Press Contact: Karen Gysin 612.375.7651 [email protected]
PROFILE: WALKER ART CENTER
“Possibly America’s best contemporary art museum.” —Newsweek
One of the most celebrated art museums in the country, the Walker Art Center is known for commissioning and presenting innovative contemporary art; fostering the cross-pollination of the visual, performing, and media arts; and engaging diverse audiences in the excitement of the creative process. The museum has evolved from a small-scale, primarily regional institution into a major local, national, and international artistic resource. View from Hennepin Avenue Walker Art Center Expansion Founded in 1879 by lumberman Thomas Barlow Walker, the ©2003 Herzog & de Meuron Walker was established at its current location in 1927. Edward Larrabee Barnes’ award-winning building opened in 1971 and was expanded in 1984.
A 17-acre urban campus, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architects Herzog & de Meuron, will open in spring 2005. The design for the new Walker engages the surrounding neighborhood with a new four-acre park as well as vistas onto the downtown Minneapolis skyline. The expanded facility, nearly double the size of the existing building, will feature new galleries; education areas; a new 385-seat theater; street-level and roof-top terraces; plazas, gardens, and lounges; and increased services and amenities for visitors. The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, a project of the Walker Art Center and the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, is adjacent to the museum. More than 5 million people have toured the 11-acre site, which is filled with some 40 imaginative works of contemporary art.
PROFILE: WALKER ART CENTER 1 Walker Collection and Exhibitions The new Walker will feature 11 exhibition galleries for displaying special exhibitions and a renowned permanent collection of paintings, sculpture, videos, prints, drawings, photographs, artists' books, and installation works. On view will be work by artists the Walker has collected in depth; artist-designed installations; monographic presentations showcasing a range of media; an exhibition unfolding a history of modernism and its alternatives; and showcases of minimalist and moving-image works. The inaugural special exhibition presented will be Chuck Close: Self- Portraits, 1968–2004, co-organized with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and premiering in Minneapolis in summer 2005. A commissioned Skyspace work by James Turrell, located in the new
Chuck Close, Big Self-Portrait, 1967-1968 four-acre park, will be unveiled in spring 2005. acrylic on canvas, Art Center Acquisition Fund, 1969
Performing Arts The Walker’s Performing Arts program, one of the largest and most dynamic in the country, is committed to nurturing and celebrating the most important artistic visions in contemporary dance, music, theater, and performance art through presentations, residencies, and commissions. With nearly 100 commissions in the past decade alone, the breadth, scope, and influence of the Walker’s performing arts programming is comparable with few other organizations in the country. The Walker provides artists with extensive resources and support, creates bold educational contexts for audiences to discover and enjoy new works, and, for more than 30 years, has provided the national and local performing arts communities a gauge of important new developments in performance. The Walker has presented performing arts on a regular basis since the Jennifer Monson Company, Bird Brain: Ducks and Geese , 1940s, formally establishing the department in 1970. April 30-May 2, 2004 Photo credit: Gretchen Till In 2004 the Walker received a $10 million gift from William W. and Nadine M. McGuire, one of the largest ever committed to the commissioning, development, and presentation of new works in the performing arts. The gift encompasses three areas that together create a new model for contemporary arts programming: construction of the Walker’s new 385-seat theater; creation of the Walker’s first named curatorial position; and a $2 million fund to commission new work.
PROFILE: WALKER ART CENTER 2 Film and Video Widely recognized for its presentation of moving-image arts that define and influence our time, the Walker showcases film and video in a year-round program featuring both contemporary and classic/historical works. Exploring our global community, culture, and society, programs draw from a range of genres, including contemporary world cinema, American independents, artist videos, short experimental works, and socially relevant media. In addition, programs of classic, repertory, or historically relevant films are presented to explore their critical and creative potential. Solveig Anspach’s Stormy Weather, 2003 Workshops with artists, the mobile art lab Walker on Wheels, and Screened as part of Women with Vision 2004: Home/Away From Home, free memberships for low-income visitors establish ongoing May 2004 partnerships with the Twin Cities community.
Minneapolis Sculpture Garden Since its opening in 1988, the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden has become one of the Twin Cities' most popular and acclaimed attractions. One of the largest urban sculpture parks in the United States, it features four 100-foot-square plazas containing works by leading American and international artists; the Cowles Conservatory, which houses seasonal plantings and a glass-and- wood sculpture, Standing Glass Fish, by California architect Frank Gehry; the 29-foot-high fountain-sculpture Spoonbridge and Cherry, designed for the Garden by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen; the Irene Hixon Whitney Bridge, a 375-foot-long footbridge designed by Twin Cities-based artist Siah Armajani, Claes Oldenburg and Coosje Van Bruggen, Spoonbridge and Cherry, 1985-1988, aluminum, stainless steel, paint, which spans 16 lanes of traffic and connects the Garden to Loring Gift of Frederick R. Weisman in honor of his parents, William and Mary Weisman, 1988 Park; and, in the expanded north end of the Garden, the 300-foot- Photo credit: Courtesy Walker Art Center long Alene Grossman Memorial Arbor and Flower Garden.
Location The Walker Art Center and the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden are located at the corner of Vineland Place and Lyndale Avenue South, in Minneapolis. For public information, call 612.375.7622 or visit www.walkerart.org.
Hours The Walker Art Center building is closed for renovation and expansion. The new facility will open in spring 2005. For details, visit expansion.walkerart.org.
The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden is open daily, 6 am–midnight. Admission free.
Parking Paid parking is available in a new City of Minneapolis underground ramp on the Walker site, accessible from an entrance on Vineland Place at Bryant Avenue. Additional parking is available in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden pay lot and on the street (hourly and metered).
PROFILE: WALKER ART CENTER 3