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Walker Art Center

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Walker Art Center addition by Herzog & de Meuron

An exterior view of the Walker Art Center addition designed by Herzog & de Meuron in 2005. Photograph by Flickr user Mark B. Schlemmer, May 3, 2012. CC BY 2.0

In 1879, lumber baron T. B. Walker invited the public into his downtown Minneapolis home to view his art collection. Over the next century, that collection evolved into the Walker Art Center, a world-renowned site for challenging work by innovative artists, including Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Yoko Ono, and Kara Walker.

In 1874, Harriet and Thomas Barlow (T. B.) Walker traveled to New York to furnish their Minneapolis home. There, they purchased a painting that began the lumber baron’s art obsession. In the following years, he amassed an eclectic range of art, and in 1879, he invited the public to view his in-house collection.

Walker’s gallery, the first public art gallery west of the Mississippi, continued to grow. By 1915, his fourteen-room museum welcomed 100,000 visitors annually; by 1920, it displayed 400 paintings.

In 1916, Walker bought land in Lowry Hill that he offered to the city of Minneapolis as space for a public library and art museum. After five years of futile negotiation, Walker resolved to build his own museum. Construction began in 1925, and the Walker Art Gallery opened in 1927.

During the Great Depression, only three staff remained. After 1935, Walker’s grandchildren Hudson Walker and Louise Walker McCannel ran the gallery until the Minnesota Arts Council took charge in 1939. The council was funded by the Federal Art Project (FAP), a Works Progress Administration (WPA) program. FAP saw the gallery’s potential and hired thirty staff, making it the WPA’s largest community art center.

Daniel Defenbacher, a FAP coordinator, became the gallery’s first director. To signal accessibility, “Walker Art Gallery” became “Walker Art Center” (WAC). WAC provided classes, exhibited local artists, and sponsored traveling exhibitions. As the economy improved, FAP waned, and by 1943, WPA involvement ended.

WAC distanced itself from traditional museums by exhibiting modern art in 1940. It further challenged artistic tradition with its first performance event, Spring Dance Festival. Two years later, The Large Blue Horses by Franz Marc became WAC’s first modern acquisition.

In 1951, H. Harvard Arnason became director. A former professor at the University of Minnesota, Arnason emphasized academic scholarship and modernism. He launched the Center Arts Council, organizer of WAC’s film and performing arts.

In 1961, Martin Friedman became WAC’s director. His age—thirty-six— made him one of the youngest museum directors in the US. Under Friedman, WAC became more ambitious and contemporary. In 1963 alone, it welcomed avant-garde composer John Cage and the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, organized 10 American Sculptors and Adolph Gottlieb (entries to the 7th São Paulo Biennial), and established an artist-in-residence program.

By the late 1960s, WAC needed repairs and more space In 1969, the building was razed, and two years later, WAC reopened in a minimalistic building designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes. It resembled stacked cubes and featured outdoor terraces and subdued surfaces that made art, not architecture, the focal point.

WAC established a performing arts department in 1970, and three years later, the film and video department began. In 1981, Friedman proposed a sculpture garden to the Minneapolis Parks Service. The garden, designed by Barnes, turned the “Parade,” a once-popular park, into WAC’s outdoor gallery. It opened in 1988.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, WAC sold works from Walker’s original collection and acquired modern works. Contemporary acquisitions included works by Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and Yves Klein. The Regis Dialogue Program (later renamed the Dialogue and Retrospective series) debuted its film screenings and interviews in 1990.

In 1991, Kathy Halbreich became WAC’s fourth director. Under Halbreich, WAC extended accessibility with Free First Saturdays, Free Thursdays, and Explore memberships. In 1996, WAC established the Teen Arts Council, a group of 13 teenaged artists and art enthusiasts who ensure WAC provides teen events.

As programs and collections expanded, a 2005 addition designed by the firm Herzog & de Meuron added much-needed exhibition space and linked galleries, event areas, and lounges. After Olga Viso, WAC’s fifth director, began her tenure in 2008, she worked to complete Halbreich’s vision for an integrated indoor and outdoor campus by expanding and renovating the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden (reopened in 2017). Under her leadership, WAC also acquired nearly 4000 objects from the Merce Cunningham Dance Archive for WAC’s permanent collection. Viso resigned in 2017.

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Carpenter, Elizabeth, and Joan Rothfuss. Bits & Pieces Put Together to Present a Semblance of a Whole: Walker Art Center Collections. Minneapolis: Walker Art Center, 2005.

