The Walker Art Center is a catalyst for the creative expression of artists and the active engagement of audiences. Focusing on the visual, performing, and media arts of our time, the Walker takes a global, multidisciplinary, and diverse approach to the creation, presentation, interpretation, collection, and preservation of art. Walker programs examine the questions that shape and inspire us as individuals, cultures, and communities.
Mission & History
The Walker Art Center is a catalyst for the creative expression of artists and the active engagement of audiences. Focusing on the visual, performing, and media arts of our time, the Walker takes a global, multidisciplinary, and diverse approach to the creation, presentation, interpretation, collection, and preservation of art. Walker programs examine the questions that shape and inspire us as individuals, cultures, and communities.
Building & Campus
One of the most celebrated art museums in the country, the Walker Art Center is known for its innovative presentations and acclaimed collections of contemporary art across the spectrum of the visual, performing, and media arts. Over the course of more than 100 years, the Walker has evolved from a privately held collection into an internationally recognized institution and civic resource.
Annual Report
In June 2017—after eight years of planning and a $76 million capital campaign—we welcomed visitors back to the newly renovated Walker Art Center/Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, with 19 acres, 60 sculptures, summerlong programming, and one giant blue rooster.
Walker Programs
The Walker’s programs chart the constantly shifting and porous boundaries of disciplines such as visual arts, moving image, and performing arts, expressed through varying media and materials. We celebrate the ambiguities and questions that interdisciplinary practices pose, and do so across our many platforms—the gallery, theater stage, garden, cinema, and even the interstitial public spaces of our building and campus.
Architecture / Design
The Walker embodies progressive design through both the presentation of an eclectic mix of exhibitions, events, and initiatives as well as through the practice of its award-winning in-house design studio and influential fellowship and publishing programs.
Education & Public Programs
Dedicated to deepening and enhancing the experience of the arts for people of all ages, the Walker offers an array of engaging education programs, community-building efforts, and interpretive projects.
Moving Image
Widely recognized for its presentation of moving-image arts that define and influence our time, the Walker’s Moving Image program oversees a 21st-century cinema and a vast collection of global and avant-garde films, documentaries, and video works.
Performing Arts
Presenting and commissioning innovative performances since 1940, the Performing Arts program offers a season that spans contemporary dance, experimental theater, new jazz, avant-folk, new global and alt-classical music, and the multiple hybrids of forms in between.
Visual Arts
The Visual Arts program illuminates the links between contemporary art and life by presenting, preserving, and commissioning the most compelling art of today. The Walker’s renowned collection and groundbreaking exhibitions engage audiences worldwide.