25,000 |
| Bunker will engage underserved Natives of all ages, from elders to youth, in hands-on workshops teaching Ojibwe cultural practices and language through traditional crafts and artistic expression, fostering deeper understanding and appreciation within the community. |
CAAM Chinese Dance Theater, Saint Paul | $ 35,000 |
| CAAM Chinese Dance Theater will engage its community of dancers, audiences, and participants in the creation of deeply meaningful, highly innovative programs that reflect profound nuances of Chinese culture. |
Centro Tyrone Guzman, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 |
| Centro Tyrone Guzman will engage low-income Latines of all ages, preschoolers through elders, in arts activities designed to celebrate and share the Dia de los Muertos tradition, including the creation of a community altar and celebration event. |
Cha-Ami Japanese Cultural Center, Champlin | $ 9,846 |
| Cha-Ami Japanese Cultural Center will offer a range of Japanese arts and craft classes, promoting mental well-being, fostering social connections, and reconnecting community members with their cultural roots. |
Cow Tipping, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 |
| Cow Tipping Press will help sixty Minnesotans with intellectual and developmental disabilities-half BIPOC, half from greater Minnesota-build intersectional disability culture and publish six radically self representative chapbooks, celebrated in community events. |
Festival de las Calaveras, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 |
| Tlanepantla Arts will host Festival de Las Calaveras 2025. This interdisciplinary event celebrates Day of the Dead and the vibrancy of Latinx cultural arts through live music, dance, poetry, storytelling, and community art presentations. |
The Film Society of Minneapolis Saint Paul, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 |
| The Film Society of Minneapolis Saint Paul will produce Cine Latino, a unique annual festival of new Spanish language cinema presenting the work of emerging and established filmmakers from Spanish speaking regions around the globe. |
Franconia Sculpture Park, Shafer | $ 35,000 |
| Franconia Sculpture Park will invite Indigenous and emerging artists to create work under the concept of Future Ancestral Technologies, culminating in a multifaceted cultural symposium of workshops, talks, and exhibitions. |
Friends of Global Market, Inc, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 |
| Friends of Global Market will present cultural celebrations at Midtown Global Market for Lunar New Year, Cinco de Mayo, Juneteenth, Día de Muertos, and Indigenous Peoples' Day. The events will feature dance, music, storytelling, food, and art activities. |
Funny Asian Women Kollective, Saint Paul | $ 35,000 |
| Funny Asian Women Kollective will present The Super Hmong Show, a performance of live standup comedy, videos, sketches, and storytelling that centers Hmong women's stories to celebrate and reflect on the fifty-year anniversary of the Hmong migration to Minnesota. |
Christopher E. Griffith, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 |
| Griffith (Cherokee Nation) will facilitate ᏴᏩᏰᎵᏍᎩᏍᎦᏚᎩ Yvwayelisgi Sgadugi, a twelve-week training program for twelve Indigenous artists to explore and deepen puppetry skills as a way to express their Native cultures and identities. |
Gaosong V. Heu, Oakdale | $ 24,700 |
| Heu will continue her studies in kwv txhiaj, a form of traditional Hmong folk singing, under her master Pang Her Vang, and provide arts residencies in Minnesota schools for cultural engagement, education, and celebration. |
Hispanic Outreach of Goodhue County, Red Wing | $ 35,000 |
| Hispanic Outreach of Goodhue County will present a 2025 Hispanic Heritage Festival that's open to all; encourages Minnesota Hispanic artists and residents to express, celebrate, and share their varied cultures; and invites all residents to explore, share, and enjoy these cultures. |
Hmong Archives, Saint Paul | $ 24,000 | | Hmong Archives will preserve Hmong arts and heritage of Hmong folktale by publishing cultural heritage folktale books for students and families about the Hmong people. |
Hmong Museum, Saint Paul | $ 35,000 |
| Hmong Museum will develop an exhibit, Our History, Our Home, to encourage visitors to practice the art of oral storytelling inspired by an artist's renderings of Thailand, Laos, and Minnesota. |
Gao Hong, Northfield |
$ 25,000 | | Hong will share, document, and record traditional Chinese Pudong style pipa music and related stories at fifteen live performances and online. |
India Association of Minnesota, Saint Paul | $ 25,000 |
| India Association of Minnesota will celebrate IndiaFest 2025, a free event showcasing the arts and culture of India with live Asian-Indian dance performances by professional and community groups on Saturday, August 16, 2025, at the State Capitol. |
Indigenous Peoples Task Force, Minneapolis | $ 34,960 |
