Four Area History Museums to host Russian Culture Series

The event series, “Exploring History and Culture in Central Minnesota – The Museum of Russian Art,”  takes place each Saturday during February at different area locations.

Sharing culture, art, and history is a great way to build understanding and empathy across cultures. Central Minnesota has a rich Russian heritage and is home to a large segment of the Russian diaspora. The February 2020 event series is the second annual event, bringing unique programming from highly-acclaimed Minnesota museums to Central Minnesota.

February 8, 2020, at The Stearns History Museum “Russian Fairytales”
The program will include Russian traditional dances by the Nitka Folk Performance Group, a costume show with explanations and a presentation on Russian fairytales and fairytale-themed nesting dolls from the TMORA collection. The Nitka Folk Performance Group is a troupe of all female performance-oriented folklorists who study, research, perform and interpret female communal culture of old Russia.

February 15, 2020 at The Benton County Historical Society “Songs of Old Russia”
The program will feature the Ladya Duet with a presentation on the collection of The Museum of Russian Art and a show of objects from the collection that includes carved wood figurines and nesting dolls in traditional Russian dress.

February 22, 2020 at the Morrison County Historical Society, “Posidelki: Russian Songs of the Winter Season”
Nitka Folk Performance Group will showcase Russian songs of the winter season with a demonstration of a spinning process and a presentation on related objects from the museum’s collection. This event will take place on

February 29, 2020 at the Sherburne History Center “Folk Ways: Russian Traditional Song and Dances”
Nitka Folk Performance Group will include a costume show along with dances, songs and rituals from the Russian village tradition. A selection of objects from the collection of TMORA will be included in the presentation.

All the events take place 1 to 3 p.m. and are free and open to the public. For more information, contact the individual museums: Morrison County Historical Society, 320-632-4007; Benton County Historical Society, 320-253-9614, Sherburne History Center, 763-261-4433, and Stearns History Museum, 320-253-8424.

This activity is made possible in part by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Central MN Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

 PR website link – http://morrisoncountyhistory.org/?p=7597