Minnesota Historical and Cultural Grants

HISTORY MATTERS!
Let’s make sure our lawmakers know it! Now more than ever, Minnesotans need the benefits history programs provide:  

• Educate our children
• Boost local economies
• Preserve our state’s unique culture
• All for less than $5 per citizen, per year!

State legislators are now addressing a massive budget deficit and history funding is at stake.  They need to know how history programs are benefitting you and your community. 

This coming Monday, join your colleagues for History Matters Day at the State Capitol, Presidents' Day, February 21, 2011, 10:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.

Meet with your legislators and urge them to support history in Minnesota!  Orientation sessions will be held in the Capitol Rotunda.

Enjoy free family-friendly activities, free admission to the Minnesota History Center, free tours of the State Capitol, free parking at the History Center and free shuttle bus to and from the Capitol.

Sign up so that History Matters Day will have sufficient materials.

If you are not able to attend, contact your legislators via email to let them know why you support Minnesota History.

Minnesota History Coalition
Compelled by positive results of last biennium's Legacy Amendment-funded projects and the continued need for funding, the Minnesota History Coalition recommends legislators appropriate $36.55 million from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund to statewide history education and preservation. Demand for funding last biennium exceeded resources by 2-to-1. Projects benefit Minnesotans in all 87 counties in the state.

Minnesota History Coalition members include Preservation Alliance of Minnesota, Minnesota Alliance of Local History Museums, Minnesota Genealogical Society, Minnesota Archaeological Society, Minnesota Digital Library, Minnesota History Advocates for Research, Minnesota's Historic Northwest, Council for Minnesota Archaeology and Minnesota Historical Society. Contact Julianna Olsen, 651-259-3039, for more information.

Grants Final Reports
Before you submit the final report for your grant project, make sure you have assembled all the required materials. All final reports must include a copy of the grant's product. Examples include but are not limited to:

• Conservator's reports
• Historic Structures Reports
• Brochures or maps
• Oral history transcripts
• Publications

In addition, include photographs of the project in-progress, or of the media event for the unveiling of the finished product, or of smiling patrons/staff/volunteers using the product. Be creative! Contact the Grants Office with questions.

From the Blog

Find Your Way with MAP (0 comments) - Your colleagues found MAP beneficial, won't you apply? Postmark deadline is this Friday February 18, 2011.

Hanging Chads of Performance Measurement (0 comments) - Based on the background of performance measurement, what concerns do you have?

Changing the conversation to what we can do (new post) - How can Minnesota local history nonprofits make lemonade out of lemons? 

Blog Update
By now regular users of the Minnesota Local History Blog will have noticed the not too subtle changes that have occurred to the site. The blog, in its fifth year, has been a resource to the local history community with an active readership. Now that the site is rebuilt let the community do the talking as well. The addition of the Buddypress plugin has turned the blog into a full blown social networking site.

Site features:
Interest Groups
                Executive Directors
                Board Members
                Interpretation
                Marketing
                Social Media
Forums
Events
Extended profiles
Activity streams

More is planned for user interaction as we continue to improve the site.

Stop by, take a look, sign up, join in the discussion and please give us feedback on what you like, don't like and would like to see.

Facebook Findings

Well folks, 399 people like Minnesota Local History. We were hoping for the nice round look of 400 this week, but let's bypass that and go straight for 500! Recruit your friends and colleagues--who wouldn't want up-to-date news on the local history community in Minnesota?

Job Opportunities

Development Associate
American Craft Council, Minneapolis MN, seeks Development Associate. Email cover letter, resume, salary requirements. Deadline: February 18, 2011.

Marketing Manager
Minnesota Children's Museum, St. Paul MN, seeks Marketing Manager. Deadline: February 25, 2011.

Senior Manager
Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity, Minneapolis MN, seeks Senior Manager for Corporate and Volunteer Development. Deadline: March 1, 2011.

Senior Director
Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity, Minneapolis MN, seeks Senior Director of Individual and Foundation Development. Deadline: March 1, 2011.

Director
Waukesha County Museum, Waukesha WI, seeks Director of Education and Programming. Email cover letter, resume, and salary requirements to Kirsten Lee Villegas.

