Walker Art Center Announces Summer Season of Art, Film, Music, and Gathering
From June through August, the Walker activates its campus with free outdoor programs, family days, artist-led workshops, a film series curated by comedian, actor, and activist Dallas Goldtooth, poetry, and rooftop mini golf.
This summer, the Walker Art Center invites visitors to gather across its campus for a wide-ranging season of exhibitions, outdoor programs, artist-led workshops, film screenings, poetry, live music, family days, and rooftop mini golf. From June through August, the Walker will offer opportunities for audiences of all ages to experience art inside the galleries, on the hillside, in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, and under the open sky.
The season brings together major exhibitions, free community programs, and cinematic experiences that reflect the Walker’s multidisciplinary spirit. Highlights include a guest-curated film series by comedian, writer, and activist Dallas Goldtooth (Mdewakanton Dakota/Diné); the return of Sound for Silents with newly commissioned live scores by Bizhiki; the opening of Olalekan Jeyifous: Hydricosmic Litanies; participatory public projects including Drew Arrieta’s Dream Machines; and the return of Skyline Mini Golf, the Walker’s artist-designed rooftop course.
Comedian, writer, and activist Dallas Goldtooth—Mdewakanton Dakota/Diné and a writer/actor on FX’s Reservation Dogs—guest-curates a six-film series Once Upon a Time in Manhood examining how the cinema of his youth shaped his understanding of masculinity. The series charts Goldtooth’s journey to manhood through iconic films from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, including The Shawshank Redemption, Fight Club, Die Hard, Willow, The Last of the Mohicans, and Boy.
Sound for Silents returns on August 20, anchoring the season with newly commissioned live scores by Bizhiki, a six-member ensemble featuring Dylan Bizhikiins Jennings, (Bad River Ojibwe); Joe Rainey Sr.(Red Lake Ojibwe); S. Carey of Bon Iver; and Jeremy Ylvisaker. The free outdoor program brings together film, live music, and summer gathering on the Walker hillside.
A new exhibition, Olalekan Jeyifous: Hydricosmic Litanies, opens August 6 with a community opening and conversation between Jeyifous and curator Taylor Jasper. The exhibition explores speculative world-building, water infrastructure, ecological justice, and the Mississippi River.
Skyline Mini Golf returns to the Walker rooftop for the season, inviting visitors to play artist-designed holes against panoramic views of the Minneapolis skyline. This year’s course features a new hole by Ifrah Mansour.
Participatory and community-driven projects unfold throughout the summer. On June 18, artist Drew Arrieta’s Dream Machines transforms the Walker hillside into a civic listening space where visitors can record and hear dreams for the future through a sculptural pop-up booth and hotline.
Mini Golf
May 20–Oct 5, 2026
$12 ($10 Walker members); Free for ages 5 and under with paid ticket
Your summer hole-in-one! Skyline Mini Golf returns to the Walker rooftop this summer. Enjoy a round of putt-putt featuring artist-designed holes and stunning Minneapolis skyline panoramas.
Mini Golf Times
Exhibitions on View
Christine Sun Kim: All Day All Night
Closes August 30, 2026
Using musical notation, infographics, and text, Christine Sun Kim interrogates language and amplifies the possibilities of Deaf sonic experience.
Sculpture Court
Closes August 30, 2026
Featuring 20 works from the collection, the Walker presents a modern take on the long tradition of sculpture courts.
Rosy Simas: A:gajë:gwah dësa’nigöëwë:nye:’ (i hope it will stir your mind)
Closes July 5, 2026
With video, surround sound, and woven sculptural vessels, transdisciplinary artist Rosy Simas creates an immersive installation that embodies and honors her Hodinöšyö:nih lineage.
Exhibitions Opening
Opens May 14, 2026
What Is Love traces painter Suzanne Jackson’s (US, b. 1944) lifelong devotion to beauty as a political force. As the first major museum retrospective devoted to the artist’s career, the exhibition spans six decades of work and highlights her evolving engagement with poetry, dance, and theater.
