From root to petal, plants have inspired artists across time. Meet us in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden to get curious about the plants growing around you and create your own art inspired by the natural world.
Free First Saturday features free gallery admission on the first Saturday of every month. Tickets are available in advance online and on-site on the event day from the Main Lobby desk. Free admission 10 am–5 pm; activities 10 am–3 pm.
The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden is a project of the Walker Art Center and the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board.
Activity Information
Root, Stem, Leaf, Petal: Lino Stamps with Courtney Cochran, 10 am–3 pm
North Cowles Pavilion
Make your own poster using various precut linoleum block designs of Indigenous plant relatives and local pollinators—all hand carved by local artist Courtney Cochran (Anishinaabe).
Experiment with Chromatography with Science for Scientists!, 10 am–3 pm
South Cowles Pavilion
Chromatography is a process scientists use to separate mixtures. Conduct your own science experiment with special strips of chromatography paper in order to see all the different inks that make up a single marker’s color.
Family Fun Resource Table, 10 am–3 pm
Spoonbridge and Cherry
Grab a Scavenger Hunt to explore the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden or borrow some toys to get your body moving!
Circle Sing Along and Performance by Jayanthi Rajasa, 11 am and 1 pm
Center Cowles Pavilion
How can we be more like plants? Listen to the beautiful melodies of Jayanthi Rajasa as she sings about the plants in our world. Add your voice to in a sing along or grab a ribbon wand and let your body move with the music.
Plant Connections: An Artist-Guided Garden Wander with Sarah Nassif, 11:30 am and 1:30 pm
Tour begins at Okciyapi
Meet the plants growing in and around the sculptures, and find out how art and science aren’t so different with artist and botanist Sarah Nassif. Learn about ways that our senses are superpowers for connecting with the natural world wherever we are. Notice details you might have missed before, while learning to capture your observations with pencil and paper. Appropriate for all ages.
Tour for Families, 11:30 am
Tour for General Audiences, 1 pm
Recorrido público en español, 3 pm
Join a Walker educator for a family friendly guided tour of artworks on view in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden at 11:30 am (40 min.), take a guided tour for general audiences at 1 pm (60 min.), or join guided tour in Spanish at 3 pm (60 min). Tours explore a selection of artworks across current exhibitions and include interactive discussion. Meet outside the Vineland Place entrance five minutes before the tour starts.
Accessibility
The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden is wheelchair accessible. Some activities may take place on grass and gravel surfaces.
For information about accessibility or to request additional accommodations for this program, call 612-375-7564 or email access@walkerart.org.
For more information about accessibility at the Walker, visit our Access page.
Bios
Courtney Cochran (Anishinaabe) is a multidisciplinary artist, filmmaker, and community organizer based in Minneapolis. She is a passionate teaching artist and youth mentor, concentrating her efforts around knowledge and skill sharing as well as equitable and sustainable art access. Her approach to documentary filmmaking comes from a decolonized lens where she abandons the use of the camera as an authoring mechanism and works against any directorial or production hierarchies. Cochran’s practice ranges from film editor, silkscreen and block printing, quillwork, jewelry maker, and painter, often incorporating mixed media elements into her designs. Her work often addresses social justice movements, connection to community and to culture, self-exploration, healing, and joy.
Sarah Nassif is a social practice artist and botanist based in Minneapolis. Born in Anchorage, Alaska, in 1973, she grew up in Oregon where she developed her love of plants and trees. Nassif studied botany in Colorado and Ireland before earning her BS in Botany at University of Washington. After years working in environmental education and urban forestry, she moved to the Twin Cities in 2000, where she found herself starting from scratch learning the plants of Minnesota. In 2005 Nassif launched a botanically inspired fashion studio called Rectangle Designs, which was active until 2012 when she shifted her art practice to focus on community engaged art. Today, Nassif connects people, plants, and place through sensory exploration of natural and human-built environments, hands-on skills practice, and person-to-person sharing. Her work incorporates media such as fiber art, natural dyes and inks, maps, sound, and video. She has received grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board, Metro Regional Arts Council, and Jerome Foundation, and is the artist in residence for the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization. @sarahjnassif
Jayanthi Rajasa (Dotfrofeather) is an archivist songstress, collecting songs that speak to her struggle and empowerment and ability to be, change, and move forward while honoring the unremembered changers and movers of yore. She sings for people passing worlds (new or old or hardly used—meaning births and children, hospice and funerals, free and incarcerated, loved or lost) and has been in more than 10 bands in the Twin Cities. She continues to work with the Million Artist Movement to dismantle racism and injustice toward people of color and dream collectively to produce actions for change and Black Liberation. People Power Change. @dotfrofeather
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