The story
Founded by T. B. Walker in 1927, in Minneapolis.1
The Walker Art Center began with Minneapolis businessman Thomas Barlow Walker, who held one of the largest art collections in the nation. In 1879, he dedicated part of his home to exhibiting the art to the public for free. In 1916, Walker purchased the land now known as Lowry Hill to build a museum for his growing collection. His museum, the Walker Art Galleries, was opened on May 21, 1927.
In 1939, the Minnesota Arts Council was granted control of the building on Lowry Hill, along with its art collection, in order to create a civic art center. With the assistance of the Works Progress Administration, building improvements were made and the Walker Art Center opened in January 1940. Daniel Defenbacher, who led the Federal Art Project's Community Art Center program, left the WPA to become the first director of the Walker Art Center. Around this time, the Walker officially began its focus on modern and contemporary works of art.
The Walker's current building, designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes, opened in 1971 and expanded in 1984. Minneapolis Parks and Recreation partnered with the Walker Art Center to establish the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden on the Walker's campus in 1988.
In 1984, the Walker Art Center hosted a residency for Keith Haring, during which he created many notable works and murals.
Opened in April 2005, the most recent building expansion nearly doubled the size of the Walker Art Center. The expansion, designed by Herzog & de Meuron, included an additional gallery space, a theater, restaurant, shop, and special events space.
In June 2017, the reopening of the sculpture garden after reconstruction was delayed due to protests over Sam Durant's sculpture Scaffold.
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.
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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.
2012 – Walker Art Center holds the first Internet Cat Video Festival
2015 – The Walker breaks ground on its renovation of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden
2024 – A group of union workers at the gallery take to social media to protest the art gallery's no-sitting policy.
2026 – In response to the gallery's no-sitting policy, state legislators introduced right to sit legislation in the Minnesota Legislature.
From Wikipedia’s article on Walker Art Center, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5