THE YEAR IN REVIEW:
HIGHLIGHTS OF FISCAL YEAR
2017–2018
During fiscal year 2017–2018, the Walker’s commitments to artists, audiences, and the community remained vibrant and strong. We organized and hosted a range of remarkable artistic programs during the year, including 12 exhibitions, 56 performance events, and 162 moving image screenings, which attracted more than 1,131,000 people to the Walker and the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. More than 70% of visitors attended free of charge through Free First Saturdays, Target Free Thursday Nights, and programs in the Garden—critical initiatives that help ensure the Walker is a welcoming, inclusive, and accessible arts center. The Walker also engaged more than 100 partners—from arts and culture organizations to social service, government, and academic institutions. In addition, a new design for our website launched in June 2017, attracting more than 1.8 million unique visitors to walkerart.org, along with a new mobile experience for visitors to the Garden.
LEADERSHIP TRANSITION
The fiscal year 2017–2018 was also a period of change for the Walker Art Center, marked by significant transitions. At the end of December 2017, Olga Viso, who served as executive director for 10 years with distinction, made her departure. During her tenure, Viso successfully led the Walker through a $75 million capital campaign and an eight-year endeavor to transform the Walker’s Vineland Place entrance, Wurtele Upper Garden, and Minneapolis Sculpture Garden into an exciting and unified arts destination. During her years as executive director, she championed experimental and underrepresented artists, bringing many noteworthy exhibitions, performances, and films to the galleries, McGuire Theater, and Walker Cinema, and advocated for innovation in our interdisciplinary programming. The Walker’s Board of Trustees and staff recognize Viso for her leadership and the significant contributions she made to the institution. The year 2017 also saw the departure of David Galligan, deputy director and chief operating officer, in September. Galligan, who served as the Walker’s administrative director from 1996 to 2002, returned in his new role in 2013 to assist Viso in her effort to redevelop the Walker’s campus and was instrumental in the project’s success. In early 2018, the Walker’s board created a search committee to hire a new executive director. Led by Andrew Duff, chair, and John Christakos, vice chair, the seven-person committee is supported by the executive search firm Phillips Oppenheim. During the interim period, the board appointed four senior staff to an Executive Leadership Team to manage the Walker’s day-to-day operations. We are excited to recruit a new executive director who will help the Walker to advance its mission and grow as an institution.
INTERDISCIPLINARY INITIATIVES
We remain deeply grateful to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for generously supporting our ongoing efforts as a national leader in interdisciplinary practice with a major grant launched in July 2017. Focused on the intersection of performance, performing arts, and visual arts, the multiyear initiative involves three interrelated areas of work: in-depth research; production of new work; and new models for documentation, archiving, scholarship, publishing, acquisition, and conservation. Across all aspects of the Interdisciplinary Initiative, we are working to forge new ground for artists and new models for the field. Over the past year, the Walker made great strides toward the goals of the initiative, including developing and premiering two large-scale projects. In fall 2017, the Walker opened a new solo exhibition of work by Antwerp-based visual artist Laure Prouvost. The exhibition Laure Prouvost: They Are Waiting for You was an immersive gallery environment that combined projection, found objects, and sculptural elements. Her Walker-commissioned moving image installation DIT LEARN (2017) served as an anchor for both the gallery presentation and stage production. The exhibition, which has since traveled to the Bass Museum in Miami, was accompanied at the Walker by Prouvost’s first full-length, live theatrical production. Co-commissioned and presented at the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center after its Walker premiere, the performance will travel to the Kaaitheater in Brussels in March 2019.
In spring 2018, the Walker realized one of the most significant interdisciplinary projects in its history with New York–based jazz pianist, composer, and visual artist Jason Moran. This ambitious project included Moran’s first museum exhibition, a new sculpture commission, in-gallery performances, a catalogue, and the world premiere of The Last Jazz Fest, a multimedia performance commission. All aspects reflected Moran’s creative process, which is informed by one of the essential tenets of jazz music: the “set,” in which musicians come together to engage in a collaborative process of improvisation, riffing off of one another to create the musical experience. Taken as a whole, the endeavor comprised a midcareer retrospective of Moran’s innovations and a survey of his interdisciplinary collaborations with some of today’s most vital artists, all while encapsulating an important aspect of American music history. During 2018–2020, the exhibition will travel to the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston; the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio, which will also present The Last Jazz Fest; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. The Interdisciplinary Initiative also served as catalyst for scholarly research and writing. Numerous commissioned and scholarly essays, drawing from the Walker’s interdisciplinary history and newly commissioned artworks, were published online. In addition, the initiative informed ongoing conversations about the acquisition of interdisciplinary work for the Walker’s collection, such as the June 2018 purchase of Moran’s STAGED: Slugs’ Saloon (2018), a major multimedia work commissioned for the exhibition Jason Moran.
