Minnesota History

Self-Guided Group Activity

Many of these questions are designed to prompt close looking and critical thinking. Read each artwork’s label to find answers to fact-based questions.

Artwork not on view? Don’t worry: There are plenty of others to visit!

Featured Works: Land of 10,000 Looks

Collage IX: Landscape

Anishinaabe artist George Morrison was born in Minnesota. Today his art is popular with Minnesotans and across the United States.

• What adjectives would you use to describe this piece?
• What comes to mind when you look at it? What in the art made you think that?
• What do you like about this work of art? What do you wonder?
• Morrison loved to work along the northern shores of Minnesota. This is his interpretation of Lake Superior. What other sites in Minnesota could resemble this work of art? What do these sites have in common with Morrison’s landscape?

Rainy Evening on Hennepin Avenue

Hennepin Avenue runs from downtown Minneapolis through Uptown and into south Minneapolis. It is still an important road for Minnesotans today.

• What do you notice first about the painting? What is happening in it?
• What choices did the artist make to create the look of a rainy day?
• How does the artist show movement?
• Have you walked through a downtown or major city? How does that compare or contrast to this painting?

View of Fort Snelling

Fort Snelling was an important military fort in the 1800s. Now, it is a tourist attraction where adults and students can learn about the impact—
both positive and negative—the military post had in Minnesota and on the Native community.

• Look closely at the painting. What are some details that you see?
• Why do you think the artist painted this scene? What do you see that makes you say that?
• Look around the gallery and nearby rooms for other river paintings. How does this compare? Which interpretation do you prefer? Why?

A “Bear” Chance

Mia has always had support from local businesses, big and small. This painting was donated from a local business in 1970. These businesses support the museum not only through donations of art but also of money. Their support helps local students to visit and learn about art, different cultures, and history.

• What words would use to describe the bear and its habitat in the painting?
• What do you see that makes you say that?
• What do you think the purpose of this painting was? What do you see that makes you say that?
• What are some other local businesses from Minnesota that you know about?

Model of original scheme for the Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts

This model is more than 100 years old and shows the originally intended design for the museum you are standing in right now. Mia looks very different today, but even in 1912 it was destined to be an important art and cultural institution for Minnesota.

• Look closely at the model. What are some patterns you see throughout the building?
• Describe the model. Think about terms you use in geometry. How do these forms and repetition of forms make you feel? Why do you suppose the people who were planning to build the museum did it that way?
• What is your favorite part about the design? Why did you pick that?
• Think about your experience today at Mia. Which part do you think you are standing in, if any? What parts of the building still exist? What parts never got built?

Cleota Collins

This sculpture was made while Bannarn was studying across the park at the Minneapolis School of Arts, now known as the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Made in the summer of 1932, this is one of Bannarn’s earliest known works. Henry Bannarn was born in Wetumpka, Oklahoma, but he moved to Minnesota as a young child. Mia is lucky to consider him a local artist.

• At first glance, what does this look like it’s made of?
• What do you see that makes you say that?
• What type of emotion is this woman expressing?
• How would you describe this sculpture to a friend?
• Bannarn made this as a student in his early 20s. Take a moment to walk through the Community Commons on the first floor of Mia to see other local students’ art.

Living Room from the Prindle House

John Bradstreet moved to Minnesota from Massachusetts to open an interior design store. He designed and furnished this living room, taken from a Duluth home. He also helped to create the Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts in 1883, which became the Minneapolis Institute of Art in 1915.

• Look around the room. How would you describe it? Which details pop out at you?
• What does the room tell us about Minnesota taste and culture in the early 1900s? How can looking at rooms like this teach us about history?
• Think about the colors used in the room. What do those colors make you think of? Why do you think they were chosen for the space?
• What is your favorite part of the room?

Badlands

Urban Stanley Couch was born and raised in Minneapolis and graduated from the Minneapolis School of Art and Design (now MCAD), next door to the museum.

• What about this reminds you of a landscape?
• Look closely. Think about the brushes he used to paint this. Move your hands to imagine what it felt like to make these brushstrokes.
• How does this painting make you feel?

Mill Pond at Minneapolis

This is a representation of Mill Pond and the Stone Arch Bridge in 1888. When this was painted, the Stone Arch Bridge was only 5 years old. Today, you can still see Mill Pond and the bridge by Hennepin Island and St. Anthony Falls.

• What do you notice first? What words would you use to describe this painting?
• Think about the color choices. How does this painting make you feel? What about it make you feel that?
• Think about the style of brushstroke and colors. How does this painting compare to the scene on the James J. Hill Presentation Tray? How does it compare to the Fort Snelling painting?
• What does this painting tell you about Minnesota history? What do you see that makes you say that?

Tornado over St. Paul 

This painting was inspired by a photograph that captured the infamous tornado over St. Paul of July 13, 1890.

• Notice the colors in the painting. What mood do they create? How do they create it?
• What tells you this is actually a painting? What about this painting reminds you of a photograph?
• What do you think most motivated Julius Holm to document this storm in a painting? How do you learn about extreme weather today?
• Think of a time you have experienced a storm—whether it be thunder, lightning, blizzard, etc. How would you describe that storm in an artwork?  How does it compare to this representation?