Minneapolis Sculpture Garden in Minneapolis, MN

The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden in Minneapolis, Minnesota is located near the Walker Art Center which operates as a protected park site under the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board. Check out this article from a Minneapolis Chiropractor.

The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden

The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden is one of the largest urban sculpture gardens in the United States and features 40 permanent art installations around the park and also contains other temporary pieces that are phased in and out. The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden is open 365 days a year, from 6 AM to Midnight everyday and free to the public. Located to the west of Loring park and the Minneapolis Basilica of Saint Mary, it is a large area of outdoor art that seems strangely placed to anyone that isn’t familiar with the Minneapolis area, since it is located right next to busy highways. The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden opened in 1988 and currently covers 11 acres of land.

Spoonbridge and Cherry

The permanent center piece of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden is the Spoonbridge and Cherry, a sculptural fountain that was installed in the opening year 1988 and cost half a million dollars of donations to create. Although it is the center of Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, it isn’t intended to be a sculptural symbol of Minneapolis, it is simply supposed to be a landmark that would bring passerbyers pleasure. Seeing a 50 foot long spoon with fruit would make anyone smile with its oversized body and its bright cherry on top.

Siah Armanani’s Irene Hixon Whitney Bridge

Another amazing attraction of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden is Siah Armanani’s Irene Hixon Whitney Bridge. This bridge was built in 1988 and was recently restored in 2018. The bridge connects the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden to Loring Park. The bridge is 375 feet long and spans over 16 lanes of traffic including I-94, Hennepin Avenue, and Lyndale Ave. All in all the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden has seen millions of visitors and has shown off the Walker Art Center’s collections of modern and contemporary art in the setting of an urban park. The current series at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden is the Shadows at the Crossroads. This series features important, but overlooked individuals from Minnesota history. The idea of this series is to “bring stories from the past into the light,” by placing shadowy silhouettes of these figures along the sidewalks. One specific piece of art is called Harriet Robinson Scott, namesake for an enslaved African American woman who lived at Fort Snelling with her husband, Dred Scott, and their two daughters in the 1830s. Their fame comes from the 1840s case where the Scotts sued for their freedom, although unsuccessful, this case helped push the United States towards the Civil War. Another important figure in Minneapolis history is the shadow of Kirk Washington, Jr., an artist, poet, and activist from North Minneapolis. Washington worked hard to bring communities together around issues like racism, housing inequalities, police brutality, and gun violence, all in the name of social change. Harriet Robinson Scott and Kirk Washington Jr. come to life again with the rest of the Shadows at the Crossroads at the Minneapolis Sculpture Gardens in an amazing, must-see, part of Minneapolis, Minnesota.