Minneapolis Sculpture Garden

What to do this beautiful day? I think the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden is a very good idea!! Do you know the history of it?? Well, here it is:

At one time, the Mississippi flowed through the place which is now called the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. This is why things grow so abundantly here. The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board acquired this land between 1903 and 1935 and was known as the “The Parade” because of the military drills and exercises practiced in front of the Armory.

The area the Garden now occupies was also called the Armory Gardens, which featured a large brick National Guard building and formal gardens. The building was torn down in 1933, but the elaborate garden remained under the management of the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board. In the late 1960s, I-94 severed the connection between Loring Park and the garden, and eventually the area in front of the Walker Art Center became a playing field.

In 1988 the Walker and the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board collaborated to turn that playing field into the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. In 1992 it was expanded from 7.5 to 11 acres, making it the largest urban sculpture garden in the country at the time. There are more than 40 works on permanent view. Additional temporary installations keep the Garden experience continually fresh.

It is located just West of downtown at the corner of Vineland Place and Hennepin/Lyndale Avenues, across from the Walker Art Center. It offers the people that visit it the opportunity to enjoy various works of art by leading American and International artists in a garden setting of plazas, walkways and plantings.

Some of the permanent displays to look for are the colossal Spoonbridge and Cherry Fountain by Cleaes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen; the Irene Hixon Whitney Footbridge designed by Siah Armjani that connects the Sculpture Garden with Loring park and downtown Minneapolis; Frank Gehry;s Standing Glass Fish located in the Palm Room of the Cowles Conservatory (this room features permanent and seasonal horticultural displays); the Northern boundary of the Sculpture Garden features the Alene Grossman Memorial Arbor.

• Hours are everyday from 6 a.m. to midnight
• Phone: 612 370-4882
• 726 Vineland Pl.
  Minneapolis, MN 55403

Let me know if you end up visiting the Sculpture Gardens and what you thought! I haven’t been there since I was a kid. I will be going out of town this weekend for a wedding so I won’t get a chance to visit it this weekend but I’m certainly going to try soon!

Beth Riegger
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