The Walker Art Center Isn't Messing Around

The Walker Art Center Isn't Messing Around

725 Vineland Place. Herzog & de Meuron building on a hill above Loring Park. The permanent collection is deep and opinionated — Warhol, Kara Walker, Jasper Johns — and the rotating shows always include at least one thing that makes you stop and reconsider your relationship with the object in front of you. The Walker doesn't do safe.

The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden next door is the real draw for most visitors — eleven acres anchored by the Spoonbridge and Cherry, which is a 50-foot spoon holding a cherry and somehow works as both public art and civic mascot. The garden mixes monumental pieces with intimate ones and walking through it feels more like a neighborhood stroll than a museum visit.

The Walker's cinema program is what locals actually use. International films, experimental work, restored classics, seats better than any art-house theater you've been to. Check the website. It's how Minneapolis spends its dark winter evenings, and it beats complaining about the cold.