Whose Legacy?

In 2008 Minnesota voters decided to set aside about $6.5M annually to pay my salary. That money also covers most of the expenses for the exhibits I develop at local history museums. So to start, thank you!

The $6.5M from which I draw my (almost-) fraction is itself only about 9% of approximately $75M set aside for Legacy projects each year. The Outdoor Heritage & Clean Water Funds each earn 33% annually. The Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund earns 19.75%, about half of which goes directly to Minnesota Historical Society programming, and the Parks & Trails Fund get 14.25%. The percentages seem reasonable even if they adhere to a certain inevitable logic of policy-making, but it still comes as a surprise to learn that "Outdoor Heritage" means that a single private non-profit organization has received $45M in Legacy funding since 2009 to make land and easement purchases. MinnPost wants to know, "whose legacy will taxpayers really end up supporting?"

Several possibilities spring to mind. The first is that Minnesota's Legacy Amendment has created a windfall for private organizations that not many people know much about. A second is that this is not surprising after voting to set aside about $25M annually that "may be spent only to restore, protect, and enhance wetlands, prairies, forests, and habitat for fish, game, and wildlife." Third is that much of what we do know about projects funded by Legacy money is omitted from discussions like these. And fourth, simply and broadly, acts of remembering our heritage also become part of our heritage. 

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"Helmer Aakvik"

On Sunday night at The Cedar Cultural Center, a Legacy project took the stage and played songs drawn from Minnesota history and folklore for about 300 enthusiastic fans. Joey Ford received a 2013 Artist's Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, the state agency that distributes the bulk of Legacy's Arts & Cultural Heritage money. The grant paid for Joey's band, Tree Party (better known as The Poor Nobodys), to travel around Minnesota, visit small museums and chat with locals, write songs drawn from the stories they heard, record an album and host Sunday's concert. Joey delivers Marty Robbins-flavored story songs about Minnesota folk heroes like Dorothy Molter, Wrinkle Meat, John Beargrease and Helmer Aakvik. His liner notes conclude, 

Our history lives in the voices of old-timers and sits in small town museums, waiting for us to find it.