Click here to join us for Free First Saturday at Home! Watch new videos and download art-making activity instructions all in one place.
The Walker will be open with free admission on August 1, 11 am–6 pm, but programs will be hosted online. You can access the Free First Saturday at Home website from home, or during your visit. If you plan a trip to the Walker, please check our visit page to learn how to reserve free tickets and about new visitor guidelines.
Free First Saturday at Home features free online performances, games, art-making, and activities every day! On the first Saturday of every month, we’ll add new videos and downloadable activity instructions, so be sure to return to the Free First Saturday at Home page often to continue making art with your family! Please fill out the survey as well to let us know what you’d like to do in future months.
Do you have a favorite vegetable, flower, or insect? Join us in August to try your hand at foraging for plants, flowers, fruits, and other natural materials to use in your art; listen to a story about kids who build their own garden plot; and learn about how we can all take care of the environment and feed our communities!
To participate in this online event in August, you will need internet access; a computer, tablet, or smartphone; and some limited art-making materials, which you can find on the Free First Saturday at Home page.
All videos will be captioned and transcripts will be available for download. For questions about accessibility at the Walker or to request additional accommodations, email access@walkerart.org, or call 612-375-7564.
Available Activities in August:
Create: Will You Be My Plant Neighbor?
Ages 4 and up, accompanied by an adult for foraging
Do you know your plant neighbors? In this activity you’ll meet some plants who share your neighborhood and try flower pounding to see what pigments they’re hiding!
Create: Edible Art
For ages 4 and up, with help from an adult in the kitchen
Learn the basics of making a fresh-fruit popsicle from Gita Mazumdar with easily available ingredients foraged from your garden, the wild, or from your local farmer’s market.
Storytime: One Little Lot: The 1-2-3s of an Urban Garden
For all ages
Join Diane C. Mullen, author of One Little Lot, as she counts the ways neighbors come together to build their very own community garden in a vacant lot.
Explore: Pollinator Bingo
Ages 4 and up, accompanied by an adult
See how many pollinator plants and insects you can find in your neighborhood or the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden using these bingo cards!
These bingo cards are part of Exploring Pollinator Pathways, a series of activities developed through the University of St. Thomas Sustainable Communities Partnership (SCP) Arts initiative with the St. Thomas Pollinator Path and biology courses.
Create: Sustainable Sculptures
For ages 6 and up, younger children will need help from an adult
Create your own sculpture out of materials you find in nature!
Maddy Bartsch is an artist, educator, and sustainable fiber systems organizer. With experience in decentralized textile economies ranging from the textile analysis of natural fibers, to shepherding, farming, and local fiber milling, to regenerative dye gardening, spinning, weaving and more, she has worked her way from soil to sweater. Bartsch is a past president of the Weavers Guild of Minnesota and the executive director of the Three Rivers Fibershed.
Gita Mazumdar has been an artist who works in drawing, painting, story-telling, writing, photography, film-making, and now through artful food. She prepares meals from fresh, mostly local ingredients, using ancient techniques, tools, and recipes from India. This enables her to observe healthy practices, history, and culture, and share them through community meals.
Diane C. Mullen lives in the LynLake neighborhood of Minneapolis, where she works alongside her fellow gardeners in their Soo Line Community Garden. She’s a writer, filmmaker, arts educator, and mother of two grown kids. She has an MFA in writing for children and young adults from Hamline University. She is the author of the middle-grade novel Tagged. One Little Lot is her debut picture book.
