Research Resources

Miao or Hmong?

Some Hmong visitors feel that Miao is a pejorative term for the ethnic group in China to whom they are related. In response, Curator Yang Liu has provided the following information. If you encounter any questions or concerns on tours, please let us know.

Per Curator Yang Liu:

“The costumes and silver ornaments… belong to the ethnic group living in China’s Guizhou and Hunan provinces. These people are known as ‘Miao’ in China – that is not only the term used in Chinese official classification of the minorities, but also the self-designation of these people. I have visited these regions many times and know that they have no feeling that Hmong is in any way preferable to them as a common designator. No contemporary Chinese will feel that ‘Miao’ contains a sign of disrespect in any way, as the basic meaning of the word ‘miao’ in Chinese is ‘young plant’.

Although there are different opinions, some Western scholars propose that the term Hmong be used only for designating the Miao groups speaking the Hmong dialect in China (very small group) and for the Miao outside China. According to Joakim Enwall, Professor of Chinese, Uppsala University, it is these non-Chinese Hmong living outside China who advocate that the term Hmong be used not only for designating their dialect group, but also for the other groups living in China.”

Yang has also provided an article that discusses this further:

Miao or Hmong

As we know, sometimes visitors just wish to express concerns, to be heard, and they may not agree with the museum’s choice of terminology. In those cases, it is good to encourage visitors to complete a comment card if they wish to receive a direct response from museum staff.

Norman Akers, Interference and a Tiny Spot of Hope, 2019

Here are some resources to learn more about Norman Akers and his work:

There is some good information in the label, to at least discuss the elk’s presence:
Interference and a Tiny Spot of Hope is a presentation of the past, present, and future. Akers combines flat imagery with illusionistic space to provide an immersive and yet open-ended experience into personal, historical, and cultural issues, such as identity, disruption, dislocation, and belonging. In his paintings, Akers uses Osage stories as metaphors over illustrations, and complexity over a singular, fixed interpretation. The most prominent figure in the painting, the suspended or falling elk, is an important figure in Osage cosmology and becomes a symbol to represent ideas of being between two worlds (Osage and non-Osage), and the precarious place of being between the earth and sky, a fundamental Osage principle of balance in the world. Wind turbines found within the painting and within Osage homelands disrupt the spatial order and space between the earth and sky, and according to Akers, “obscure[d] the horizon….and the blades cut into the earth”. Other features within the painting, including tree stumps and skeletal remains along the riverbed, reference the environmental and cultural disruptions within Osage landscapes.

And here is an article about the artist:
https://www.kansan.com/arts_and_culture/theme-of-lost-identities-within-boundaries-ingrained-in-art-professor-norman-akerss-exhibit-contested-territories/article_93fade32-5e4d-11e5-864f-fb3c6c82acc4.html

And there is this video, and a painting that seems to have some similar themes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MCaPpLxTCI

Religious Literacy Workshop: Cultural Fluency Spring 2023

Part 1 of our Spring 2023 cultural fluency training was the lecture by Dr. Jeanne Kilde, Director of Religious Studies at the University of Minnesota, on March 30, 2023. Here is a link to the recording:

Religious Literacy Workshop: Developing Your Practical Toolkit for Talking about Religious Art with the Public

Dr. Kilde provided some handouts for this session:

Religious Diversity in Minnesota Timeline (1)

Religious Diversity Overview of US Religious Landscape Final (1)

Here is a PDF of Dr. Kilde’s slides:

PPT FINAL-MIA Religious Literacy for Guides (1)

If you attended in person, you filled out a feedback form after the lecture. so you do not need to complete any extra feedback. We were able to record your attendance at the event.

If you were unable to attend, please watch the recording, then take a minute to fill out this brief feedback form to receive attendance credit for the session:

Feedback form for Part 1 of training: Religious Literacy Workshop

 

Miao textiles and silver jewelry/hats

From Wikipedia: According to the 2000 censuses, the number of ‘Miao’ in China was estimated to be about 9.6 million. The Miao nationality includes Hmong people as well as other culturally and linguistically related ethnic groups who do not call themselves Hmong. These include the Hmu, Kho (Qho) Xiong, and A-Hmao. The White Miao (Bai Miao) and Green Miao (Qing Miao) are Hmong groups.

Here is something I found about the silver hats on display: Silver Ornaments of the Miao Ethnic Group
And an exhibition by the Bowers Museum, on Miao silver: https://www.bowers.org/index.php/current-exhibition/miao-masters-of-silver

A short video:

Miao Textiles at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts

 

Black History Month resources

Here are some resources for Black History Month or for giving tours focused on African American/Black American artists:

Mia’s website compilation for Black History Month

 

African American artwork currently on view:

African American artist/works on view, February 2024

 

Walkthrough with Mia Guide Jean Ann Durades (to come)

 

Tour Outlines

(If you care to share tour outlines. please email to Kara or Debbi, to include here.)

Rebecca Haddad_Celebration of African America Art History

Tour Break: Winter Solstice December Cross Currents 11.17.22

Here is the recording of the training for the December 2022 Cross Currents public tour, Winter Solstice:

Tour Break: Winter Solstice December Cross Currents

Here is the chat:

Chat for December Cross Currents

Here are the presentation slides, with the resources:

Tour Break_ Winter Solstice Cross Currents

And here are the best practices for engagement from guides who have given multiple Cross Currents tours, and some information and reminders about the tour format:

Best Practices for Cross Currents tours

 

Peer training in Galleries 374 and 375, June 15, 2022

Jean Ann Durades, Rose Stanley-Gilbert, Mary Ann Wark presented on new works on view in Rituals of Resilience and Gallery 375. These are works all by Black artists. The training is 5 videos in total.

Peer training Part 1

Peer Training Part 2

Peer Training Part 3

Peer Training Part 4

Peer Training Part 5

Here are also supporting materials from their talks, along with some additional resources provided by other guides:

From Rose:

Gio Swaby, Pretty Pretty 3, 2020 WORD

Alfred Conteh – Sauce – WORD

From Mary Ann:

mia.James Phillips Cosmic Connection 1971 2022

mia. Wangechi Mutu

and with no questions/answers: mia. object file.Intertwinedwo anwers

 

Some information on Afrofuturism from Kay Miller:

Afro-Futurism Explained

Afrofuturism Explained: Not Just Black Sci-Fi | Inverse

StaffSavvy Training resource page

Welcome to our Resource Page for StaffSavvy, our tour scheduling system. As we continue to train on this system, we will post materials on this resource page.

Here is a link to the slides from our Info Sessions in November 2023:

Training 11.17.23 StaffSavvy session

Here is a link to the video for our refresher on Sept. 20, 2022:

StaffSavvy refresher 09.20.22

Here is a link to the slides:

Training 09.20.22 StaffSavvy session

 

Here is a direct link to StaffSavvy:

StaffSavvy

Here is the recording for our introduction on May 26, 2022, to the new scheduling system, StaffSavvy:

Introduction to tour assignments in StaffSavvy

Here is the chat file:

StaffSavvy chat 05.26.22

Here are the slides:

Training 5.26.22 StaffSavvy session

The three videos we sent out to introduce the system are here:

Video 1: Introduction and changing your password

Video 2: Updating your photo and profile

Video 3: How to do a checkout or leave request

To send a group message to multiple guides in StaffSavvy, go to My Account/My Messages, then select “Send a New Message” in the top menu bar. In the “To” line, you can enter multiple guide names. Click on “Send Message” to send the message. If you are uncertain if all guides in your tour assignment are using StaffSavvy messaging, you can use email addresses provided in the guide rosters.