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The original part of the&nbsp;Minneapolis Institute of Arts was designed by the New York City firm McKim, Mead and White, and built in 1919. This firm designed numerous neo-classical buildings throughout the country including museums and hotels. The late Japanese architect Kenzo Tange designed an expansion in 1974, and architect Michael Graves designed the other expansion in 2006.&nbsp;

Founded in 1883, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts is a free museum operated for the benefit of the general public.


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Established in 1883 as the Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts, this is the premiere fine art museum in Minnesota. The Minneapolis Institute of Arts maintains an extensive collection of over 80,000 objects from nearly every continent. The collection includes pieces as old as 40,000 years to modern works by Monet and other famous artists. The MIA has seven curatorial areas: Arts of Africa & the Americas; Contemporary Art; Decorative Arts, Textiles & Sculpture; Asian Art; Paintings; Photography and New Media; and Prints and Drawings. The museum receives around a half a million visitors per year.

Minneapolis Institute of Arts

This tour would take several days to complete and is intended to offer a general introduction to the many museums and art galleries of the MSP metro. 

The center's library is home to over a million&nbsp;archaeological specimens and nearly a quarter million artifacts. Its library includes nearly two hundred thousand volumes while its special collections and the archival collection includes twenty thousand maps, over three hundred thousand photographs, and six thousand paintings, prints, and drawings. The History Center includes staff that can help with genealogical research, as well as local history research. The archives contain 36,000 cubic feet of diaries, government records, and one-of-a-kind manuscripts. For those conducting local history research, the History Center also offers full or at least partial runs of four million issues of Minnesota newspapers.

An interactive museum, the Minnesota History Center features permanent and changing exhibits and the Minnesota Historical Society Library and Archives. The History Center opened in 1992 and has a museum, library, classrooms, an auditorium, a museum store, and a café.  Exhibit highlights include a 24-ton boxcar, galleries that tell the story of Minnesota in the first and second World War, exhibits dedicated to Native Americans and early European settlers, and a multimedia show that highlights Minnesota’s weather. The Minnesota Historical Society was established in 1849.

Minnesota History Center

In 1906, the idea of the museum was formed during a lunch where businessman Charles W. Ames met with a few people. He talked about how it was important for St. Paul to grow intellectually and scientifically. The museum was first named the St. Paul Institute of Science and Letters briefly merging with the St. Paul School of Fine Arts (now known as the Minnesota Museum of American Art) for a period of time. Later, it would be renamed to the Minnesota Museum of Science in 1907. It was located inside the St. Paul Auditorium before moving locations in 1927 towards the Merriam Mansion, the former home of John Merriam (organizer of the First National Bank of Minnesota and former Speaker in the Minnesota House of Representatives).The move to the mansion would provide more space for the exhibits to thrive in. The Science Museum continued expanding which prompted a move to the St. Paul-Ramsey Arts and Science Center in 1964. The museum just kept getting bigger which came with a new location and the addition of the IMAX Dome. In the early part of the 90s, it was speculated and planned that a new modern facility would be built adjacent to the Mississippi River. With funding money acquired, the new museum building opened up in 1997. 1.75 million artifacts would be transferred inside this new building.Some of the most notable galleries and exhibits inside this museum are the Dinosaur and Fossils section, Human Body Gallery, and the Mississippi River Gallery. There is also the IMAX Dome, which is the first convertible theater in all of the northern hemisphere. The dome rotates and allegedly has the largest cinema projector in the world. There is also the Mississippi River Visitor Center where tourists can learn from park rangers about the river itself. The next center is the Kitty Anderson Youth Science Center for kids 11-18 years old to help empower the young generation to help change the world through the means of science.

Established in 1907, the Science Museum of Minnesota features 70,000 square feet of exhibitions, including a temporary exhibit gallery and five permanent galleries. It offers numerous interactive exhibits like the Mississippi River Gallery, the Human Body Gallery, the Cell Lab, the Collections Gallery, the Experiment Gallery, the Dinosaurs and Fossils Gallery, Big Back Yard, the Collectors Corner, and Science Buzz. The museum’s main areas of focus are archaeology, ethnology, mammalogy, entomology, ornithology, vertebrate and invertebrate paleontology, river and stream ecology, and watershed biology. The museum also offers a variety of educational programs for students, teachers, and visitors of all ages.