Volunteer Opportunity

History Day Judge
Volunteer as a History Day judge and you'll help young people develop leadership and educational skills. Hundreds of regional event judges needed around the state throughout the month of March. State History Day, Sunday May 1, 2011, seeks 200 judges.

Do History Here

Fur Trade Exhibit
Becker County Historical Society, Detroit Lakes MN, announces traveling exhibit "From Stone to Steel: the Fur Trade in Becker County." Opens Thursday February 17, 2011. Call 218-847-2938 for more information.

Charlie Maquire in Chisholm
Singer/songwriter Charlie Maguire and sixth grade students from Assumption Catholic School, Hibbing, will perform and tell stories at Minnesota Discovery Center, Friday February 18, 2011, 7-8 p.m. Call 800-372-6437 for more information.

Polar Fest Open House
Becker County Historical Society, Detroit Lakes MN, announces open house on Sunday February 20, 2011, 1 to 3 p.m, in conjunction with Polar Fest. Call 218-847-2938 for more information.

History Lecture
Join Augsburg History Club for Carl H. Chrislock History Lecture, February 23, 2011, 7 p.m. Marshall Room, Christensen Center, Augsburg College. Guest speaker: Mary Lethert Wingerd, speaking on "Minnesota's Forgotten History: How it was Hidden and Why it Matters." Free. Call 612-330-1665 for more information.

Burnsville Historical Society
Dakota County Historical Society plans to re-start the Burnsville Historical Society chapter. Get in on the ground floor at an introductory meeting Wednesday February 23, 2011, 7 p.m., Burnsville Performing Arts Center, Art Gallery. Author Steve Werle will present on the first biography of Minnesota Governor Harold Stassen. Contact Chad Roberts, 651-552-7548, for more information.

WWII Talk
Scott County Historical Society hosts Michael Luick-Thrams, TRACES Executive Director, February 24, 2011, 6:30 p.m. for "Held in the Heartland: German POWs in the Midwest, 1943-1946." Contact SCHS, 952-445-0378, for more information.

St. Peter Reads
Stanley Gordon West, author of "Blind Your Ponies," is the St. Peter Reads Winter Read author. West self-published the work ten years ago and sold 40,000 copies. Book signing at St. Peter Public Library, Tuesday March 8, 2011, 4:30-5:30 p.m. Book talk 7 p.m. Contact Judy Schultz, 507-933-6017, for more information.

Smithsonian Exhibit
View "Key Ingredients: America by Food," a Smithsonian traveling exhibit, at the River Falls Public Library, River Falls WI, through March 11, 2011.

Annual Meeting
Join Anoka County Historical Society on Sunday March 20, 2011 at Bunker Hills Activity Center, Andover, for ACHS' Annual Meeting. Featured speaker: Hampton Smith, who will discuss his new book "Brother of Mine," a collection of Civil War letters. Contact ACHS, 763-421-0600, for more information.

Continuing Education

Dakota Conference
Come to Sioux Falls SD for the 43rd Annual Dakota Conference on Northern Plains History, Literature, Art and Archaeology, April 29-30, 2011. Explore the impact of the Civil War on the northern Great Plains.

AASLH Webinars
American Association for State and Local History offers free StEPs webinars this winter.

Wisconsin Workshops
Wisconsin Historical Society and Wisconsin Federation of Museums offer 2011 Spring Workshop series. For more information, contact Amy Norlin, 608-264-6579.

MDL Webinar
Minnesota Digital Library webinar "Moving Forward: New Guidelines for Contributors to Minnesota Reflections" now available online.

Fund Your Mission

News

National Trust Award
National Trust for Historic Preservation named St. Paul MN to the 2011 List of America's Dozen Distinctive Destinations.

Parade Vehicles
Does your organization have a vintage vehicle used in parades? Todd Mahon at Anoka County Historical Society would like to talk to any organization that has a parade vehicle.

Field Note

Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County hosts "A Woman's Perspective on the Elements" Multimedia Art Exhibition. Open now through April 3, 2011. Public reception for the artists Sunday February 20, 2011, 1-4 p.m. For more information call 218-299-5511.

Image courtesy of A Woman's Perspective. Oil painting by Connie Riedman, Fargo ND. "Elementary Elements: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water." Artist's statement: ". . . I chose to depict the elements . . . as individual still lifes featuring toys a young child might play with."