Jessica Rolland), 2024. Photo by Kameron Herndon. Courtesy Walker Art Center.
In an art museum or gallery, registrars are the dedicated, detailed-oriented people who manage all the artworks under their care. From works in the Walker’s permanent collections to new artworks arriving for upcoming exhibitions, as well as those in our traveling exhibitions, registrars manage the logistics of moving, documenting, and preparing artworks for display. Celebrating the Walker’s amazing team of registrars, with over three quarters century of combined experience, we asked for insights into their favorite—or most memorable—artwork they’ve worked with at the Walker.
"One of the most memorable projects I’ve worked on was inventorying all of the costumes in our Merce Cunningham Dance Company Collection. Each of the over 3,000 costume elements needed an RFID tag affixed for tracking purposes. Working hands-on with each costume provided a fascinating insight into seven decades of Merce’s collaboration with dozens of other artists. However, my favorite work in the collection is James Turrell’s Sky Pesher 2005, located in the Wurtele Upper Garden."
Mike Lind, Collection Management Coordinator
"My most memorable experience was de-installing Charles Ray’s Unpainted Sculpture at Centre Pompidou in Paris. Due to its size, the crate containing the body of the car could not fit through the doorways of the building and had to be craned from the top floor, carefully lowering it down to the middle of a busy Parisian street. If you, too, enjoy feelings of deep anxiety, I highly recommend this experience."
Kova Walker-Lečić , Assistant Registrar
"A memorable artwork for me is Bruce Conner’s double-sided collage, UNTITLED (1954-1961). Among many other objects, the work contains a pigeon wing, which presented an issue with US Customs. This led to me being briefly stranded in Spain with the work while researching the species of pigeon from which the wing came to determine that it was not from an endangered species."
Kayla Nordlund, Associate Registrar
"My favorite piece in the collection is Garden in Bessemer by Jack Whitten. As for the Sculpture Garden, I am very partial to the Mark Manders sculpture and LOVE by Robert Indiana. I also once baked 1,300 pounds of dirt for an exhibition to ensure it was free of pests before being spread in the Walker galleries."
Robby Frank, Collection and Exhibition Support Technician
"In 2016, I visited Mark Manders in Belgium to see his work September Room (Room with Two Reclining Figures and Composition with Long Verticals), currently installed in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, at the foundry as it was being cast in bronze. I worked with the artist to consider some finishing choices that would ultimately affect the piece’s longevity in the garden. After organizing the logistically challenging sea freight shipment of the work, which arrived at ports in 2 different countries, I synchronized the deliveries to align with the scheduled crane installation of the pieces in the Garden. The project allowed me to see the project from early production through installation."
Joe King, Director, Collections and Exhibition Management
"My most memorable artworks are the ones that taught me how to be a registrar. Exhibitions such as Abraham Cruzvillegas: The Autoconstrucción Suites, with artworks comprised of sheep’s dung, corn paste, artist’s hair, broken glass, machetes; and The Paradox of Stillness: Art, Object and Performance, with live performers, organic materials, lit candles, and 19th-century paintings all together in a single space, have given me more than a few gray hairs but at the same time remind me why we do what we do."
Jessica Rolland, Registrar
"A three-way tie for most memorable artworks:
While packing a work in the 2005 Wong Yong Ping exhibition, I found a live scorpion that had escaped from the work Theatre of the World.
Moving the Charles Ray sculpture, a full-scale sculpture version of a Pontiac Grand Am automobile, up four flights of stairs over the course of 14 hours for a 2014 retrospective in Basel, Switzerland.
Unpacking all the bio-soiled, Jovan Must cologne-saturated pieces for a 2006 installation of Kai Althoff’s Solo for an Afflicted Trumpet."
Evan Reiter, Registration Technician
Explore the Walker's collection of visual art here. Would you rather experience these works in person? Check out the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden and exhibitions in the Walker's galleries.
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