Science Museum of Minnesota

The AAW works to support and educated people around the world about the artwork of lathe-turning wood crafting. Woodturning as a craft has existed for over 4,000 years and is found in several ancient cultures. It is a unique form of wood working since it involves the wood spinning at a fast rate during the cutting process, which differs greatly from other forms of wood working. Due to the age of the craft and the unique pieces of work which are created by it, the association was founded in the hopes of encouraging others to practice in this craft. It was founded at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and the two are closely affiliated.The association holds annual symposiums each year. The location of the symposium alternates in order to not alienate members living on different sides of the country. The symposium gives members and opportunity to demonstrate wood turning in action, display their works of art, and to sell some of their crafts.&nbsp;In addition to the national symposium, the association gives its members educational opportunities, scholarships, insurance coverage, a bimonthly magazine, and a place to display and market their works of art.The Association is a affiliated with groups around the world. It has over 330 local chapters in the United States, with more chapters located in places like Canada, Japan, England, and Taiwan. There are also three virtual chapters which are online and allow for members to be more widespread. The virtual chapters also specialize in different forms of wood turning.

The American Association of Woodturners (AAW) is the leading organization in the United States demonstrating finely crafted artworks of wood turning. The association was founded in 1986 and is located in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and has over 15,000 members around the world. AAW holds an annual national symposium, and generously sponsors organizes activities for outreach to new members as well as educational activities.

American Association of Woodturners Gallery of Wood Art

The two buildings were designed in the Italian Romanesque style and were constructed during a&nbsp;major commercial boom period. The Pioneer was built first (in 1889) and originally the two buildings were separated by a narrow alley. The museum was founded as the St. Paul School of Fine Arts in 1894. It was officially incorporated as a museum in 1927. Serious collecting began in the 1940s and its name was changed to the St. Paul Art Center in the 1950s. The name was changed again in 1969 to the Minnesota&nbsp;Museum of Art. It became the Minnesota Museum of American Art in 1992 to reflect the museum's primary focus on American works.

Housed in the historic Endicott Building, the Minnesota Museum of American Art is one of the state's leading arts institutions. It features a collection of 4,500 works of state, regional and national American artists including Thomas Hart Benton, Joan Mitchell, Romare Bearden; many Minnesota artists are also represented. The museum also offers numerous educational  community engagement programs including classes, interdisciplinary programs, and partnerships. The Endicott Building was built in the late 1890s and, along with the adjoining Pioneer Building, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

Minnesota Museum of American Art

The Jackson Street Roundhouse replaced the smaller engine house
St. Paul &amp; Pacific and became a part of a shop complex in the 1880s.&nbsp; The roundhouse was sold in 1960 and remolded
into a warehouse and industrial building; the tracks and turntable were
removed.&nbsp; The Minnesota Transportation Museum
bought the building in 1986 and restored it as an operating roundhouse.&nbsp; The museum officially opened in 1999.&nbsp; 20 of the 25 original stalls remain and the museum
reinstalled the turntable in 2001.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Built by James J. Hill and the Great Northern Railway in 1907, the Jackson Street Roundhouse, a former steam engine maintenance facility, is home to the Minnesota Transportation Museum.  The museum hosts exhibits abut local and regional railway and bus history, features an operation roundhouse turntable, allows visitors to see the restoration of historic railway operating equipment, and offers train rides every Saturday.  

The museum hosts several events throughout the year, including Tots & Trains, Roundhouse on Tap brewery tastings, and Music in the Museum. On Saturdays and Sundays during the months of May through October, the museum holds Brunch Train Rides, Pizza Train Rides, Dinner Train Rides, and Excursion Train Rides.   

