History
Formally established in 1927, the Walker Art Center began as the first public art gallery in the Upper Midwest. The museum's focus on modern art began in the 1940s, when a gift from Mrs. Gilbert Walker made possible the acquisition of works by important artists of the day, including sculptures by Pablo Picasso, Henry Moore, Alberto Giacometti, and others.
During the 1960s, the Walker organized increasingly ambitious exhibitions that circulated to museums in the United States and abroad. The permanent collection expanded to reflect crucial examples of contemporary artistic developments. Concurrently, Performing Arts, Film, and Education programs grew proportionately and gained their own national prominence throughout the next three decades.
Opened in April 2005, the new expansion nearly doubled the size of the Walker Art Center. The expansion, designed by Herzog & de Meuron includes increased indoor and outdoor facilities, allowing for a better usage of resources from objects in the permanent collection to books in the library to an inside view of the artist's own creative process.
A key aspect of the design is a "town square," a sequence of spaces that draw people for informal conversation, interactive learning, and community programs.
Today, the Walker is recognized internationally as a singular model of a multidisciplinary arts organization and as a national leader for its innovative approaches to audience engagement.
Timeline
1879 - Lumber baron Thomas Barlow (T.B.) Walker opens the first public art gallery west of the Mississippi at his residence on Hennepin Avenue in Downtown Minneapolis
1927 - Walker Art Galleries opens in Minneapolis, on the current Walker Art Center site.
1940 - Funded by 1939 Works Projects Administration (WPA) grants, Walker Art Galleries becomes the Walker Art Center. Under its first Director, Daniel Defenbacher, it began to add modern and regional art to the eclectic collection gathered by T. B. Walker. It opens to the public with exhibitions Ways to Art, Parallels in Art, and Trends in Contemporary Art, signaling its new interest in Modern Art. Defenbacher and his wife Louise Walker Defenbacher collaborated on Design Quarterly, which showcased good modern design in housewares and furniture. Spring Dance Festival, organized by Gertrude Lippincott, is the first performance event at the Walker.
1942 - Franz Marc, Die grossen blauen Pferde (The Large Blue Horses) (1911) is the Walker's first acquisition of Modern Art.
1946 - Everyday Art Gallery, curated by Hilde Reiss, opens as the first exhibition space dedicated for design in a U.S. museum. Everyday Art Quarterly (later renamed Design Quarterly) begins publication as the first U.S. museum journal on design.
1948 - Edward Hopper, Office at Night (1940) acquired.
1950 - Walker art school closed. Defenbacher replaced as Director by H. Harvard Arnason.
1954 - Georgia O’Keeffe, Lake George Barns (1926) is acquired.
1963 - Walker Art Center establishes the Center Opera Company, which later becomes the Minnesota Opera. Guthrie Theater opens adjacent to the Walker. John Cage, with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, presents first Walker performance.
1964 - Dominick Argento's Masque of Angels performed by the Center Opera Company as first Performing Arts commission.
1967 - Andy Warhol 16 Jackies (1964) acquired.
1969 - Major acquisitions include Chuck Close, Big Self-Portrait (1967–1968)
1970 - Performing Arts Department is formed.
1971 - New Walker Art Center opens, designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes.
1972 - Film/Video Department is established.
1976 - The Walker becomes a public institution; T.B. Walker Foundation establishes museum endowment.
1978 - Laurie Anderson performs as part of the Perspectives series, copresented with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Summer Music & Movies in Loring Park begins.
1988 - Minneapolis Sculpture Garden opens, designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes. Commissioned works include Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen's Spoonbridge and Cherry (1985–1988)
1989 - Out There series of experimental performance art and theater begins.
1990 - Regis Dialogues, a series of film retrospectives and interviews with noted filmmakers and actors, begins with Clint Eastwood and James Ivory.
1992 - Minneapolis Sculpture Garden expansion opens.
1996 - New Media Initiatives Department is formed with Gallery 9, a web site for net art, launches with Piotr Szyhalski, Ding an sich (The Canon Series) (1997), the first new-media commission.
1998 - Charles Ray, Unpainted Sculpture (1997) acquired. Art Performs Life: Merce Cunningham/Meredith Monk/Bill T. Jones, a multidisciplinary exhibition, celebrates the Walker's long-term relationships with the artists. ArtsConnectEd, a web site featuring the collections of the Walker and the Minneapolis Institute of Art, launches.
2002 - mnartists.org, a joint project of the Walker and the McKnight Foundation, launches.
2005 - Newly expanded Walker Art Center, designed by Herzog & de Meuron, opens in April.
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