Catherine Opie, Norma & Eyenga, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1998. Courtesy Walker Art Center, Photo: Cameron Wittig.
On February 18, The Walker Art Center will open an exploratory exhibition that invites visitors to share feedback about their in-gallery experiences, fostering a dialogue about visitor preferences and testing curatorial assumptions about public opinion. Make Sense of This: Visitors Respond to the Walker’s Collection is organized in four concise thematic chapters that will unfold over a period of nine months. Each chapter is anchored by a significant recent acquisition and features a diversity of works—spanning different media and time periods—drawn from the Walker’s collection. Visitors to the exhibition will have the opportunity to participate in a short, anonymous survey—offered in English, Spanish, Somali, and Hmong—about the artworks on view, the gallery texts, and additional content of interest. Large-scale monitors in the exhibition and in the Walker lobby will capture the accumulating responses through the run of the show, revealing a composite of the varying ideas and perspectives.
The first chapter of the exhibition is titled Portrait and Lived Experience and will be on view from February 18 – April 16, 2023. Through a selection of paintings, photographs, and sculptures, the presentation explores the range of approaches taken by artists to capture a person’s likeness as well as how portraits communicate social, political, and cultural histories. Portrait and Lived Experience is anchored by Holding Pattern (2021), a painting by contemporary artist Jennifer Packer that the Walker acquired in 2022. The work reflects Packer’s innate ability to convey both a sense of intimacy with her sitter and to engage more broadly with the politics of representation. Other works in this chapter include photographs by Catherine Opie and Kwong Chi Tseng and a sculpture by Abraham Cruzvillegas.
Among the forthcoming chapters is Minimal Art and the Measure of the Body (April 22 – June 25, 2023), which will examine artists pushing the boundaries of the Minimalist movement. The presentation includes Constantina Zavitsanos’s 2016 sculpture Specific Objects (stack), which the Walker acquired last year, as well as works by Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Theaster Gates, and Tom Burr. This will be followed by Remembrance and Commemoration (July 1 – August 27, 2022), which deals with notions of memory, and A Piece of Music (September 2 – November 19), on the connections between music and the visual arts.
Make Sense of This is a joint effort between the Walker’s Visual Arts; Public Engagement,
Learning and Impact; and Content and Communications teams. The collaborative approach reflects the range of voices and perspectives involved with developing exhibitions and captures the different viewpoints from which the public is considered. It is envisioned to open the curatorial process and create a pathway to learn more about how the public both engages with contemporary artwork on view and what else they might like to experience in the galleries. Wall texts will be presented in two forms: one written in a more formal manner with a focus on art history and another written in a more casual tone that encourages the public to think about their sensory and emotional responses. The brief survey will ask for feedback on these different approaches along with a series of other related questions. In addition to the digital information gathering, the Walker will host a series of in-person workshops with invited groups to further foster direct conversation on the topic. At the conclusion of the exhibition, the Walker will explore the learnings as part of a broader set of efforts to enhance the visitor experience.
“Over the past several years, the Walker has been actively reflecting on how we connect with our communities and considering new approaches to the gallery experience that embrace different audience needs and interests. Examining and testing our own assumptions is an essential aspect of this work and Make Sense of This was born out of a genuine curiosity about audience opinions about our exhibition concepts, the installation of works, and the didactic materials,” said Henriette Huldisch, Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs.
Amanda Hunt, Head of Public Engagement, Learning and Impact, added, “We are looking forward to this learning process and to seeing the similarities and divergences in perspective evolve in near real-time through our digital system. We have an opportunity to learn more about how people are responding to the Walker’s storied collection.”
The exhibition is curated by Walker staff Henriette Huldisch, Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs; William Hernández Luege, Curatorial Assistant, Visual Arts; Erin McNeil, Program Manager, Curatorial Affairs; Jake Yuzna, Content Producer; and Simona Zappas, Youth & Community Programs Associate, Public Engagement, Learning, and Impact.