WINTER 2025
Although winter may be wearing on us, the promise of spring—now just six weeks away, at least by meteorological standards
—keeps our spirits high. That anticipation is especially strong Mia, where excitement is building around both major and intimate exhibitions. Giants: Art from The Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys opens March 8, while Hokusai | Monet, which opened earlier this month, offers an early glimpse of spring.
And, of course, Art in Bloom will be here before you know it.
Be sure to check out the latest insights from Head of Learning and Programming Abbie Edens at the “Thoughts from Mia” link above. And explore the stories below for inspiration from Associate Curator of European Art Galina Olmsted, a Q&A with Tours and Volunteers Coordinator Marina Moua, and reflections from a number of our fellow Mia Guides.
Happy touring!
Winter Landscape (closeup), 1919 • David Johannes Niemala
Oil on canvas • The Christian N. and Swan J Turnblad Memorial Fund • 2023.28
Credit: Minneapolis Institute of Art
Happy 2025!
Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season filled with laughter, family, friends, and fond remembrances of people who touched our lives and have passed on.
As I reminisce about the past 33 years as a school guide at Mia, I fondly think of Bonnie Gainsley and Ann Isaacson, who ran the Art Guide program from its inception in 1991, and all of the amazing guides I have met and or toured with. I also remember Evan Mauer, the director of Mia from 1988 to 2005, who made the museum free for everyone, opened the African gallery, and hired Joe Horse Capture as an assistant curator of the Native American collection. And it was in 1991, during Evan’s tenure, when the Art Adventure Guide program began. I have many memories of tours that I have been on, including the student who excitedly shared that his grandmother had the same Chinese porcelain vase that was in the Mia collection, the young boy who was Hmong who eagerly wanted to know if I was Hmong and was so disappointed to learn that I was not (I was so tempted to create an alternative fact …), the English-as-a-second-language high school students happily taking selfies in the Grand Salon, the visitor from a memory care unit who was looking at the Frankfurt Kitchen and the wooden spoon prop and recalling being spanked by a wooden spoon! The stories that are shared and the magic that happens when visitors are looking at the art at Mia are priceless.
I am so happy that the Art Adventure Program, together with the docent and Collection in Focus programs, have weathered so many changes, including the incredible challenge COVID created, and that under the leadership of Kara ZumBahlen and Debra Hegstrom, the guide programs have merged and continue to remain strong with 181 talented guides.
As co-chair of the Guide Council along with co-chair Lisa Mayotte, I thank you for all of the preparation you do and all of the amazing tours that you give. I look forward to meeting and touring with as many of you as possible this year and welcoming the 21 new school guides this spring.
And as Lisa shared in the previous issue of Insight, please let us know what we can do to support you and all of the magic you create when visitors walk in through Mia’s doors.
All the best in 2025!
Joyce Yoshimura-Rank
