Videos and Photo Presentations

We hope you enjoy the video and photos presented here. The Chippewa Valley Museum collects, preserves, and displays important, regional, cultural artifacts from the Chippewa Valley. See you at the museum soon.

Nyckelharpa: A traditional Swedish instrument

Ian Holzman talks about his experience discovering and playing the Nyckelharpa (a traditional Swedish folk instrument). Earl Holzman tells us about how he builds these instruments.



The project was supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts.

A Piece of Hmong: Mai Xee Xiong Creates a Hmong New Year's Hat

The Chippewa Valley Museum worked with local Hmong textile artist Mai Xee Xiong and the Eau Claire Area Hmong Mutual Assistance Association to create a video documenting Xiong's immigration story and the process of making a traditional Hmong New Year's hat. The video is featured in CVM's new exhibit Changing Currents: Reinventing the Chippewa Valley.



The project was supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Barn Stories: Collected in 2001

Folklorists study the informal ways we learn, and our everyday expressions of what we find beautiful and important in life -- from making a quilt to celebrate a special occasion, to creating art from tools and objects we find around us, to planting corn in straight, perfect rows. In our stories, we also choose whats most important to us. And our stories happen in places important to us: our living rooms and kitchens, our churches and taverns, our workshops and barns. -- Ruth Olson, Associate Director, Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures. One of four parts.

Explore photos from the John Till Virtual Exhibit below.