Walker Art Center Seeks Proposals from Indigenous Artists for New Sculpture Garden Work

The Walker Art Center has issued a Call to Indigenous Artists to submit proposals for a new work for the Sculpture Garden. This follows the 2017 controversy over Scaffold, a sculpture that triggered strong protests from the Dakota, Minnesota’s original peoples.

“Scaffold” was removed from the Walker Sculpture Garden.

Scaffold was a two-story tall sculpture. a composite of seven different historic gallows. It was supposed to be a commentary on capital punishment. However, the sculpture’s most prominent feature was a representation of the gallows used to hang 38 Dakota men in Mankato in the wake of the 1862 Dakota-U.S. War — the largest mass execution in U.S. history.

Neither the artist nor the Walker thought to discuss this with the Dakota people prior to the installation; that reaction came strong and fast as soon as the sculpture was being put in place.

For more on Scaffold, click here.

Call for Indigenous Artists

The application deadline for artists is April 15.

Here is an excerpt from the Walker’s Call to Artists:

Are you a knowledge keeper, a contemporary artist, or a traditional artist interested in making public art? The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, along with an Indigenous Public Art Selection Committee, invites artists’ proposals for a new public artwork for placement in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden or a location on the Walker campus. Individual or collaborative original work may be sculptural; incorporate other disciplines, such as audiovisual or installation art; or include traditionally sourced materials. Ahaṡ ake!

Click on the link above for application materials.