Dan Graham sculpture at The Walker Art Center Sculpture Garden in Minneapolis, established 1988

…a special place in the middle of the city that I grew up going to regularly, where I fell in love with an amazing garden installation (an inverted cone of flower plantings) by Meg Webster in the early ’90’s – is still my favorite place in Minneapolis – and on this late spring weekday afternoon there are plenty of people enjoying it as if it were their own outdoor living room and it’s making me think that all of our museums should be outdoors? (website)

About 75 years ago, the area the Garden now occupies was 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, Interstate Highway 94 severed the connection between Loring Park and the garden, and eventually the acreage 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.