| Indigenous Peoples Task Force's Ikidowin Acting Ensemble will increase the number of Native youth artists with performance skills and experience in traditional songs and storytelling by strengthening and presenting a production of "Our Songs Have Power". |
Nate Johnson, Northome | $ 20,700 |
| Johnson will train ten participants in the art of traditional hide tanning. Through a series of workshops, participants will gain experience with a range of tanning techniques, concluding in a student led, public, hands-on education day. |
Rick Kagigebi, Detroit Lakes | $ 25,000 |
| Kagigebi will create a new body of work while teaching Anishinaabe culture and blanket making to Indigenous youth, and engaging with their families and community through artist talks and informal studio visits. |
Kalpulli KetzalCoatlicue, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 |
| Kalpulli KetzalCoatlicue will present the Flowering of Light Festival, a reference to the artistic transformations that come from the cultural seeds that have been tended over the spring and into the summer solstice. |
Kalpulli Tlaloctecuhtli, Roseville | $ 25,000 |
| Kalpulli Tlaloctecuhtli will conduct workshops on the Mexica Chichimeca tradition, including cultural understanding, mandolin playing, regalia making, and traditional dances. |
Karen Organization of Minnesota, Roseville | $ 35,000 |
| Karen Organization of Minnesota's Karen Weaving Circle will support the first generation of Karen refugees in Minnesota to preserve their textile weaving traditions through weekly master weaving workshops, hands-on classes for Karen youth, and public events to showcase their art. |
Katha Dance Theatre, Crystal | $ 35,000 |
| Katha Dance Theatre will produce the world premiere of Prakritir Pratisodh - Nature's Revenge, a professional dance concert with outreach activities for students and adults that share the cultural expressions of India through dance, art, and lore. |
Kivan B. Kirk, Saint Paul | $ 24,650 |
| Kirk will work with a company of professional neurodivergent actors to develop a new play celebrating disability culture. The play will be toured to adult day centers that serve people with developmental disabilities. |
Naomi E. Ko, Savage | $ 25,000 |
| Ko will produce a series of performances, readings, screenings, and panels featuring Korean diasporic artists. Audience members will gain deeper understanding about the nuances of the Korean diasporic experience. |
Olivia Levins Holden, Minneapolis | $ 25,000 |
| Levins Holden and Colectivo Morivivi will create a mural centering Puerto Rican migration. They will facilitate a painting activity with the Puerto Rican community, where participants can share their stories through Latinx mural traditions. |
Little Earth Residents Association, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 |
| Little Earth Residents Association's Native Youth Arts Collective will produce a multimedia show that centers identity, empowerment, and Indigenous futurism. Students will take on leadership roles and explore the intersection of traditional Indigenous art forms and contemporary media. |
MacRostie Art Center, Grand Rapids | $ 35,000 |
| MacRostie Art Center will grow the Giinawind Creative Space as a center of Native art and culture in downtown Grand Rapids. Giinawind will host community gatherings, exhibits, performances, and workshops by Indigenous artists and culture bearers. |
Minnesota International Chinese School, Edina | $ 35,000 |
| The Minnesota International Chinese School will offer high quality traditional Chinese art courses for learners in the Twin Cities metro area, to enrich students and the community with the beauty of the arts. |
Minnesota Tamil Sangam, Minnetonka | $ 35,000 |
| The Tamil Association of Minnesota will train community members on Tamil folk and traditional instrumental music and dance, with a final performance at Muthamizh Vizha Event (Summer Tamil Festival) to be held in August 2025. |
Montessori American Indian Childcare Center, Saint Paul | $ 35,000 |
| Montessori American Indian Childcare Center will offer workshops, family nests, and material making opportunities to their families and other American Indians in the east metro, in order to create more culture bearers. |
Mohamud M. Mumin, Minneapolis | $ 24,175 |
| Mumin will conduct workshops at community centers in the west bank neighborhood, teaching participants to create amulets and talismans, exploring Somali cultural heritage through hands-on art creation and educational presentations. |
New York Mills Regional Cultural Center, New York Mills | $ 18,200 |
| New York Mills Regional Cultural Center will celebrate regional and world arts and culture at two events with dance, music, theater, art experiences, food, storytelling, and cultural exchange from Finnish, Indigenous, Chinese, Latinx, and other cultures. |
Pooja G. Pavan, Minneapolis | $ 25,000 |
| Pavan will collaborate to present a four-concert series of Hindustani vocal music from four different stylistic schools for diverse Minnesotans to holistically enjoy and appreciate Hindustani vocal music.