Collection in Focus: Martine Syms
Opens June 26, 2026
This exhibition is part of an ongoing series focused on major works in the Walker’s growing collection and represents the first presentation of Martine Syms’s The Borrowed Lady (2016) since it was acquired in 2019. The artist’s installation includes a four-channel video presented in a space with purple window vinyl and wall paint. In the work, artist Diamond Stingily’s voice and image appear across four monitors.
Olalekan Jeyifous: Hydricosmic Litanies
Opens August 6, 2026
Olalekan Jeyifous (US, b. Nigeria, 1977) is an artist, architect, and designer whose practice merges speculative architecture and social commentary to imagine possible alternative futures for urban spaces. Through his work, Jeyifous explores how the construction of environments can address critical issues like displacement, social equity, and ecological justice.
Free Programming
Free Thursday Nights
The Social Soundtrack with Brass Solidarity
June 11, 6 pm
Live music returns to the Walker hillside with Brass Solidarity curating a night of high-energy performances and sunset views.
Dream Machines with Drew Arrieta
June 18, 5–8 pm
Part listening space, part imagined civic ritual, Dream Machines is a participatory project by artist Drew Arrieta on the Walker hillside, inviting visitors to speak their futures aloud.
June 25, 6 pm
Jerald “Coop” Cooper explores how Black culture shaped mid-century modern design in a program drawn from his Hood Century Modern platform and Walker residency.
Green Roof Poetry: Poetry as Resistance
July 2, 7 pm
Green Roof Poetry returns with an evening dedicated to resistance and the power of the written word.
Somatic Healing through Dance with Meridian Movement
July 9, 6 pm
Explore somatic healing through a movement workshop and modern hip-hop fusion performance.
Green Roof Poetry: Curated by Cindi Martin
July 16, 6 pm
Curated by local poet and d/Deaf cultural consultant Cindi Martin, this literary evening showcases a range of styles and performances.
July 23, 5–8 pm
Turn recycled and natural materials into art at this all-ages, hands-on workshop.
July 30, 5—8 pm
A special summer edition of Art Club brings hands-on artmaking to the hillside, inspired by Suzanne Jackson: What Is Love.
August 13, 5—8 pm
Art Lounge pairs local artists with community advocates for a night of immersive skill-sharing and art-making on the hillside.
Free First Saturday
Free First Saturday: Community Love
June 6, 10 am–5 pm
This family day celebrates artists rooted in our community with free gallery admission and activities for all ages.
Free First Saturday: Catching the Light
July 11, 10 am–5 pm
Explore how artists transform sun, color, and light into shimmering artworks at this month’s free family day.
Free First Saturday: Puppet Playdate
August 1, 10 am–5 pm
Free First Saturday brings giant puppets to the Sculpture Garden with In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre.
Additional Programs
June 20 & July 18, 2–5 pm
Art Lab
Teens are invited to make art and hang out this summer with a new, free project each month.
Community Opening: Olalekan Jeyifous:
August 6, 6 pm
Artist Olalekan Jeyifous and curator Taylor Jasper discuss Hydricosmic Litanies, exploring how water infrastructure and the Mississippi River shape the exhibition’s speculative world.
August 15, 12–5 pm
The Walker Art Center Teen Arts Council celebrates its 30th anniversary with a day of art-making, reflection, and community dialogue.
Friday Art-Making in the Garden
Fridays, June 12–August 28, 10 am–1 pm
Drop in to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden for art-making activities for ages 4 and up. All materials are provided, and a new project each week invites visitors to explore art and their creativity together.
Activity instructions are available in English and Spanish.
Moving Image Programs
Passing Through by Larry Clark
June 3, 7 pm
Walker Cinema
$15 ($12 members, seniors, and students)
A saxophonist seeks his grandfather’s mentorship in a white-controlled industry. Featuring music by Eric Dolphy, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, and Sun Ra.
