Minnesota's Legacy

Voyageurs Conservancy helps to introduce Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota’s only national park, to K-12 students through outdoor education and virtual workshops.

Computer scientists at the University of Minnesota are building robots to monitor the water quality of Minnesota’s lakes. And they are recruiting middle schoolers around the state to build the robots and collect data!

When a big one gets away, it’s not just anglers who lose out; Minnesota’s loons and lakes pay the price for leftover lead.

Wabasha’s Project Get Outdoors is developing self-guided tours across Southeastern Minnesota that connect children with both natural environments and local history, drawing inspiration from Iowa's Freedom Trail documenting Underground Railroad pathways. Project Get Outdoors interviewed descendants of 10-12 abolitionists and crowd-sourced stories through a Facebook group as a part of their research...

Duluth’s Noatun Community Wooden Boat Works uses Legacy Funds to carry on the multicultural tradition of wooden boat building on the shores of Lake Superior.

The Minneapolis American Indian Center is using technology – like short form video and music production – to teach Dakota and Ojibwe to young people in the Twin Cities.

Midwest Food Connection, based in the Twin Cities, is digging into the flavors, crops, and memories in Minnesota’s African American food traditions.

Sabin Adams grew up hunting pheasants. Now, he works to protect their habitat as the Minnesota Coordinator for Pheasants Forever, which partners with the Minnesota Prairie Chicken Society to conserve the ecosystems of pheasants and other prairie game birds.

As a child, Jesús E. Purisaca Ruiz dreamed of learning guitar. Through Minneapolis’s Guitarra en el Barrio, he helps young students turn their 

Croatian Hall is the last of the South St. Paul social halls built by European immigrants in the early 20th Century and a project of the Hrvatski Dom Association.

The Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society is making it easier to explore sunken ships – without getting wet. They have created 250 maps– and counting. This year, they hired an archeologist to update a map of the Hesper, a schooner which sunk in Silver Bay in the 1800s.

The Funny Asian Women Collective (FAWK), a St. Paul organization dedicated to providing uncensored comedic expression for Asian women, presented their Legacy-funded production, "The Hmong Plus Friends Super Show," to a sold-out Ordway Theater in April 2025.

Douglas County Historical Society is undertaking a Legacy-funded research project to incorporate more Dakota history into the organization’s exhibits.

In Clearbrook, the town’s history isn’t in the archives, but in the walls, fields, and floorboards that hold generations of memories. Local writer Juleigh Prosser is helping Clearbrook compile the stories of their town into a book.

Worthington’s Creative Healing Space is an arts center where both youth and adults can engage in healing through various types of art, including journaling, painting, spoken word, fashion, and music. By providing these creative outlets, the center creates a safe environment for processing trauma while building meaningful connections among participants of all ages.

A century-old storm sewer in St. Cloud claimed by bats, a ravine pushed to the brink by heavy rains, and the project to preserve them both.

The Brainerd Baxter Youth Center, known locally as “TheShop,” serves as a community hub for teens and young adults. Beyond recreational activities, the center empowers youth with hands-on experience in event management, encouraging them to organize shows and music events where they learn valuable technical skills. The Ripple Effect is a Legacy-funded, youth-lead concert series.

At the Cultural Centre in Bird Island, the line between gallery-goer and creator disappears.

125 Live in Rochester, Minnesota is a community center for active adults. With support from the Legacy fund, they are producing a monthly concert series that is continuing to grow in popularity.

Ameriikan Poijat, founded in Northfield in 1990, carries on the tradition of Finnish brass band septets for modern audiences.

Plant/People is an oral history project examining the relationship between human beings and the natural world. Conducted in collaboration with the Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of Minnesota, herbalists Macey Flood and Emily Hagens are deeply passionate about the solidarity driven storytelling.

Founded in 1969, Minneapolis-based VocalEssence has decades of history as one of the world's premier choral music organizations. But despite its global influence, VocalEssence has kept its focus local—consistently pioneering ways to strengthen Minnesota's community through thrilling musical experiences.

Yellow Medicine East School is a small K-12 school of around 500 in Mankato MN. To provide a caring environment of high expectations that prepares every student for a successful future and instills the value of learning.  The Story Map project was an arts project that allowed for the students to be guided by a teaching artist through the creation of a virtual story map for the public.

Rochester Public Library aims to provide quality materials and services, which fulfill educational, informational, cultural, and recreational needs of the entire community in an atmosphere that is welcoming, respectful, and businesslike. The library received funding to obtain a microfilm scanner that will allow for more accessibility to the community.

Osprey Wilds is a residential environmental learning center on the shores of Grindstone Lake in east-central Minnesota. Osprey Wilds is committed to developing an understanding, ethics and responsibility regarding the environment and stewardship through formal and informal teaching that links nature and humans.