This bridge honors the memory of Irene Hixon Whitney (1926-1986), a prominent Minnesotan, and symbolizes her lifelong commitment to bringing together people of diverse backgrounds and interests. The bridge, a 375-foot steel-truss construction, spans sixteen lanes of traffic to enable pedestrians to cross easily between Loring Park and the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. Its pair of overlapping arches represents a metaphoric handshake uniting two areas of the city. Inset along the bridge's upper beams is a poem by John Ashbery that transforms the experience of crossing into a brief escape from place and time. The bridge is a gift of the family of Irene Hixon Whitney. Additional support and services were provided by the Federal Highway Administration, the Minnesota Department of Transportation, the City of Minneapolis, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden is one of Minnesota's crown jewels and its centerpiece, the Spoonbridge and Cherry, has become a Minnesota icon. The Sculpture Garden is essentially a free museum in a park. Welcoming residents and tourists alike, the Sculpture Garden is a valuable economic, educational, and cultural asset for the state. After 22 years and more than 7.2 million visitors, the Sculpture Garden’s infrastructure has deteriorated and some of its plant life has reached the end of its natural life cycle. The Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board, with the full support of the Walker Art Center, is pursuing state bonding to repair and renovate this unique state asset. We need your help to preserve the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden for the next generation! Please take action by visiting http://garden.walkerart.org/bonding today. It’s quick, easy and will make all the difference.

Between 1989 and 1991 former Walker Design Curator Mildred Friedman commissioned exhibitions from six different American architectural firms for a series entitled ARCHITECTURE TOMORROW. Her premise was simple but challenging: in a 2,300-square-foot gallery with a 13-foot ceiling, create an inexpensive exhibition that can be "knocked down" and packed up to travel to other institutions, such as the Power Plant in Toronto, The Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco, and the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio. While some of the firms chose to exhibit models and sketches of their past architectural projects, others built entirely new installations. Three of these projects are featured here. DOMESTIC ARRANGEMENTS: A LAB REPORT: TOD WILLIAMS/BILLIE TSIEN (December 3, 1989-February 11, 1990) Tod Williams and Billie Tsien (both based in New York City) focused on the idea of an architecture for tomorrow, keeping in mind that "the house has always been a testing ground for architects." They created an exhibition of full-scale livable sections of a house, intending that the materials that went into the construction would be used at the end of the exhibition's tour in the building of a house. TOURISMS: SUITCASE STUDIES: ELIZABETH DILLER/RICHARD SCOFIDIO (January 6-March 17, 1991) Elizabeth Diller and Richard Scofidio (working collaboratively since 1979 and based on the East Coast) created an art installation around the idea of travel and the transitory experience of transporting your home wherever you go. Fifty Samsonite suitcases holding materials related to 50 tourist attractions in the United States were suspended from a giant plywood ceiling map of the country. The exhibition traveled from one museum to another in the same suitcases. EDGE OF A CITY: STEVEN HOLL (April 21-June 23, 1991) Steven Holl (a studio established in New York City in 1977) created an installation exploring the boundaries -- both real and psychological -- between the urban and the rural, the interior and exterior, proximity and distance, vertical and horizontal space. The firm exhibited models and drawings from realized works and concepts.