Minnesota Transportation Museum

Jane first visited the land now known as Minnesota as a child in 1835, living with her missionary family among the Dakota of Ḣeyate Otuŋwe (Cloud Man’s Village). The friendships she built with this community endured long after her family left the village and traveled back east. In 1849, Jane and her husband decided to settle in the newly established Minnesota Territory. Shortly thereafter, the couple encountered Dakota crossing their land. It was discovered that they were Jane’s friends from Cloud Man’s Village. For years afterward, the Dakota visited the Gibbs family each fall, setting up camp at the farm before heading north to harvest wild rice.This amicable relationship, a positive example of cross-cultural cooperation, adds a special dimension to Gibbs Farm programming. While most farm-based field trips are grounded in 19th century pioneer life and agriculture, Gibbs Farm programming centers on women’s history and Dakota culture, building on the historic connections between Jane Gibbs and the people of Cloud Man’s Village. RCHS worked with Dakota Elders and Culture Bearers to develop Gibbs Farm’s Dakota program and it continues to be guided by Dakota advisors today.

Gibbs Farm is a historic site where visitors can learn about 1800s Dakota and early Minnesota farm life. It was originally a homestead owned by Jane and Heman Gibbs, who settled at this location in 1849. The oldest structure at the museum is the farmhouse, which was built in 1854. Other buildings include the original white barn where animals were cared for, a one-room schoolhouse moved here from western Minnesota, and a red barn used for educational programs. The farm was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. It became a museum in 1954 after the Ramsey County Historical Society bought it in 1949. The museum also features a tipi and replica bark lodge that help to tell the story of the Dakota people of Cloud Man's Village. Field trips offered May through October are the primary program of this site. Summer camps, adult orientated programs, and public hours are also offered. More information can be found on their website listed below.

Gibbs Farm: Pathways to Dakota and Pioneer Life

The Bell Museum of Natural History is a museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on the campus of the University of Minnesota. On display are numerous animal specimens from all over the world. The museum is best-known for its dioramas which show caribou, timber wolves, bobcats, deer, moose, and a variety of birds from the wetlands. The museum also offers the Touch and See Discovery Room--a place where school groups and families can explore the natural world through interactive exhibits. The museum will move to a new location at the University of Minnesota-St. Paul campus in 2018.

Bell Museum of Natural History

The museum would not be the art museum it is today without
the significant contributions from Frederick R Weisman and Frank D Gehry. Weisman, the museum’s namesake, provided a
generous donation to build the University of Minnesota art museum a new
building. This Minnesota native was a
successful businessman and contemporary art collector who died one year after
the museum’s initial opening.

Home to 20,000 works of art, the Weisman Art Museum opened in 1993 and features American Modernism, ceramics, Mimbres pottery, and the most complete collection of Korean furniture outside of Asia. Internationally acclaimed artist Frank Gehry designed the building and its addition, which was completed in 2011. American artists represented include Georgia O’Keeffe and Marsden Hartley.

Weisman Art Museum

<div>The original mill, built in 1874, was leveled by a flour dust explosion that claimed 18 lives. That explosion and the resulting fire destroyed much of the riverfront business area, cutting Minneapolis' milling capacity in half.</div><div> </div><div>The mill was rebuilt by 1880, with state-of-the-art machinery that permitted safer operations and higher-quality flour. By the turn-of-the-century, this was the largest and most technologically-advanced mill in the world. Automatic steel rollers replaced traditional millstones. According to contemporary sources, the mill produced enough flour to make 12 million loaves of bread a day during its peak of operations in the 20th century. However, the mill eventually became obsolete and operations ceased in 1965. The structure was not well-maintained in the following decades and was nearly destroyed by a fire in 1991. The fire raised awareness of the historic value of the mill and led to a community effort to restore the remaining structure and create a museum at the site.&nbsp;</div>

Located in the ruins of what was once the largest flour mill in the world, the Mill City Museum commemorates the history of milling and the Riverfront. Exhibits present the history of the mill and the city's role as a center of flour production from the 19th century to the mid-20th century. The museum also preserves and interprets the history of the city and region with exhibits and programs that change throughout the year to make each visit unique and educational. 