Eler, Alicia, and Jenna Ross. “‘I Take Full Responsibility,’ Viso says of ‘Scaffold’ Controversy.” Minneapolis Star Tribune, June 5, 2017.
http://www.startribune.com/walker-director-breaks-silence-about-scaffold-controversy-i-take-full-responsibility/426589971/

Espeland, Pamela. “Olga Viso to Leave the Walker.” MinnPost, November 14, 2017.
https://www.minnpost.com/arts-culture/2017/11/olga-viso-leave-walker

Fox, Margalit. “Martin Friedman, Whose Vision Shaped Walker Art Center, Dies at 90.” New York Times, May 13, 2016.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/14/arts/design/martin-friedman-whose-vision-shaped-walker-art-center-dies-at-90.html

“Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.” Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board.
https://www.minneapolisparks.org/parks__destinations/gardens__bird_sanctuaries/minneapolis_sculpture_garden/

“Mission and History.” Walker Art Center.
https://walkerart.org/about/mission-history

Philanthropedia. “Walker Art Center.” GuideStar USA, Inc.
https://www.myphilanthropedia.org/top-nonprofits/minnesota/access-to-art-and-culture/2012/walker-art-center

Vuchetich, Jill. “Shall We Take It? The Walker’s Founding Question.” Walker Art Center, October 8, 2014.
https://walkerart.org/magazine/public-art-center-defenbacher

Walker Art Center: A History. Minneapolis: Walker Art Center, 1985.

Walker Art Center: History, Collection, Activities. Minneapolis: Walker Art Center, 1971.

“Walker Art Center Timeline.” Walker Art Center.
https://walkerart.org/about/mission-history

Yardley, William. “Mildred Friedman, 85, Dies; Curator Elevated Design and Architecture.” New York Times, September 9, 2014.
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/10/arts/design/mildred-friedman-design-curator-dies-at-85.html

Related Images

Walker Art Center addition by Herzog & de Meuron
Walker Art Center addition by Herzog & de Meuron
Interior view of the Walker Art Gallery (later called the Walker Art Center)
Interior view of the Walker Art Gallery (later called the Walker Art Center)
T. B. Walker
T. B. Walker
 T. B. Walker inside the Walker Art Gallery
 T. B. Walker inside the Walker Art Gallery
The “new” (1927) Walker Art Museum
The “new” (1927) Walker Art Museum
Art class at the Walker Art Center
Art class at the Walker Art Center
Federal Art Project exhibition at the Walker Art Center
Federal Art Project exhibition at the Walker Art Center
Federal Art Project children’s art class at the Walker Art Center
Federal Art Project children’s art class at the Walker Art Center
WPA-period Walker Art Center
WPA-period Walker Art Center
Walker Art Center
Walker Art Center
Walker Art Center complex
Walker Art Center complex
Martin Friedman
Martin Friedman
Cargill Lounge at the Walker Art Center
Cargill Lounge at the Walker Art Center
Audience at the International Cat Video Festival
Audience at the International Cat Video Festival
Walker Art Center and Minneapolis skyline
Walker Art Center and Minneapolis skyline
Exhibition gallery at Walker Art Center
Exhibition gallery at Walker Art Center
Gallery inside the Walker Art Center
Gallery inside the Walker Art Center
Olga Viso
Olga Viso
Walker Art Center interior hallway
Walker Art Center interior hallway
Art installation inside the Walker Art Center
Art installation inside the Walker Art Center

Turning Point

In 1916, T. B. Walker purchases land on Lowry Hill—an area he sees as the “coming civic center” of Minneapolis—to display his art collection. He aims to make his art accessible, not “tucked away in some isolate [sic] room.”

Chronology

1879

Lumber baron T. B. Walker begins to invite the public into his downtown Minneapolis home to view his eclectic art collection.

1916

Walker buys 3.5 acres on Lowry Hill, a spot he sees as “the coming civic center” of Minneapolis. He offers the land to the city as space for a public library and art museum.

1927

The Walker Art Galleries open on Lowry Hill just months before T. B. Walker’s death.

1939

The Minnesota Arts Council, backed by the Federal Art Project and Works Progress Administration, assumes control of the Walker Art Galleries. Daniel Defenbacher becomes the galleries’ first director.

1946

WAC opens the Everyday Art Gallery, one of the first US museum spaces devoted to design. It begins to publish Everyday Art Quarterly (later renamed Design Quarterly), the first American museum journal about design.

1951

H. Harvard Anderson becomes WAC’s second director.

1961

Martin Friedman becomes WAC’s third director.

1970

WAC establishes a performing arts department.

1971

A new WAC building opens, replacing T. B. Walker’s original structure. Its minimalistic exterior and interior features outdoor terraces and allow art, not architecture, to be a focal point.

1973

WAC’s film and video department is established.

1988

The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden opens in a joint effort between WAC and the Minneapolis Parks Service.

1991

Kathy Halbreich becomes WAC’s fourth director.

2005

A renovation adds 10,000 feet of exhibition space and creates “town square” areas to facilitate artistic discussion.

2008

Olga Viso becomes the fifth WAC director.

2017

The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden reopens after a renovation fraught with controversy over Sam Durant's Scaffold, a sculpture that sparks tension between WAC and the Dakota community. Viso resigns at the end of the year.