In Progress is built upon the dedicated work of a number of artists, educators and youth.  The timeline below outlines a series of pivotal moments that came to shape the mission, programs and activities now provided by In Progress:  

1. •1985  Arts administrator, I. Karon Sherarts develops a comprehensive youth and teacher education program for the non-profit media arts organization Film In The Cities. Karon continues to promote media education programming throughout her career. She now serves on In Progress's Board of Directors and is developing a comprehensive model for evaluation for the organization.
   

1. •1987  Artist Kristine Sorensen (then working for Film In the Cities) begins teaching video in rural and urban communities. Kris is introduced to her first student Deanna Drift, from Nett Lake Village. At age 31 Deanna is still supporting In Progress as a local community organizer and fundraiser.
   

1. •1989  Mike Schmid, a teacher from the Bug O Nay Ge Shig School invites Kris to his school to see how he teaches video (1 camera and a VCR). Within a year, Kris is developing programs for the Leech Lake community. To this day, Mike is actively involved with In Progress, providing in-kind housing, volunteer teaching services, and general support to In Progress activities.  
   

1. •1991 Ronald Buckanaga, director of a small alternative program for Indian youth living on the north side of Minneapolis, invites Kris to teach video to his students. Together they develop and implement a summer video arts program for youth. Today, In Progress continues to work in partnership with Ron and what is now the Four Directions Charter School to implement a permanent media arts program that serves more than 100 students each year. Through this partnership, In Progress is also piloting a peer-teaching program that is actively preparing Native American youth as media arts instructors.
   

1. •1993  Film In the Cities, the largest non-profit media arts center in the Midwest, folds and disappears from the community. Kris Sorensen begins her own business, while partnering with local non-profits to find homes for valuable media arts programs. The McKnight Foundation provides needed support in helping with this transition and arts administrator Juanita Espinosa offers to lend her support in helping ensure that valuable media programs continue to serve Native American communities. In 2004, Juanita joined In Progress's board of directors and continues to support the expansion of youth and artist programs that serve Indian communities.
   

1. •1995 Kris Sorensen conducts a video arts residency for students at Saint Paul Open School. The program supported through the Minnesota State Arts Board, introduces Kris to Sai Thao and later to Mina Blyly-Strauss. These two young artists have their first video experiences through this program and later go on to do the hard work of forming In Progress. Sai Thao, who is a founding board member, was the first In Progress artist to begin writing and receiving grants for her work as a video artist. Mina who came up with the name “In Progress” is now a practicing media artist and instructor. She and Sai have been instrumental in introducing media into the lives of hundreds of new media producers since 1999.
   

1. •1996  Bienvenida Matias, Executive Director of the Center for Arts Criticism, invites Kris Sorensen to partner with her to teach a workshop for Latino youth living in Crookston Minnesota. The collaboration is powerful for all involved and marks the birth of the Fresh Voices, an ongoing media arts program that is now working to become a national model. Beni, along with Gilbert Hernandez and Tomas Leal (participants in the 1996 program), are still active with In Progress and are working to build this new initiative. In this same year, Kris Sorensen is invited to teach a video arts workshop for youth at the Grand Marais Arts Colony. This one-week workshop leads to the local high school's embrace of a comprehensive video arts program that is still active, and depending on In Progress artists to provide artistic mentorship for its students. More than ten graduates from Grand Marais are now in college studying to become professional media artists and stay in contact with In Progress.
   

1. •1997  With support from the Medtronics Foundation, the Center for Arts Criticism launches The Critical Eye, a small workshop for a handful of youth living in the Twin Cities. In the same year, COMPAS funds a media workshop for youth involved with District 202, a locally run GLBT center. Though the partnership with District 202 does not continue, many of the young artists transition into the Critical Eye, which continues today as comprehensive mentorship program for young artists. It should be noted that from these programs hundreds of young people meet and share their art. A few like Kang Vang, Joanna Kohler, Jenny Hanson, and Olutoyin Adebanjo find success as independent media artists and program leaders/advocates for In Progress.
   

1. •1998  Founded upon workshops and curriculum programs introduced in prior years, Ogichidaakweg is created to provide leadership training for young women living on Leech Lake Reservation. Nadine Chase, a founding board member and ongoing supporter of this program, with Sommer Mitchell (youth artist since 1991), work together to develop the program and secure funding from the Rockefeller Foundation and made the first year of the program possible. Ogichidaakweg stands today as national model for successful media arts programming and is growing into an effective chain of media arts programs for Indian communities.