A Different Image by Alile Sharon Larkin
June 4, 7 pm
Walker Cinema
$15 ($12 members, seniors, and students)
A touching embrace of Black female subjectivity on screen, this coming-of-age story is rooted in the racial politics of representation and feminist filmmaking.
Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait by Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno
June 26-27, 7 pm
Walker Cinema
$15 ($12 members, students, and seniors; free for students on Friday)
This World Cup season, experience soccer from a completely different point of view in this immersive cinematic portrait of Real Madrid star Zinedine Zidane.
Film Series: Once Upon a Time in Manhood
July 10–August 14
Comedian, activist, and actor Dallas Goldtooth revisits the cinema of his youth, asking both what we inherited from these representations of masculinity and what we decided to leave behind.
July 10 and 25, 7 pm
$15 ($12 Walker Members, Seniors and Students; Free for students on Friday)
In this fantasy adventure, a diminutive village farmer unwittingly finds himself at the center of a hero’s journey to dethrone the realm’s evil sorceress queen.
The Last of the Mohicans by Michael Mann
July 11 and 31, 7 pm
$15 ($12 Walker Members, Seniors and Students; Free for students on Friday)
Michael Mann’s grand epic features performances by Native actors Wes Studi (Cherokee) and Eric Schweig (Inuvialuk) whose presence and weight in the film counter its contribution to the erasure of Indigenous stories.
July 16 and August 7, 7 pm
$15 ($12 Walker Members, Seniors and Students; Free for students on Friday)
Finding himself at the center of an elaborate heist, Detective McClane (Bruce Willis) offers up a different vision for an action hero: an ordinary guy unwittingly drawn into heroism.
The Shawshank Redemption by Frank Darabont
July 17 and 30, 7 pm
$15 ($12 Walker Members, Seniors and Students; Free for students on Friday)
A portrait of an enduring friendship between two men, this adaptation of a Stephen King story follows inmates Andy and Red as they navigate survival of the prison system.
July 24 and August 13, 7 pm
$15 ($12 Walker Members, Seniors and Students; Free for students on Friday)
Edward Norton stars as the unnamed main character whose rebellion against his staid, status quo life leads him to a violent underground counterculture.
August 8 and 14, 7 pm
$15 ($12 Walker Members, Seniors and Students; Free for students on Friday)
Set in a Māori community in the 80s, the titular “Boy” builds his idea of masculinity through pop culture and imagination in this coming-of-age story from Taika Waititi.
Middle School Movie Club: Fantastic Mr. Fox
July 25, noon–4 pm
Walker Cinema, Art Lab
Free
Middle schoolers can cool off this summer with a stop-motion favorite and movie-inspired art-making.
Sound for Silents 2026: Film + Music on the Walker Hillside
August 20, 7 pm
Hillside
Free
Celebrate summer’s end on the Walker hillside with outdoor films and newly commissioned live music by Bizhiki.
ABOUT THE WALKER ART CENTER
The Walker Art Center is a renowned multidisciplinary arts institution that presents, collects, and supports the creation of groundbreaking work across the visual and performing arts, moving image, and design. Guided by the belief that art has the power to bring joy and solace and the ability to unite people through dialogue and shared experiences, the Walker engages communities through a dynamic array of exhibitions, performances, events, and initiatives. Its multiacre campus includes 65,000 sq. ft. of exhibition space, the state-of-the-art McGuire Theater and Walker Cinema, and ample green space that connects with the adjoining Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. The Garden, a partnership with the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board, is one of the first urban sculpture parks of its kind in the United States and home to the beloved Twin Cities landmark Spoonbridge and Cherry by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. Recognized for its ambitious program and growing collection of more than 15,500 works, the Walker embraces emerging art forms and amplifies the work of artists from the Twin Cities and from across the country and the globe. Its broad spectrum of offerings makes it a lively and welcoming hub for artistic expression, creative innovation, and community connection.