Big bash planned for Minneapolis Sculpture Garden's 20th birthday

By TIM HARLOW, Star Tribune

Last update: May 12, 2008 - 11:08 AM

The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden is a teenager no more. The 11-acre park across from the Walker Art Center turns 20 this year and the museum is celebrating the occasion with a birthday blowout in June.

Singer-song writer Andrew Bird will headline the "2008 Rock the Garden," a shindig that also will feature performances by Canadian indie rock supergroup the New Pornographers, Cloud Cult and Wisconsin folk artist Bon Iver. Disc jockeys from 89.3 FM, the Current, will broadcast live from street party, which the station is co-sponsoring with the Walker.

Tickets to the June 21 celebration already are sold out, but the Walker is hosting a free family-friendly event that will feature live music and dance performances, and art-making activities from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. June 7.

The sculpture garden featuring 40 permanent works of art, including the colossal Spoonbridge and Cherry Fountain by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, is a joint project of the Walker Art Center and the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board.

The garden once was the site a National Guard building, which was torn down in 1933 and later play fields. In 1988, the Walker and the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board collaborated to turn those playing fields into the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, which was the largest urban sculpture garden in the country at that time.

About 6.5 million people have visited the Sculpture Garden in the past two decades.