Creators, Collectors & Communities : Making Ethnic Identity Through Objects

Abstract

Ann Smart Martin's Spring 2017 museum course's work on the Driftless Historium's inaugural exhibit. This includes all labels and images of the objects as well as detailed object essays and music. This exhibition introduces us to many people and teaches us about many household objects. The trunks and mangle boards that immigrants brought to a new settlement were made to be useful, appear beautiful, and remind of home. Craftsman Azaak Lie updated his native Norwegian woodworking skills to fit American styles and tastes. The “artist farmer” Martin Cliff drew upon both his Norwegian heritage and popular arts and crafts of the period. When Oljanna Cunneen and Patricia Edmundson crafted trolls or rosemaled dishes, they looked back at a romantic heritage. Isaak Lee established little Norway to revel in his beloved mythical landscape of buildings and objects and commissioned Olaf Colberson to decorate walls and furniture, including a traditional kubbestol updated with rockers.