Sensory Friendly Sunday is a monthly event designed for kids, teens, and adults with sensory processing differences, autism, or developmental disabilities. The galleries will be closed to the general public, allowing visitors to enjoy the museum in a calm environment, with accommodations such as quiet spaces, fidgets, and sunglasses available. Experience a selection of current exhibitions, make art, or watch a short film. All friends and family members are welcome.
In September, explore the exhibitions This Must Be the Place: Inside the Walker’s Collection, Trisha Brown and Robert Rauschenberg: Glacial Decoy, and Jessi Reaves: process invented the mirror.
Through September (weather permitting), play a free round of mini golf on the Walker’s rooftop between 8 and 11 am. The one-of-a-kind course features distinctive, artist-designed holes and an unrivaled view of the Minneapolis skyline.
To support the health and safety of visitors at increased risk for Covid-19, masks are required at Sensory Friendly Sunday for visitors over age 2. Accommodations are available if someone in your party is unable to tolerate masking. Please email access@walkerart.org or call 612-375-7561 for more information.
This program was created in consultation with the Autism Society of Minnesota (AuSM) and the University of Minnesota’s Occupational Therapy Program.
Admission Tickets
While walk-ins are welcome, we encourage you to reserve your space ahead of time. Sensory Friendly Sunday is typically less busy from 8 to 9:30 am, and busier from 9:30 to 11 am.
Activity Information
Don’t Doubt Your Horses, 8–11 am
Join teaching artist Dan Wahl as he transforms the Art Lab. Don’t Doubt Your Horses is a participatory art project that encourages you to unharness your creative spirit by making horses. Please draw a horse. Postcard size is good. If you don’t draw much, then please draw a horse!
Slide, Dance, Repeat Art-Making Activity, 8–11 am
Design a mini reel using repeating images and patterns inspired by Glacial Decoy. Play with motion, mood, and imagination as your mini performance comes to life.
Short Film: 곁에 (I’ll be your side), 8–11 am
Follow along as 둥이(Doong-yi) navigates a new school and learns about the importance of being yourself. This film is 6 minutes and will screen on a loop. This is a relaxed screening with sound reduced. Visitors are free to come and go, move, and make themselves comfortable in the space.
Mini Golf, 8–11 am
Play a free round of mini golf on the Walker’s rooftop between 8 and 11 am (weather permitting). The one-of-a-kind course features artist-designed holes and an unrivaled view of the Minneapolis skyline. Skyline Mini Golf is partially accessible. All holes are playable from the perimeter, if participants are unable to step onto the holes.
Accessibility, Content, and Sensory Notes
The short film will be captioned in English.
Accessibility note: To access Gallery 5, take the accessible lift down one level from floor 6.
Content note: The exhibition Ways of Knowing engages mature themes, including violence and war.
Sensory notes: The exhibition This Must Be the Place: Inside the Walker’s Collection includes two video rooms with reduced light levels. Some videos include flashing, flickering, or disorienting visual effects and sound that changes in volume, pitch, and tone.
The exhibition Ways of Knowing includes three video rooms with reduced light levels. Some videos include flickering effects and sounds that change in volume or pitch.
To prepare for your visit, check out this Social Narrative.
For more information about accessibility, visit our Access page.
For questions on accessibility or to request additional accommodations, call 612-375-7564 or email access@walkerart.org.
Bio
Dan Wahl is a public participatory artist, visual artist, and writer from the prairie land of southwest Minnesota. For many years he’s been asking friends, acquaintances, and strangers, “Could you please draw me a horse?”
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