At a critical juncture in the Walker Art Center’s history, more than 1,400 individuals, corporations, and foundations have contributed $99.6 million in support of a $92 million capital campaign to help shape the Center’s future and enable it to remain a valuable cultural resource in Minnesota and one of the leading contemporary arts centers in the world. The new Walker Art Center, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architects Herzog & de Meuron, significantly enhances the Walker’s ability to commission and present today’s most innovative visual, performing, and media artists from around the globe. Giving physical form to a unique multidisciplinary model and doubling the Walker’s size, the expansion, completed in April 2005, includes gallery space; the region’s largest library of contemporary art; new interactive educational lounges; an intimate 385-seat theater; a refurbished Cinema; street-level and roof-top terraces and plazas; lounges for both small and large groups to gather; 20.21 Restaurant & Bar, a fine-dining restaurant, and Gallery 8 Café, operated by internationally acclaimed chef Wolfgang Puck; and underground parking. A new four-acre park will be part of the project’s second phase, complementing the Walker’s 11-acre Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.
Lead gifts to the Walker’s campaign have come from longtime supporters as well as from succeeding generations eager to contribute to the cultural vitality of their community. Since 1966, Julia W. Dayton and her late husband, Kenneth, have made it possible for countless others to engage with contemporary art with their major contributions to the Walker’s annual, capital, and acquisition funds. In addition, their lead gifts were instrumental in the creation and expansion of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, and they have donated more than 300 artworks to the Walker collection. As the Walker heads toward completion of its new campus, the Daytons have continued this generous support with a lead gift of $16.8 million, the largest gift to the capital campaign.
A new generation of philanthropic leaders is also helping to shape the Walker’s future. A major gift of $10 million from William W. and Nadine M. McGuire marks one of the largest ever committed to the commissioning, development, and presentation of new works in the performing arts. The gift provides for the construction of the Walker’s new theater; the creation of the Walker’s first named curatorial position; and, in addition to their campaign gift, a $2 million Walker fund to commission new performance work. Nadine McGuire has been a member of the Walker’s Board of Directors since 1994.
Generous major gifts for the Walker’s expansion have also come from the Twin Cities corporate community. Donors whose civic pride and gifts of $1 million or more have helped to build community support for the project are: Target Corporation, General Mills Foundation, Best Buy Children’s Foundation, Medtronic Foundation, U.S. Bancorp, Cargill Foundation, and Star Tribune Foundation.
The Walker has received $7.6 million for the campaign since completing its expansion. A number of individuals and foundations made generous contributions of $1 million or more, including Shirley Fiterman, Thomas J. Petters, and the Wallace Foundation.
Since April 2005, over 712,000 people have visited the new Walker and the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. The popular Target Free Thursday Nights and Free First Saturdays, made possible by Target, Coldwell Banker Burnet, Medtronic, and WCCO-TV, have drawn 80,000 patrons. In addition, the Walker has presented hundreds of dance, music, theater performances and film/video screenings during that time, and its interpretive education programs have attracted tens of thousands of people of all ages.
CAPITAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE
Ralph W. Burnet, Chair
Andrew S. Duff, Chair
M. Nazie Eftekhari, Vice-Chair
Roger L. Hale
Lawrence Perlman
Steve Watson, Ex officio
CAPITAL CAMPAIGN ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Julia W. Dayton, Chair
David M. Winton, Chair
H. B. Atwater
Harriet S. Spencer
Philip Von Blon
C. Angus Wurtele
WALKER CAPITAL CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTORS
$15,000,000 and above
Judy and Kenneth Dayton
$5,000,000 to $10,000,000
Martha and Bruce Atwater
Nadine and Bill McGuire
Target Corporation
Penny and Mike Winton
Margaret and Angus Wurtele
$2,500,000 to $4,999,999
Edward R. Bazinet
Peggy and Ralph Burnet
Jeanne and Richard Levitt
$1,000,000 to $2,499,999
Best Buy Children’s Foundation
Cargill
Sage and John Cowles
Ruth and Bruce Dayton
Shirley Fiterman
General Mills Foundation
N. Bud and Beverly Grossman Foundation
Nor Hall and Roger Hale
Alfred and Ingrid Lenz Harrison
Ann M. Hatch
Miriam and Erwin Kelen
The Kresge Foundation
The McKnight Foundation
The Medtronic Foundation
Linda and Lawrence Perlman
Thomas J. Petters & Family
Carl and Eloise Pohlad Family Foundation
Harriet and Edson Spencer
Star Tribune Foundation
U.S. Bancorp Foundation
The Wallace Foundation