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Penumbra Theatre Company, Saint Paul | $ 35,000 | | Penumbra Theatre Company will support the worldwide premiere of Donja Love's Untitled Fable, a haunting portrait of one man's journey across the Middle Passage to find his lover. Post-play discussions and a study guide will enhance audience engagement. |
Planting People Growing Justice Leadership Institute, Saint Paul | $ 34,700 |
| Planting People Growing Justice Leadership Institute will continue its Leaders are Readers program, including interactive Black artist led, read alouds and book giveaways to promote leadership and artistic development and cultural preservation through books for Black children and youth in the Twin Cities.
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Project FINE, Winona | $ 35,000 |
| Project FINE will empower refugees and immigrants to share their art and culture through a series of community workshops. Participants will explore the cultural significance of various art forms and create their own art using traditional methods.
|
Saint Peter Good Neighbor Diversity Council, Saint Peter | $ 30,250 |
| The Saint Peter Good Neighbor Diversity Council will provide a cross-cultural signature event in May via its Saint Peter Festival of Nations, featuring dance, music, and foods from the growing Somali, Latino, and Native communities. |
Somali Youth and Family Development Center, Minneapolis | $ 30,251 |
| Somali Youth and Family Development Center will provide traditional Somali dance, henna, and fashion workshops in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. These activities will preserve Somali cultural traditions and share them with the broader Minnesota community in February 2026. |
Chris Stedman, Minneapolis | $ 24,938 |
| Stedman will develop and share a new narrative nonfiction audio series that unearths stories of LGBTQIA mutual aid in Minnesota, tracing the local history of this cultural practice from the AIDS crisis to today. |
Sweet Potato Comfort Pie, Golden Valley | $ 35,000 |
| Sweet Potato Comfort Pie will produce the play Kumbayah, The Juneteenth Story in Minnesota for Juneteenth 2025. Audiences and actors will deepen understanding of the history and Black cultural traditions explored in the play. |
Tubman, Minneapolis | $ 34,934 |
| Tubman will partner with local artists from Afrocontigbo and Titambe to deliver interactive West African drumming and dance workshops for families experiencing trauma to help them heal, build self-confidence, and celebrate culture. |
Elizabeth Turner, Minneapolis | $ 25,000 | | Turner will produce Enriching the Roots: Getting and Giving, deepening her collaboration with The Give Get SisTet, refining music, enhancing skills, and strengthening community bonds in the Twin Cities through engagement, recording, and a culminating banquet. |
Wakan Tipi Awanyankapi, Saint Paul | $ 32,750 | | Wakan Tipi Awanyankapi will commission artists and develop public programming as part of the Dakota Lifeways Institute, an integrated traditional cultural and ecological program. |
We Are All Criminals, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 |
| We Are All Criminals will film museum exhibits that showcase the work of incarcerated artists and host presentations by formerly incarcerated artists that share the culture of incarceration with participants and incarcerated viewers. |
