Make Sense of This: Visitors Respond to the Walker’s Collection
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Make Sense of This: Visitors Respond to the Walker’s Collection

Painting of a man in pants and a tanktop shirt with his legs spead out as he stands
Jennifer Packer Holding Pattern, 2021. © Jennifer Packer. Photograph © 2021 Fredrik Nilsen, All Rights Reserved.

Make Sense of This: Visitors Respond to the Walker’s Collection is an exploratory exhibition that invites visitors to share feedback, fostering a dialogue with audiences in order to impact future Walker shows. The presentation is organized in four chapters that unfold over a period of sixteen months. Each new rotation offers a compelling grouping of works drawn from the Walker’s collection, spanning different mediums and time periods while centering on a specific theme.

Featuring a selection of paintings, photographs, and sculptures, the first chapter focuses on portraits. Together, the works on view consider how diverse lived experiences find expression in artistic depictions of family, friends, and artists themselves. Other chapters take a closer look at the connections between music and visual art, notions of memory and commemoration, and ways that today’s artists push the boundaries of art movements from the past, such as 1970s Minimalism.

With each chapter, visitors are invited to respond to a set of questions about the artworks, the gallery texts, and more, using a touch screen in the gallery. This short, anonymous survey is offered in four languages—English, Spanish, Somali, and Hmong—reflecting the most spoken languages in the Twin Cities. A series of in-person workshops with invited groups will also be held in the space. Throughout the duration of the exhibition, visitors’ accumulating responses will be on real-time display, revealing a composite view of ideas, opinions, and preferences.

Make Sense of This intends to initiate a series of conversations that open up the curatorial process and ask people to provide feedback on how they read the works on view. Through this, the exhibition aims to shine a light on the formal, material, and historical considerations curators take into account when organizing exhibitions and demonstrates some of the many ways to present and understand works of art.

CHAPTER 1: Portrait and Lived Experience
February 18–April 16, 2023

CHAPTER 2: Minimal Art and the Measure of the Body
April 22–June 25, 2023

CHAPTER 3: Remembrance and Commemoration
July 1–August 27, 2023

CHAPTER 4: A Piece of Music
September 2, 2023–May 5, 2024

Henriette Huldisch, Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs
William Hernández Luege, Curatorial Assistant, Visual Arts
Erin McNeil, Program Manager, Curatorial Affairs
Jake Yuzna, Content Producer
Simona Zappas, Youth & Community Programs Associate, Public Engagement, Learning, and Impact

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Visiting the galleries? Enhance your experience by joining a public tour or with self-guided resources accessible for free on Bloomberg Connects.

Personal photography is permitted throughout the Walker and the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, but please turn off the flash when visiting the galleries.

To help us promote future events and programs, this event may be photographed or recorded. By attending, you consent to appear in this documentation and its future use by the museum. Please let staff know upon arrival if you prefer not to be photographed.