Supporting Bees—and Celebrating Them Through Art
Examining the European honeybees on Mia’s roof.
From 2013 to 2022, Mia hosted several colonies of European honeybees on its roof, a striking if largely unseen part of its mission to preserve the planet and its treasures. When it became clear that merely hosting the bees was not enough, Mia planted bee-friendly flowers to continue its support of the health of all bees.
During the summer of 2017, Mia’s Green Team created a small garden of pollinator plants near the parking garage, a kind of supermarket of native wildflowers and other plants that appeal both to Mia’s bees and native bees. It’s part of the team’s larger ambition to plant pollinator-friendly, pesticide-free plants around Mia’s properties throughout its campus, providing nectar and pollen for the bees to bring back to the hive for nourishment.
A Mia Green Team member works in the museum’s new pollinator patch.
The seedlings, from Glacial Ridge Growers in Prior Lake, were provided by a Minneapolis city program while the honeycomb-shaped beds were supplied by the Beez Kneez advocacy group through its Pollinator Patch initiative. A sign (“Healthy Bees, Healthy Lives”) marks the plot.
In July of 2017, Mia joined the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board for a Pollinator Party at Lyndale Park Gardens. It was an evening of artmaking, music, food, and beekeeping courtesy of the University of Minnesota Bee Lab and Bee Squad (the scientists behind Mia’s former hives). The event gave the community an opportunity to learn about the lives of bees—and what can be done to improve them.