Capitol Offense
Our capitol is the visual representation of Minnesota, so why does it not visually represent Minnesota?
Walking up the steps leading to the Minnesota State Capitol building is an experience that for the everyday person is larger than life. The building itself is massive, and the signature golden statue at the top reinforces the importance of the space you are about to enter. For the most part, constituents don’t enter the Capitol. It is a foreign space filled with statues, portraits and paintings meant to represent who we are as Minnesotans. However, because it hasn’t changed since the early 1900’s, the artwork found in the Minnesota State Capitol fails to capture who we are as a state. Rather, it continues to show who we were.
I am not saying that history found in artwork is inherently negative. In this particular context, though, the capitol building represents democracy, but fails to represent its people. It’s ironic that while legislators, senators, attorney general, and governor are all elected to represent the people of Minnesota, the Capitol itself does not. Representation is the job of those working within the walls of the Minnesota State Capitol and something that I believe should be reflected on its walls.
I have been to the state Capitol two days over the course of my life. Once for a school field trip in fifth grade, and once more, recently, as an advocate for Homeless Day on the Hill 2019. Walking around the building I didn’t immediately take into account the complete lack of diversity displayed throughout the space I had entered. As a white Christian woman, I was represented. I was represented as a white Christian woman in murals on the walls, I was represented as white in the majority of the governor’s portraits hanging everywhere, and even more so in the color of the building itself. And I am ashamed to say I didn’t think twice about it, because part of white privilege is the inherent expectation of always being included in a space.
If it hadn’t been for the group of women I was spending the day with I would not have begun to question — “Who DOES the capitol represent?” as opposed to “Who is the Capitol MEANT to represent?”. Walking with my group, composed entirely of women of color, through the Minnesota State Capitol was an incredibly eye-opening and lens-challenging experience. While I may have been represented, nowhere within those walls were these women embodied. Not as a black individual who contributed to their country, not as a black woman, and especially not as an immigrant, particularly one with non-Christian beliefs. People of color as a whole are not represented within the Capitol building, and where it does occur, it’s obvious that the paintings are created from a white perspective and a white narrative of Minnesotan history.
The State Capitol had the opportunity during the renovation that ended in 2017 to increase the amount of Minnesotans represented in the Capitol’s artwork, and even started in a promising fashion by organizing a subcommittee tasked to do just that. The committee met with American Indian tribes, held town halls, and had meetings for approximately a year before delivering their recommendations. During that timeframe, every meeting with American Indian tribes resulted in the recommendation of the removal of all artwork depicting American Indians, or at the very least having the artwork reflect the perspective of American Indians. In particular, there was concern with “Treaty of Traverse des Sioux” painting, and the treaty itself which the United States government failed to follow leading to the U.S. — Dakota War of 1862. Its presence in the Capitol once again portrays a lack of perspective and a failure to move beyond the dominant narrative. In addition, the committee’s recommendation failed to bring change to the Capitol artwork, with offensive paintings moved but not removed from the building.
Despite the recent missed opportunity of the renovation that ended in 2017, groups like Healing Minnesota Stories are still pushing for changing the artwork in the State Capitol as well as in other civic buildings within Minnesota. Most recently, artwork in the Ramsey County Courthouse is gaining an addition from local artists that will be chosen by the Ramsey County Historical Society, a large player in the art present in our civic buildings. While there is no current movement to change the artwork in the State Capitol, a critical step towards changing the oppressive artwork in our civic buildings is happening now at the Ramsey County Courthouse.
I encourage you to contact the Historical Society in order to become involved in the process of changing how Minnesota is represented. Our Capitol is not a white man’s sanctuary, it should not be representative of only the white population of Minnesota, and as such it is time we make a change.
