From the 1860s to 1931, the Bohemian Flats on the west bank of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis housed many immigrants. The neighborhood offered affordable housing and allowed residents to use their native languages and maintain cultural traditions while adjusting to life in the United States.
Artists were also drawn to the area. Modernist painter Vaclav Vytlacil rented a studio there and brought students from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (then Minneapolis School of Art) to study the surroundings. The flats became a center for artistic activity during this time…