Center for Hmong Studies
The Center for Hmong Studies is seeking a $20,000 grant form the Hmong Cultural Grant program to acquire the Jason Schoonover Collection, to provide stipend for students to digitize and catalog the collection, and to organize a Hmong Textile exhibit to show the collection.
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Kee Vang (St Paul, MN) Kee was a part of the Truth and Transformation conference/work with MHC, and is also serving on the immigrant cultural heritage panel. He is Hmong. |
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Tori Hong (Minneapolis, MN) Tori Hong is a Hmong and Korean illustrator, facilitator, and consultant. She was recommended by a Hmong artist/individual that knows MHC’s work well. |
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Kabo Yang (Little Canada, MN) Kabo Yang has been a panelist with MHC for prior grants. Her work focuses on identity-driven leadership, culturally-affirming nonprofit management and inclusion initiatives. |
Laura Benson
Minnesota Humanities Center
laura@mnhum.org
651-772-4244
$850,000 the first year and $850,000 the second year are for a competitive grants program to provide grants to preserve and promote the cultural heritage of Minnesota.
(1) Of this amount, $250,000 the first year is for a grant to one or more community organizations that provide arts and cultural heritage programming celebrating Hmong heritage.
- The completed acquisition of the Jason Schoonover Collection
- The completed digitization and cataloging of the Jason Schoonover Collection
- The complete installation of the Hmong Textiles and Arts Exhibit
Due to the pandemic, we have decided to launch an online 3D exhibit via the web platform. They are divided into two exhibits, the second primarily focuses not only on textiles but tools as well. The webpages are below:
https://artspaces.kunstmatrix.com/en/exhibition/5126913/jason-schoonover-collection
https://artspaces.kunstmatrix.com/en/exhibition/6507459/jason-schoonover-collection-2
The exhibit web link was posted via the Center for Hmong Studies' Facebook page as well as on several other Facebook pages frequent by Hmong as well as non-Hmong with interest in the Hmong community. We also posted it on the Center for Hmong Studies webpage at https://hmongcenter.csp.edu/. Mr. Jason Schoonover also posted the weblinks to his page as well as send it to his email networks.
The response was overwhelming. Here are some of the comments after viewing the exhibit:
- Very complex embroidery design. it is extraordinary!
- They bring back lots of memories.
- We don't get to see those original baby carriers anymore.
- That's amazing! I'm glad we have collectors who have held on to relics to share with the public. Hope to see these in the future when I visit the center.
- Wow! So many unique designs!!
- Very nice!! I would like to see larger versions!
- Wonderful!!!
Some of the textiles was borrowed by ArtReach St. Croix in Stillwater, Minnesota for an exhibit that started in May 2021 and ended the first week of July 2021.
Since we were not able to do a physical exhibit and opted for a hybrid exhibit model due to the pandemic, we were able to realize some cost savings. As such, we decided to acquire six large paintings by Minnesota artist Jackie Yang. The paintings are historically significant because it depicted the Hmong-Minnesotan's role in partnering with the United States during the Secret War of Laos in saving American lives. These paintings were on loan to the Center for Hmong Studies, but we were able to negotiate a reasonable price for the acquisition of them.