Minneapolis Sculpture Garden

The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden is an 11 acre park in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the United States.{{Citation |url-status=dead It is located near the Walker Art Center, which operates it in coordination with the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board. It reopened June 10, 2017, after a reconstruction that resulted with the Walker and Sculpture Garden being unified as one 19-acre campus. It is one of the largest urban sculpture gardens in the country, with 40 permanent art installations and several other temporary pieces that are moved in and out periodically.{{Citation |access-date = 2009-11-13 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20111130141416/http://info.walkerart.org/about/history.wac |archive-date = 2011-11-30 |url-status = dead

The park is located to the west of Loring Park and the Basilica of Saint Mary. The land was first purchased by the park board around the start of the 20th century, when it was known as "The Parade" because it had been used for military drills. It became known as the Armory Gardens after park superintendent Theodore Wirth created a formal design that included a U.S. National Guard armory (Kenwood Armory) for Spanish War volunteers.

Working as a civic and cultural center, in 1913 a floral convention transformed the land into floral gardens, which it remained for the next 50 years. In 1934, six years after the Walker Art Gallery opened across the street, the Armory was demolished for its instability, and a new Armory built in downtown Minneapolis, turning the Armory Gardens over to the Minneapolis Park Board. Since 1908 the area of today's Sculpture Garden and land to the west had been used for sport recreation via mildly-improved playing fields and the 1950 construction of the original Parade Stadium. In 1988, the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden opened, designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes and landscape architects Quinnel and Rothschild.{{Citation

The centerpiece of the garden is the Spoonbridge and Cherry (1985–1988) fountain designed by husband and wife Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen.{{Citation

The Irene Hixon Whitney Bridge (1988), designed by Siah Armajani, crosses Hennepin Avenue and I-94, connecting the sculpture garden with Loring Park for pedestrians.{{Citation

In 2016 and 2017, the garden was reconstructed to provide more sustainable water management in an area that was previously a marsh. A water collection tank was installed near Spoonbridge and Cherry to provide water for the garden and adjacent ball fields. Other improvements were made, including narrowing Vineland Place between the Walker Art Center and the garden and providing upgraded restroom facilities. The Walker added 18 new art works to the garden after this reconstruction, including a site-specific commission from Theaster Gates in his first permanent outdoor sculpture, Black Vessel for a Saint.