Article by: Courtney Bergey
This year, students from Houston County will have the exciting opportunity to be part of the Smithsonian’s Museum on Main Street program called Stories: YES Houston (Youth + Engagement + Skillbuilding). Stories: YES Houston is presented as part of the 2018 Smithsonian traveling exhibition, “The Way We Worked,” exploring how work became a central element in American culture, and tracing the many changes that have affected the workforce and work environments over the past 150 years.
The selected youth applicants will develop skills in local and oral history research, interviewing, media production, exhibit design, narrative writing, public speaking, and more. By the end of the project, the participants will have produced a series of multimedia stories that will inspire local conversations on economic sustainability and regional identity.
Houston County CEDA representative Courtney Bergey assisted with the program planning and will be an active partner in the project, which received $10,000 in funding from the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation Small Town Grant program. Project coordinator is Erin Dorbin, a Houston, MN-based historian and multimedia producer.
For more information on the program, visit http://www.