Mill City Museum

The building served as the Masonic Temple for more
than a century. It housed offices and lodging space for the Masonic Temple
Association of Minneapolis. Visitors might notice the intricately carved motifs
on the building’s exterior. The sandstone building originally had two domes on
the corner towers but those were removed because of deterioration. 

Ownership changed in 1978 and it became home to the Hennepin
Center for the Arts. The building has been home to a number of business and
medical offices, a church as well as street-level retail stores. Improvements
have included a new roof and windows as well as a chemical wash to restore it
to its original color. New mechanical and electrical systems were installed.
Lodge halls were converted to theatre spaces. 

The building is now owned and operated by Artspace Projects.
As part of The Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts, the building is
home to several dance troupes and is visited by thousands of children and
adults each year for classes, rehearsals, workshops and performances. It also
has a distance learning program which used technology to create two-way
interactive teaching environments for students throughout the nation.

The Hennepin Center for the Arts was originally built from 1888 to 1990 as a Masonic Temple. The building is a Richardsonian Romanesque style designed by long architects, Long and Kees. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1795. Today is part of The Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts. 

Hennepin Center for the Arts

The Center dates its origins to the personal collection of Thomas Barlow Walker, a lumber baron who allowed anyone to visit his home and enjoy his collection. From 1879 when he acquired his first pieces and allowed the first visitors into his home to 1927, when the Walker Art Gallery officially opened, Mr. Walker's collection continued to grow and became one of the leading attractions in the city. Despite opening just prior to the Great Depression, the collection continued to grow thanks to the support of the Federal Art Project-past of the New Deal's Works Progress Administration. After World War II, the museum began to focus on modern art.

The Walker Art Center features contemporary visual and performing arts exhibits and programs. In 1988, the Center opened the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden next to the museum. Both the Center and the Sculpture Garden are known to art lovers around the world. The Center offers one of the leading collections of modern art and is known for its innovative approach to connecting art with visitors. The sculpture garden remains one of the largest in the nation and over 20,000 art lovers attended its most recent festival. 

Walker Art Center

While the museum officially opened to the public in 1988,
its history begins in 1946 with Joe Pavek, an electronics instructor at the
Dunwoody Institute who began amassing his collection with radios he brought
home from work.&nbsp; Pavek was an amateur
radio operator and entrepreneur who founded Twin City Nut &amp; Bolt Company;
his business allowed him the luxury of travel where continued to collect
radios.&nbsp;In the 1980s, Pavek met Earl
Bakken, cofounder of Medtronic and inventor of the wearable pacemaker, who shared
his passion for radio.&nbsp; Bakken, Pavek,
and Paul Hedberg of the Minnesota Broadcasters Association formed the
organization that would become the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting.&nbsp; Joe Pavek lived to see his dream of sharing
his radio collection and passion with others before his death in 1989.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The Pavek Museum of Broadcasting highlights the history of broadcasting both nationally and in the Minnesota area.  The museum’s collections include antique radio, television, and broadcasting equipment featuring over 30 television manufactures from the Minnesota area in the 1920s, as well as the John T. “Jack” Mullin Collection of recording technology. Mullin was a WWII soldier who began his collection and passion for radio when he brought a German AEG Magnetophon tape recorder home to the U.S. 

The museum also features the Pioneer Broadcaster Series, a collection of videotape interviews with prominent people in the broadcasting history, the Minnesota Broadcasting Hall of Fame, popular children’s shows from the Twin Cities, and a library that has technical and service information on electronics.  The museum offers several programs, including a Broadcast workshop for children, Magnets to Megahertz, The Electromagnetism Workshop, and Vintage Radio Service for adults.    