MULTIDISCIPLINARY PROGRAMS
The 12 exhibitions presented by the Visual Arts department last year featured a wide range of emerging, underrecognized, and established artists. In fall 2017 the Walker presented Nairy Baghramian: Déformation Professionnelle, a playful yet critical take on the artist survey that interrogated sculpture-making today. The Iranian-born, Berlin-based artist’s first international museum presentation was co-organized with the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (S.M.A.K.), Ghent, Belgium. In September 2017, coinciding with the exhibition, the Walker unveiled the first permanent public artwork commission by Baghramian. The artist’s multipart sculpture Privileged Points (2017) is installed on the crest of the Wurtele Upper Garden hillside. Also in fall, the groundbreaking exhibition Adiós Utopia: Dreams and Deceptions in Cuban Art Since 1950 examined ways that Cuba’s revolutionary epoch shaped 65 years of Cuban art. Conceived by the Cisneros Fontanals Fundación Para Las Artes (CIFO Europa) and the Cisneros Fontanals Arts Foundation (CIFO USA) and co-organized with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the exhibition was the most comprehensive presentation of modern and contemporary Cuban art shown in the United States in nearly 75 years. Alongside these two major fall presentations, the Walker installed the collection-based exhibition I am you, you are too. Featuring a diverse, multigenerational, and international group of artists, this timely show questioned how we memorialize the past and understand the social, geographic, and political structures that shape us. In spring 2018, the Walker-organized retrospective Allen Ruppersberg: Intellectual Property 1968–2018 featured work by one of the most rigorous and inventive practitioners to emerge from the Conceptual art movement in the late 1960s. This comprehensive survey and accompanying publication—the artist’s first in the United States in more than 30 years—premiered at the Walker before traveling to the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, in spring 2019. The Performing Arts Season featured some of the most forward-thinking dance, theater, music, and performance artists of our time. Dance highlights included two Belgian icons: returning European dance master Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, in collaboration with choreographer Salva Sanchis; and Jan Martens, leader of the latest generation of promising Belgian choreographers. The season also featured the 45th-annual Choreographers’ Evening, curated by choreographer, photographer, and video artist Megan Mayer; and the 30th anniversary of the Out There festival, featuring performances by Cuban’s Teatro El Público; Montreal-based choreographer Dana Michel; 600 Highwaymen from New York’s downtown theater community; and leading British experimental theater company Forced Entertainment. In addition, the Walker and the Guthrie Theater copresented works by Lebanese multidisciplinary artist Ali Chahrour and Canadian theater director Robert Lepage to enthusiastic audiences. Music highlights included presentations by Jason Moran, Tanya Tagaq, and Vijay Iyer as well as a Walker commission pairing two generations of jazz artists—the Bad Plus and Bill Frisell.
Moving Image programs included popular series such as the British Arrows Awards, showcasing the best in British advertising; Reshaping Our World: Cinema Without Borders, which examined how borders are closing across the globe; Expanding the Frame, featuring films that sought to capture the spirit of artist-driven political and cultural change from the mid-1960s to the present; and the annual Walker Dialogue and Retrospective program, which highlighted the work of award-winning film director Lucy Walker. In August 2017, the Walker launched Sound for Silents, a new annual outdoor event that pairs silent films from the Ruben/Bentsen Moving Image Collection with compositions by local musicians. For the premiere program, Ryan Olson (Poliça, Gayngs) and his all-star ensemble Marijuana Deathsquads, including Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), Benson Ramsey (The Pines), and Channy Leaneagh (Poliça), presented new live cinematic scores set to 1920s experimental short films by iconic Dada artists Hans Richter, Viking Eggeling, and René Clair. Through its longstanding partnership with the local chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), the Walker’s Design department presented the annual Insights lecture series featuring a diverse mix of established and emerging design talents. The spring 2018 series included Nike chief marketing officer Greg Hoffman, feminist design legend and head of the Yale MFA GD graduate program Sheila de Bretteville, the interdisciplinary studio PLAYLAB, and online publishing guru Paul Soullelis. The Design Studio also launched the first round of Garden Stories, a new series of short interactive narratives about artworks in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, designed to be viewed online or on mobile devices.
