Explore a range of activities and art-making on Free First Saturday! Enjoy free gallery admission and family fun for all on the first Saturday of each month. Activities designed for kids ages 6 to 12 are offered from 10 am to 3 pm.

In June, look closely at the passage of time in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. Examine tree ring timelines and plant and animal life cycles, and learn how to use your shadow as a clock. Activities are led by Coon Rapids Dam Regional Park, Kroening Interpretive Center, Richardson Nature Center, Silverwood Park, and Westwood Hills Nature Center. In the event of rain, some programs will move inside the Walker Art Center.

Art Activity: Sundials, 10 am–3 pm

Learn to tell time with shadows! Be part of a human clock and create a wearable sundial that will keep you on time (as long as it’s sunny!).

Art Activity: Tree Cookies, 10 am–3 pm

Discover the story tree rings can tell you and then overlap your own history with the tree life shown on the “cookie.”

Activity: Growth Calculator, 10 am–3 pm

Practice aging a tree while it is alive and growing! Predict the age of the linden trees in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, then use a bit of science and math to determine its actual age and see how close your guess was.

Activity: Live Raptors, 10 am–3 pm

From tiny egg to top predator, discover the life cycle of a bird of prey. Meet Richardson Nature Center’s birds and learn what it’s like to grow up as a raptor.

Activity: Pondering the Pond, 10 am–3 pm

A naturalist from Westwood Hills Nature Center will help you find and identify fascinating creatures that call the pond home for at least part of their life cycles. Use a dip net, bowl, and spoon to catch and release some extraordinary critters that live in and around the water.

Activity: Reptiles and Amphibians, 10 am–3 pm

Which came first, the turtle or the egg? Meet reptiles and amphibians, then explore their life cycles with the folks who take care of them at Kroening Interpretive Center and Coon Rapids Dam Regional Park.

Activity: Sculpture Garden Re-photography, 10 am–3 pm

Look at old photos of the Garden and find the same location today. Take a photo and discover how things have changed over the decades.