WHAT IS A COMMISSION? Act of appointing or assigning someone to execute a certain work or set of works. Such an act is often made in the form of a contract. Commission may refer to a work executed under such an agreement. The particular character of each commission and the relationship between the artist and the commissioning institution is unique. All begin as support for an idea generated from a discussion between the artist and the commissioning institution. These conversations continue throughout the execution of the work and often greatly affect the final project. Former Director Martin Friedman collaborated with Martin Puryear on the shape, placement, and even title of his sculpture AMPERSAND (illustration 1), commissioned as a gateway to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. Siah Armajani's BRIDGE BOOK represents three commissions in one -- his Irene Hixon Whitney Bridge, a poem by John Ashbery for the bridge, and the artist book itself about his many bridge projects. WHAT FORM DOES A COMMISSION TAKE? A commission can be almost anything -- dance, music, video, film, sculpture, installation, projects for the Internet, architecture, and design. Mark Luyten made seasonal visits to the Walker over a two-year period, working with Walker staff and others to create ephemeral installations, photographs, and film and video works. In conjunction with the NEW MUSIC AMERICA festival in 1980, musicians such as Max Neuhaus, Liz Phillips, and Pauline Oliveros were commissioned to create sound installations in public sites throughout Minneapolis. THE LISTENING PROJECT was an educational outreach project that resulted in a video work by Helen De Michiel. Chantal Akerman's traveling exhibition of multiple video-monitor installations, D'EST (illustration 2), was commissioned in 1995. The recently published guide to the Garden and signage for the Walker's family program, Free First Saturday, were commissions from illustrator j.otto Seibold. In 1995, type designer Matthew Carter was commissioned to create the typeface "Walker," which appears in the titles throughout this brochure. IS A COMMISSION MADE FOR A SPECIFIC SITE? Yes and no. Where a commissioned work is placed often depends on the terms of the contract made between the commissioning institution and the artist. The Walker has commissioned works for specific public sites and others that are not dependent on being shown in a particular place. Many of the commissioned works in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden are site-specific, such as Frank Gehry's STANDING GLASS FISH (1988) in the Cowles Conservatory. Sol LeWitt was commissioned to design a crosswalk between the Walker and the Garden for the inauguration. This crosswalk, LINES IN TWO DIRECTIONS (1988), has since been removed due to the negative effects of many hard winters. Dorit Cypis created the interactive environment BACKSTAGE AT THE WALKER (illustration 5) for the Art Lab, a classroomlike space run by the Education and Community Programs Department for use primarily by school groups. For the exhibition series ARCHITECTURE TOMORROW, architects were commissioned to create installations for Gallery 7 that could also travel to be shown at other museums across the country. IS A COMMISSION PERMANENT? WHO OWNS IT? Every commission is the exception to the rule. Performing arts commissions are ephemeral events that can be presented elsewhere while the artist maintains rights to it. Lee Breuer and Bob Telson's GOSPEL AT COLONUS has been staged many times nationally and was even featured on PBS. Works created for the Internet pose unique questions of permanence and authorship. Piotr Szyhalski's DING AN SICH (illustration 3), commissioned for the virtual GALLERY 9, remains the property of the artist while the Walker maintains an archival copy on its Web site. If a commission does result in a tangible object, the Walker retains the right of first refusal to accession the work into its permanent collection. Once a work of art is acquired, the Walker is responsible for its conservation/care and for controlling the reproduction of its image. The famous SPOONBRIDGE AND CHERRY (1985-1988) by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen is permanent and owned by the Walker. It requires extensive care to conserve it for generations to come. WHY DOES THE WALKER COMMISSION NEW WORK? From classical antiquity, artists have been commissioned to make artworks. Historically, patrons -- religious institutions, mercantile organizations, the nobility, or individual philanthropists -- provided the financial and moral support for artists, and museums functioned as collectors and exhibitors. In the recent past, the role of museums has changed. In addition to collecting and exhibiting work, many museums now assume a greater responsibility in supporting contemporary artists through commissions. Commissioning new work is one of the many ways the Walker fulfills its mission as "a catalyst for the creative expression of artists and the active engagement of audiences." COMMISSION POSSIBLE looks at a cross section of projects made for the Walker from 1980 through the present, poses questions that help clarify what a commission is, and reminds us of the Walker's multidisciplinary approach to the creation, presentation, collection, and preservation of contemporary art.

In this lesson, students will learn about the importance of size and distinguish between life-size and an increased or decreased scale in art. They'll draw a household object in three sizes and turn the drawing into a soft relief sculpture. Art lab lesson plans are presented as PDF files that you can view with the ArtsConnectEd image viewer or download to your computer. Use the Prev/Next buttons to move between the images of a PDF and the actual file.

Self-guided tours are thematic instructional materials for student groups experiencing the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden on a self-guided visit. Self-guided tours include a Garden map marked with the tour stop locations. Self-guided visits for student groups (10–100 people) can be scheduled using the Tour Request Form (walkerart.org/tourrequestform). You can view the materials with the ArtsConnectEd image viewer or download the PDF files to your computer. Use the Prev/Next buttons to move between the page previews and a link to the actual file. About this Self-Guided Tour On this tour, students will select two artworks as the focus for writing a story. Pre-Visit Planning Before you begin this visit to the Garden, have the students divide into smaller groups of two to four people. Assign a chaperone to each small group, and give each student a copy of the handout, a pencil, and a clipboard or hard surface on which to write. Designate a central spot for everyone to gather after they have finished their writing and allot enough time for them to share. Role of Chaperones Please stay with your group throughout their visit. You will facilitate each time the group chooses a work to write about and lead them to it. Once there,encourage them to look at the sculpture, walk around it, and share what they notice. Encourage each student to answer writing prompts on their own, and let them know when it is time to move to the next artwork. After the writing is finished, walk with your group back to the designated central spot for sharing.

Self-guided tours are thematic instructional materials for student groups experiencing the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden on a self-guided visit. All self-guided tours include a Garden map marked with the tour stop locations. Self-guided visits for student groups (10–100 people) can be scheduled using the Tour Request Form (walkerart.org/tourrequestform). You can view the materials with the ArtsConnectEd image viewer or download the PDF files to your computer. Use the Prev/Next buttons to move between the page previews and a link to the actual file. About this Self-Guided Tour This tour will explore a person’s body scale as it relates to life-size and monumental sculptures. Pre-Visit Planning This handout is for the students. Make a copy for each so during the visit they'll have a place to write down answers to the questions. Role of Chaperones Please stay with your group throughout their visit. Talk about the questions with students and offer your own observations.

Known for the Irene Hixon Whitney Bridge that connects the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden and Loring Park, Armajani makes work that confounds the boundaries between art and architecture, public and private art. Armajani questions the nature of function and form, taking his inspiration from early American architectural archetypes such as log cabins, Shaker barns, and covered bridges. Bridge for Robert Venturi is one in a series of models called "Limit Bridges" where the apparently logical passageway is diverted and/or denied. Dedicated to Robert Venturi, a noted American architect who has championed vernacular architecture and written much about the need for the built environment to connect with the larger environment, Armajani' s bridge is an intentional contradiction of form and function serving an invisible landscape where its form may actually function.