Walker Art Center

Walker Art Center is a 1879 from the woodcutter Thomas Barlow Walker founded Art Museum in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 1927, moved to its present location and was then the first public art museum in the upper midwestern United States.

Thanks to a donation by Gilbert Walker were from the 1990s of Modern Art, for example, sculptures of Pablo Picasso, Henry Moore, Alberto Giacometti, and further be purchased for the collection. On the 69,000 -square-foot museum grounds there is also a sculpture garden.

The Walker Art Center has been described by Newsweek as one of the best contemporary art museums in the country.

Expansion 1999-2005

From 1999 to 2005, the Walker Art Center has been renovated. It was planned the reconstruction from the Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron, which was known by the spectacular projects around the globe. Numerous well-known museums were new or redesigned in recent years by the Swiss architect duo. These include the Tate Modern in London, the De Young Museum in San Francisco, the theater camp in Munich near Basel, and the Museum Küppersmühle in Duisburg.

To the existing brick building a shapeless cube was added, which appears to float because it extends beyond the ground floor away almost to the street. Particularly striking is the metallic facade, which reflects the light differently depending on the incident. The large, bulky window openings mute on deconstructivist. Is connected to the old and new buildings on the ground floor level by a gallery with glass facade.

In addition to a brightly lit and enlarged exhibition space, the museum now also has a theater. The upgrade was the Walker Art Center from simple museum multifunctional cultural center. The expansion of the cultural offer is an agent which is used in many European and North American museums to appeal to a wider audience.