1927 T.B. Walker opens Walker Art Galleries to house his $5 million art collection. He dies a year later.
1940 Galleries change name to Walker Art Center, focus on contemporary art, begin selling founder's collection.
1946 Walker begins publishing the first U.S. museum design journal, Everyday Art Quarterly (later Design Quarterly).
1961 Martin Friedman becomes director; his 30-year term is longest in the center's history.
1963 Walker helps launch Center Opera Company (later Minnesota Opera) when it stages the arts center's first performing arts commission, Dominick Argento's opera "Masque of Angels," in 1964.
1968 Andy Warhol's "Sixteen Jackies" is acquired.
1970 Performing arts department established.
1971 New Walker building, designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes, opens.
