Did you know that some bridges, gardens, and gazebos are actually artworks? Explore the work in Siah Armajani: Follow This Line and find out how the artist combines art and architecture. Draw inspiration from the exhibition and create your own unique three-dimensional structure.
Free First Saturdays feature free gallery admission on the first Saturday of every month, plus performances, games, art-making, and kids’ films from 10 am to 3 pm. Family friendly food options are available or bring something from home to snack on in the lounge or in the garden.
Free First Saturday: Building Bridges
Saturday, November 3
10am–3pm, Free
Art-Making: My Aqal
10 am–3 pm
Create your own aqal, or traditional Somali home. Ifrah Mansour, a Somali artist and refugee based in Minneapolis, will teach guests about Somali architecture and nomadic culture. For people from Somalia, the aqals represent the ideas of healing, generosity, and hospitality.
Ifrah Mansour is a Somali multimedia artist, performer, and educator who uses art to bridge cultures and generations. Mansour creates multisensory artwork in the form of plays, poetry, installations, puppetry, and community collaborations that illuminates the invisible stories of immigrants.
Art-Making: Building Blocks
10 am–3 pm
After checking out Armajani’s Dictionary for a Building (1974–1975), come downstairs to the Art Lab. Use cardboard, found materials, and collage paper to build your own miniature architectural model in this workshop led by teaching artist Anna Johnson.
Drag Story Hour
With Doña Pepa, Old Man Zimmer, and special guest Queen Utica
11 am
Walker Cinema
Meet Doña Pepa and Old Man Zimmer at a very special performance of Drag Story Hour! This interactive experience for children features drag performances, activities, and, of course, reading aloud. Children are encouraged to tap into their imaginations and see themselves as creative forces, expanding their ideas about what is possible in performance.
Emily Zimmer helps to bring plays for and by children to the stage as the director of the Chicago Avenue Project at Pillsbury House Theatre. She is a teaching artist in the Neighborhood Bridges literary program and Theatre Arts Training program at the Children’s Theatre Company, studied clowning in Switzerland, and first performed drag with Dykes Do Drag more than a decade ago at the Bryant Lake Bowl.
Pedro Pablo Lander, Doña Pepa, is a Minneapolis-based, Venezuelan performance artist. Lander is currently a teaching artist with the Pillsbury House Theatre and with Upstream Arts. Their work has been presented throughout the Twin Cities in venues like the Walker Art Center, Red Eye Theater, Open Eye Theatre, Phoenix Theatre, Icehouse, First Ave Mainroom, Lush, and the Kitty Kat Club. Their gender queer dreams are coming true with this Drag Story Hour season.
Queen Utica is the Twin Cities own wiggly goofball here to spread love, art and joy. Hailing from the tiny town of Utica, Minnesota, she has taken the Cities by storm by claiming the title of the current reigning Flip Phone Superstar 2018. The designer/costumer/artist will bring color, compassion, and smiles to your day.
Drawing in the Gallery: Fanciful and Fantastic Bridges
11 am–2 pm
Gallery 5
After touring the Siah Armajani bridge models/sculptures, draw your own imaginary bridge. What will your bridge connect? What will be before, after, above, and below your bridge? This activity is led by Minneapolis-based architect Amber Sausen, president of Urban Sketchers, a nonprofit whose mission is to raise the artistic, narrative, and educational value of on-location drawing around the world.
“A bridge is a thing.
A bridge is something in-between.
A bridge which is something in-between has a shadowy side until it becomes public.
What us before the bridge, after the bridge, above the bridge, and below the bridge
brings them together and makes them one neighborhood.
A bridge is part of the public landscape.” —Siah Armajani
Sensory Friendly Sunday
Sunday, November 4
8am–11am
Sensory Friendly Sunday is a monthly, free event for kids, teens, and adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder or sensory sensitivities and their families, offering the opportunity to make art together, explore the galleries, watch a short film, or just hang out in a different setting. For this Sensory Friendly Sunday, check out the new exhibitions Siah Armajani: Follow This Line and Mario García Torres: Illusion Brought Me Here.
Over the past few months, the Walker has been working with a range of community partners to provide the Twin Cities with the first art-focused, sensory friendly program in a museum. The galleries will be closed to all other visitors, allowing guests to enjoy the museum in a safe environment where accommodations such as quiet spaces, headphones, and fidgets can be provided.
While walk-ins are welcome, we encourage you to reserve your space ahead of time. Registration is available below.
To prepare for your visit, check out the Social Narrative. For more information, e-mail access@walkerart.org or call 612-375-7610. This program was created in consultation with the Autism Society of Minnesota (AuSM) and the University of Minnesota’s Occupational Therapy Program.