EDUCATION AND PUBLIC PROGRAMS
The Education and Public Programs department had a banner year connecting audiences with artists through a wide variety of programs with significant reach in the community—nearly 98,000 visitors were engaged through more than 300 programs and events. Museum free admission days, including Target Free Thursday Nights and Free First Saturday, drew record attendance with waived gallery admission and presentations of accessible programs across the Walker’s artistic disciplines and renovated campus. For example, the special series Winter at Walker in February featured a number of winter activities, including evening snowshoe tours, the Little Box Sauna, and knitting and storytelling in the lobby, which became a hygge haven for visitors of all ages. Alongside these popular free days, Sensory Friendly Sundays launched in May 2018 as a new monthly program for children, teens, and adults with sensory processing differences, autism spectrum disorder, or other sensitivities. School and Tour Programs engaged more than 18,000 visitors (90% students) in exploring the galleries and Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, complemented by hands-on art-making workshops. The Walker’s Cultural Experiences Partnership with Minneapolis Public Schools advanced in its second year, engaging 6th-grade students in creating their own stop-motion animations. Outside of the classroom, young people participated in special programs, art-making events, and artist-led workshops at the Walker, with more than 184,000 teens visiting the galleries and Garden for free. Through the Walker Art Center Teen Arts Council (WACTAC), teens accessed leadership opportunities, internships, workshops, and a robust curriculum that examined the intersection of artistic practice and social issues. In April 2017, youths shut down the museum with the first Teen Takeover event, featuring art-making workshops and performances for nearly 500 teens. The Walker also presented a range of artist and academic lectures last year, featuring such artists as Kinji Akagawa, Daniel Buren, Allen Ruppersberg, and Aaron Spangler. In partnerships with AIA Minnesota, the Walker presented two architecture talks related to the renovated Minneapolis Sculpture Garden: one with Julie Snow and Tadd Kruen, moderated by former Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak; and another with Dutch designer Petra Blaisse of Inside Outside, Amsterdam, in a discussion of her work and approach to the Walker’s new Wurtele Upper Garden. Through ongoing dialogue with Native American academics, artists, and members of the community, the Walker presented a lecture by Paul Chaat Smith, curator at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC; a panel discussion featuring Candice Hopkins, Nicholas Galanin, Steven Loft, and Ashley Holland, co-organized and moderated by artist Dyani Whitehawk; and an artist talk by Galanin, cohosted with the art department at the University of Minnesota.
REAFFIRMING OUR COMMITMENTS TO THE COMMUNITY
In addition to shining a light on the many outward-facing successes that took place last year, it is important to share an update on progress made since the challenging and emotionally charged events of past fiscal year 2016– 2017, when Sam Durant’s sculpture Scaffold (2012) was removed from the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden and the artist transferred intellectual property rights to the Dakota people. Though our leadership has been in transition this past year, the Walker’s commitment to positive change and growth has not wavered. Over the past 12 months, we began to address the agreements outlined in the 2017 mediation between the Walker and Dakota Elders and spent significant time examining institutional structures and internal policies in order to do the important work necessary to make systemic change. We learned that our internal checks and balances were inadequate, causing us to not sufficiently anticipate community reaction until days before the reopening of the Garden. We learned the importance of acknowledging and understanding our individual and collective blind spots and have been actively working to become more conscious of our areas of strength and opportunity. Using these learnings as our guide, we are currently working on building:
• a more effective acquisitions process that includes an
updated Acquisition Committee Charter and new
format for board meetings;
• clearer accountability for artwork interpretation
among Walker departments;
• new protocols for placing artwork in public spaces,
including the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden;
• a selection committee of native artists and arts professionals
to inform an upcoming commissioned outdoor work by an Indigenous artist for the Walker’s collection.
With our mission to serve as a catalyst for both artists and audiences, the Walker is committed to proceeding in our work moving forward with greater sensitivity around context, intentions, interpretation, and outreach.
FINANCIAL STEWARDSHIP
It is with tremendous pride that we report that the Walker continued its tradition of managing its financial resources prudently and balanced its budget for the 37th consecutive year. This a remarkable accomplishment for any nonprofit organization and one that enables the Walker to fulfill its mission. We are equally pleased that our endowment market value remained strong at $214 million, supporting remarkable Walker programs. It goes without saying that none this would have been possible without the exceptionally generous support of many individuals, foundations, corporate partners, and government organizations. It should be noted that the Avant Garden 2017 annual benefit event was the crowning and financially successful event in a summerlong celebration marking the reopening of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden and expanded Walker campus. Thanks to the generosity of Wayne Zink, chair; Jim Pohlad and Denise Mallery, co-chairs; committee members; sponsors; and all who attended, this singular fundraising event made a net profit of more than $1.1 million to support the Walker’s award-winning educational and artistic programs.
We also want to recognize our generous Premier Partners, Delta Air Lines and Target, and the voters of Minnesota for supporting the Walker through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund. Lastly, we want to express our heartfelt thanks to the staff and Board of Trustees for everything they do to ensure that the Walker remains a world-class art center that continues to showcase the work of living artists for our neighbors down the block and visitors from around the globe.
INTERIM EXECUTIVE OFFICE, WALKER ART CENTER
Rishi Donat, Director of Human Resources
Siri Engberg, Senior Curator and Director of
Exhibitions Management
Monica Nassif, President, Board of Trustees
Mary Polta, Chief Financial Officer
Christopher Stevens, Chief of Advancement
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