New Walker Art Center

The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has long been recognized as one of the top contemporary art museums in the United States.  More than a mere showcase for visual art, the museum supports contemporary media and performance art as well.  After being closed for more than a year, the Walker has reopened with a newly renovated and expanded building with more gallery space and more opportunities for visitors to experience those art forms.

More than a dozen artists performed in celebration of the museum’s reopening. Composer Philip Glass, who first appeared at the Walker in 1971 and has returned 19 times since then, told VOA he was honored to be among them.  "There is a spirit about the place that new work is exciting. It means something to people.”  Mr. Glass said, adding that the Walker honors, finds and promotes the work of today and tomorrow.  For more than 30 years that has included not only the work of sculptors and painters, but also musicians, dancers and other performance artists. 

However, Mr. Glass noted, until now, the Walker didn't have a venue to showcase their work. "When we first began playing here we were playing in lecture halls and galleries,” he said. “Now there is an actual performing place where experimental work, where dance can be done.  This is a big step, not just for the Walker, but for all of the people who will perform here and of course the audiences."

The Walker's senior curator for performing arts, Philip Bither called the 385-seat McGuire Theater "a new laboratory for us and the artists of America and beyond.”  He added that artists will be able to experiment with new ideas, and the work they create for the Walker will travel to festivals throughout the world.

Audio Bay

Not everything in the Walker has a visual component.  The museum also commissions sound art, which museumgoers can hear at the new audio bay -- a cozy, recessed bench, built into one wall of a long corridor.  Right now if someone slips on a pair of headphones they hear a piece by Christian Marclay that was created from construction sound recorded at the Walker over the last 4 years.

In a similar space, equipped with monitors as well as headphones, visitors can watch short films from the museum's collection.  There's also a theater devoted solely to cinema, a smaller space for video installations, and 4 video viewing stations in the museum's

Walker visitors watch films

lobby where people can sit on floor cushions and watch short films like The Critical Path.  

The 14-minute animated documentary about architect, inventor and visionary Buckminster Fuller was created by Benita Raphan, who came from New York to celebrate the Walker’s reopening. "It couldn't be more exciting to me to be represented here,” Ms. Raphan told VOA. “The Walker has a great reputation in terms of film and video, and also has a great reputation for being a younger, hipper, edgier museum.  That's a very nice thing to be a part of."

But being hip and edgy doesn't necessarily equate with being popular.  So in addition to making more of the Walker's vast art collection physically accessible to the public, director Kathy Halbreich told VOA she wanted to make the presentation of the art more user-friendly.

"We didn't want to change what we showed, which is often provocative,” she said.  “We wanted to create this inviting place where you would not be intimidated by the institutional structure and consequently, would perhaps feel more open-minded. Because I think people are open minded when they are comfortable."

The new Walker Art Center provides comfortable spaces to showcase theater, video and performance art, as well as lounges, a restaurant and a café, where museumgoers can talk about what they've seen.  Director Kathy Halbreich said she hopes the building and the art it displays will foster many conversations in the years to come.