Heritage Partnership Program Supports $432,612 in Grants to Minnesota History Organizations

ST. PAUL, Minn. (July 22, 2025) – The Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) is pleased to announce the newest recipients of seven Heritage Partnership Program grants totaling $432,612.

The Heritage Partnership Program’s goal is to preserve and enhance access to Minnesota’s history and cultural resources by supporting the creation and development of sustainable, history-based partnerships throughout the state.

The Heritage Partnership Program is made possible by the Legacy Amendment's Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund through the vote of Minnesotans on Nov. 4, 2008. The Legacy Amendment supports efforts to preserve Minnesota land, water and legacy, including Minnesota history and cultural heritage.

Heritage Partnership Program Grant Recipients
Recipients of heritage partnership program grants from the fiscal year 2025 are listed in alphabetical order below. Each project will preserve and enhance Minnesota’s cultural and historical resources. All grants are competitive and awarded according to program guidelines and criteria, as well as professional standards.

Dakota County Historical Society, Building Remembrance for Reconciliation (BR4R), South St. Paul, $92,950
To hire a qualified consultant to use the Hastings Black Heritage Trail's concept plan to implement the interpretive design phase. This program is an effort to uncover and represent the history of early Black residents of Hasting, MN in Dakota County.

Jackson County Historical Society, Cottonwood County Historical Society, Murray County Historical Society, Nobles County Historical Society, Pipestone County Historical Society, Rock County, Lakefield, $35,000
To hire a consultant to develop an interpretive plan about the history of dance halls in Southwest Minnesota counties by gathering and documenting research, establishing an interpretive framework and finalizing the interpretive planning.

Lao Culture Dance & Traditional Fashion Show, Vietnamese Community of Minnesota, Chinese Community Center, St. Paul Park, $36,000
To document the production of performances and a cultural heritage event to celebrate; preserve; and share Laotian, Vietnamese, and Chinese community traditions across Minnesota.

The SEAD Project, University of Minnesota, Department of Communications Studies and Immigration History Research Center (IHRC), Minneapolis, $58,500
To support a collaborative effort to find, record, translate and archive stories of Southeast Asian individuals’ lives and experiences since migrating to Minnesota, and up to the present, reflective of their broader communities’ experience adapting to life here. Each story will be translated into all four community participant languages and connected to supporting documents and media.

Twin Cities Cable Arts Consortium, Saint Paul Neighborhood Network (SPNN), Minneapolis, $69,310
To support, educate, and train community members and organizations through workshops on preservation techniques and archiving standards for deteriorating magnetic audio and video tape.

Victoria Theater Arts Center, African American Registry, St. Paul, $42,340
To produce videos documenting elders’ stories and establish a process for capturing Rondo history, equipping the community with the tools to record their own history.

Winona County Historical Society, Lower Sioux Indian Community (LSIC), Tribal Historic Preservation Office, Winona, $98,512
To deepen a professional relationship between the Winona County Historical Society and the Lower Sioux Community to foster Native self-representation in local museums and communities.

About Heritage Partnership Program Grants
The goal of the Heritage Partnership Program is to build the capacity of eligible applicants to preserve and enhance access to Minnesota’s history and cultural resources by supporting the creation and development of sustainable, history-based partnerships throughout the state.

More information about the Heritage Partnership Program, including application deadlines is available here. Applications are accepted only through the MNHS grants portal.

About the Minnesota Historical Society
The Minnesota Historical Society is a non-profit educational and cultural institution established in 1849. MNHS collects, preserves, and tells the story of Minnesota’s past through museum exhibits, libraries and collections, historic sites, educational programs, and book publishing. Using the power of history to transform lives, MNHS preserves our past, shares our state’s stories, and connects people with history.