Practicing art is a Hmong tradition. Many elders are highly skilled in at least one form of art such as music, storytelling, singing, dance and the elders continue to practice art regularly.
For thousands of years, the Hmong created art in order to live. If you didn’t know how to weave and sew, you couldn’t clothe your family. If you couldn’t tell a story, it would be difficult to entertain your family and at the same time pass on your family’s traditions, rituals, and history (the Hmong didn't have a writing system until the 1950's). If you couldn’t artistically adorn traditional clothing with needlework or fashion jewels using blacksmithing, you couldn't look your best during the Hmong New Year Celebration . Blacksmithing was also essential for making eating utensils and work tools. If you didn’t sing or play an instrument, you didn’t have a creative way to court a future husband or wife. Music also played an important role for passage of a soul into the realm of the ancestors during funerals. Finally, having an artistic skill enabled you to barter and trade for services.
Today, the Hmong are also adding new art forms to their repertoire such as writing, visual art, filmmaking, acting, or design art.
The Hmong are an ethnic minority people from Laos. They played a crucial role in aiding the United States in a CIA-sponsored "Secret War" against the spread of communism in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. Click here to learn more about the Hmong people. The Hmong were thrusted into modernity when they were forced to seek refuge after the United States pulled out of Vietnam in 1975. HAIL is located in Saint Paul, Minnesota, which has the second largest Hmong population in the United States behind California. The City of Saint Paul has the world's largest Hmong population in an urban setting.
Art is essential to the Hmong and because of it they continue to thrive. At HAIL, the torch still burns for this Hmong tradition as it continues to shape the lives of the Hmong as they plant roots in America and learn how to live in the 21st century. HAIL is at the forefront of Hmong art as we strive to build a vibrant creative community of Hmong artists throughout the world.
