Meet Walker Contributing Members Jenny and Dirk

Walker Publishing

Jennifer Hornig and Dirk Nicholson, 2024. Photo by Kameron Herndon. Courtesy Walker Art Center.

How did you decide to become Walker members?

JENNY

Growing up in Eagan, my mom would take me to The Red Balloon bookshop on Grand Avenue in Saint Paul to pick out a book, and we would drive to the Sculpture Garden and have a picnic in front of Spoonbridge and Cherry and read my new book. Being a mem- ber of the Walker was never really a decision for me, it was always more of an understanding.

DIRK

When my husband and I moved to Minneapolis in 2008, the Walker was among the first places we visited. At some point, it just felt like an inevitability that we join and support the great work the Walker does in bringing contemporary art of all kinds to our adopted home.

How did you meet and become business partners?

We are friends first, and our love of art and design had been a con- sistent aspect of our friendship since the beginning. We were both doing design individually, regularly bouncing ideas and new finds past each other. At some point mid-pandemic, probably starved of interaction, we thought it might be fun to combine forces in a fully collaborative endeavor, and our interior design firm, Jenny + Dirk, was born!

How does the Walker inspire your creative practice?

As designers and art collectors ourselves, art is probably among the most important and interesting aspects of physical spaces. We think a lot about the dialogue between elements within spaces. Having the Walker at our doorstep is an incredible resource. On any given day, there is an opportunity to (re)center and ground our visual and aesthetic expression. The Walker also challenges us to open our minds and take in new ideas, modes of thinking, and expression.