Learning Carnival Comes to Southeast Minneapolis

Reaching toward the sun, a small girl poses with a tai chi teacher in Van Cleve Park in Southeast Minneapolis. Just a handful of steps away from her, a young boy practices break-dancing moves with a local hip-hop crew. And inside the gymnasium, a flock of children gaze at the stars inside a mobile planetarium. 

This was all part of the Southeast Minneapolis Learning Carnival, a fall event hosted by the Southeast Minneapolis Council on Learning (SEMCOL) and Learning Dreams.

Peppering booths across the park and inside the recreation center, local citizens, who ranged from young to adult, experienced the pleasure and fun of learning new skills as they explored over twenty different activities, all for free. 

The goal of the afternoon event was to bring together local organizations, companies and creatives to help Southeast Minneapolis neighbors expand their experiences and knowledge as well as become more connected to the learning resources around them. 

The Founder and Director of Learning Dreams, Dr. Jerry Stein and his staff, as well as SEMCOL members acted as the creative minds behind this fall event. In addition, the Learning Carnival was coordinated in conjunction with the release of a report on the Local Learning System of Southeast Minneapolis by Dr. Stein and Learning Dreams staff member Matt Carlson.

In addition to the educational booths, Learning Dreams introduced the Unsettlement House at the Carnival.  

The Unsettlement House is an artistically conceived mobile learning unit containing a collection of inspiring objects, gadgets and doo dads designed to evoke and connect people to the possibilities for learning in their lives and in their community.  Its purpose is to bring both individual learning dreams and the collective educational  capacities of the community to the forefront of community life. 

The Unsettlement House poses the question “what do you want to learn?” and then helps them connect to resources that support those aspirations.

In all, over two hundred people attended the event. A second Learning Carnival is being planned for fall 2012.  

For more information about SEMCOL and to see video highlights from the Southeast Minneapolis Learning Carnival, go to www.semcol.org/carnival.