What motivated you to become Walker members?

Corey Hinkle

It’s a no-brainer, really. We joined as soon as we moved back to the area in 2008.

Tori Stewart

The Walker is always vibrant and new. It is an institution in the best way—it keeps the Twin Cities in touch with what’s going on in the international art world.

Hinkle

I still remember the first Out There theater festival we attended. We’ve gone to almost everything in the performing arts series since. As playwrights, we appreciate how the Walker makes it possible for us to enjoy the quality of life in Minneapolis yet keep current with New York and other cultural hubs around the globe.

What are you working on right now?

Hinkle

We and seven other playwrights have a company, Workhaus Collective, and are currently in residence at the Playwrights’ Center. We’re also co-creating a piece together with Jeremy Wilhelm called Kafka in Postville that will premiere at Mixed Blood in June. It’s about the largest immigration raid in history, which happened in 2008 at a Hasidic slaughterhouse in Iowa.

How does the Walker influence you as artists?

Stewart

We’re also parents, so it’s hard to fit in cultural activities on top of everything else, but the Walker is somewhere we can go as a family. Last summer, we came for the exhibition Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance, and the Camera Since 1870 and happened upon the birds in The Parade [by Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg]. Silas loved it—he found the birds fascinating! Afterward, I remember thinking, “I needed that.” As a writer, it’s great to spend time with visual art for inspiration.

Hinkle

Yes, theater is a visual medium—people forget that. I advocated to go see the Exposed show since I thought that the surveillance component would help me with a play that I was working on. I’m definitely inspired by visual art.

How has your relationship to the Walker changed since becoming parents?

Hinkle

Well, we still took Silas to Rock the Garden! But, we also discovered the Tool Shed outside on Vineland Place during the past two Open Field summers, which is fantastic, and also spent a lot of time in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. Last summer, Silas had a blast with the mirrored wall [Dan Graham’s Two-way Mirror Punched Steel Hedge Labyrinth] and—of course—he loves the Spoonbridge and Cherry.

Stewart

Since Silas was born, we’ve spent more time in the galleries as well. As members, we’re able to visit for free anytime, which is terrific.

Hinkle

It helps that it doesn’t have to be planned. We can just decide, “Let’s head to the Walker” and go. Last winter, I would stroll around the galleries with Silas in the stroller all the time. It was interesting for me and fun for him. We’ve come to see the Walker as a great place to hang out, in addition to being our connection to the art of today.