The
Minneapolis Sculpture Garden and nearby
Cowles Conservatory, popular attractions at the
Walker Art Center, are due for a facelift, according to Phillip Bahar, the museum’s chief of operations and administration.
It’s been almost 25 years since the sculpture garden was inaugurated, he says.
Back then, the garden, which is run by the museum on city parkland, was the “first major urban sculpture garden in America,” and it became a model for many others.
The
University of Minnesota’s Landscape Arboretum ran the conservatory in the beginning, and the
Minnesota Department of Transportation constructed the colorful bridge that connects
Loring Park and the sculpture garden.
“It was an amazing example of what can happen when the community comes together around one idea,” Bahar says.
Since then, over 8 million people from all over the world have visited the sculpture garden, which is also the most tagged photo subject on the photo-sharing site,
flickr, he says. “It carries the message of Minnesota and the arts.”
However, over the years the garden’s soil has become so compacted that water doesn’t drain properly anymore. It needs to be refreshed to “loosen up the topsoil.” Granite pavers that have settled into the land also need to be reset. “Those are some of the things that are hit the hardest by water,” he says.
A new drainage system that’s been designed for the garden would capture rainwater to irrigate the land, a process that's especially useful for the famous Spoonbridge and Cherry sculpture, which has a water feature.
Beyond that, the conservatory’s mechanical systems have become outdated, and its greenhouse use is also nearing an end. The conservatory will probably be turned into an exhibition space of some sort, he explains.
Altogether, it’s an $8.5 million project, which the state legislature is considering in its current bonding bill. To be clear, he says, the park board is making the funding request. As such, “None of this money goes to the art. It goes to infrastructure and landscape,” the sculpture garden’s “hard parts.”
Depending on how the legislative session goes, work on the garden could begin as soon as the fall.
“We have this beloved state asset,” Bahar says, and, just like any other major infrastructure project, the garden needs work to “replenish it to its glory when it was new.”
Source: Phillip Bahar, chief of operations and administration, Walker Art Center
Writer: Anna Pratt