Pavek Museum of Broadcasting 

The museum is named after Earl Bakken, the founder of Medtronic, which today is the largest manufacturer of pacemakers. Bakken was born in 1924 and attended the University of Minnesota where he earned a degree in&nbsp;electrical engineering. He founded Medtronic in 1949 and initially he focused on repairing medical equipment. Eventually, the company began to design its own equipment. Along with another doctor, Bakken&nbsp;developed the world's first wearable pacemaker in 1957. His interest in old medical equipment and books began in 1969 and for the next several years he acquired a sizable collection. He opened a small museum in the early 1970s at the corporate headquarters and then moved it to another office in 1975. Initially it was called the Medtronic Museum of Electricity in Life. That same year the museum was officially&nbsp;incorporated. The museum moved to the mansion in 1976 and added a storage vault in 1981. It changed its name to the current one in 1986.

The Bakken Museum is the only museum in the world dedicated to the medical uses of electricity. It features a wide variety of hands-on exhibits that help educate visitors about the history of electricity and electromagnetism from 1200 A. D. to the present. This includes an exhibit on Mary Shelley, the writer of Frankenstein, and a small theater recreating the laboratory of the mad scientist who created Frankenstein. The museum opened in 1975 and moved to the current location, the old West Winds mansion, a year later. 

Bakken Museum

The Como-Harriet Streetcar Line is located southwest of downtown Minneapolis. It operates between Lake Harriet and Lake Calhoun. The Linden Hills Station is at Queen Ave. So. and W. 42nd St. You can also board at the Lake Calhoun platform, on Richfield Road south of W. 36th St. From Interstate 35-W, use the W. 46th St. exit. Go west to E. Lake Harriet Pkwy. Follow the Parkway around the Lake to W. 42nd St. Park in the pay lot to your left ($1 per vehicle) or cross the streetcar tracks for on-street parking.

The Minnesota Streetcar Museum focuses on the preservation of Minnesota's electric railway history by acquiring, restoring, maintaining, and operating a fleet of eight historic Minnesota streetcars on the Como-Harriet Streetcar Line in Minneapolis and the Excelsior Streetcar Line in Excelsior. MSM also preserves artifacts, papers, and photographs that it uses to interpret Minnesota's electric railway history.

Minnesota Streetcar Museum 

The museum was founded by Raymond Johnson and his wife, both of whom began collecting Russian since for many decades. In 1991, they put on an exhibition&nbsp;of Russian impressionist paintings. By 2001 they had the largest known collection of Russian Realist&nbsp;paintings outside of Russia. They decided that it was best to showcase this collection and founded the museum, which was originally located in Bloomington (it opened in 2002). The museum was moved to the current facility in 2005. The building is a former Congregational church built in 1925; it was also a funeral home.&nbsp;

Founded in 2001, the Museum of Russian Art (TMORA), is a member-supported nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and presentation of all forms of Russian art and artifacts. The only North American museum of its kind, TMORA features a dynamic rotation of originally curated exhibitions showcasing extraordinary works of art seldom displayed in the United States. Through the Museum’s educational programs and diverse exhibitions, visitors can explore new perspectives on the history, heritage and art of Russia and surrounding cultures. The museums's collection is comprised of paintings, photography, lacquer art, porcelain, textiles, prints, and other forms of art.

The Museum of Russian Art

The Minnesota Air National Guard was founded in 1921 and was the first such guard wing established in the country. It has become the 133rd Tactical Air Wing and the 148th Fighter Interceptor Wing. The museum was founded in 1984.&nbsp;

Located on the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and operated by the Minnesota Air National Guard Historical Foundation, the Minnesota Air National Guard Museum houses one of the largest collections of military aircraft and related equipment in the surrounding five-state region. It was founded in 1984 and features 21 aircraft on display outside—these include fighters, cargo planes, helicopters, and utility aircraft used by the US military dating before WWII to the present day—and several exhibits in the hangar exhibit hall. Objects in the hangar include ejections seats, flight simulators, jet and piston engines, and weaponry ranging from WWI to today. There are also exhibits on the Doolittle raid and the Tuskegee Airmen. The museum also houses a library which has an extensive collection of historical documents, photographs, manuscripts and books.

Museums and Galleries of Minneapolis and St Paul

Minneapolis Institute of Arts

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