On Saturday, Oct. 17, at 3:30 p.m., fabric will be cut from a quilt hanging in the Walker Art Center's galleries, and visitors can take the pieces home as complimentary fat quarters. The quilt is also an artwork. The quilt is Learning to Build, Building to Learn, a Walker commission by VESSEL, the duo of James Bridle and Navine G. Dossos. It hangs in the opening exhibition of a series the museum has never run before. On day one, the piece that visitors see begins to change.
Walker Design Triennial: Beyond Materialism runs from Oct. 17, 2026, to Feb. 14, 2027. Its programming returns to the galleries again and again during the run, and most of those dates fall inside hours when the Walker charges nothing. For anyone living near 725 Vineland Place, the Triennial works best as a set of short visits spread over the winter.
A Show That Gets Cut Up and Handed Out
The Walker describes the Triennial as a new series, held every three years, that looks at "shifts in culture by way of design." This first edition brings together 26 designers and collectives and more than 95 works from 13 countries. It fills Galleries 1, 2 and 3 plus Gallery D/Perlman. The curator is Joseph Grima, architect and founder of Space Caviar.
The exhibition's premise is that contemporary design is moving "toward ideals of spiritual cultivation, away from ideals of profit and consumption." When Mpls.St.Paul Magazine previewed the show in June, it quoted Asli Altay, the Walker's head of design, asking, "What does it mean to design now?"
The list of names runs from historical figures to working studios. Buckminster Fuller, Ettore Sottsass Jr., Alessandro Mendini and the Shakers hang alongside Theaster Gates, the Greek studio Astronauts, Nathalie Du Pasquier, WKND Lab from South Korea, Superflux from the UK, and the Spanish designer Lucas Muñoz Muñoz. His installation lets visitors remix sound recordings gathered across the Twin Cities.
Two of these works are participatory and shift over the run. The Muñoz Muñoz piece depends on whoever is remixing it that day. The VESSEL quilt gets cut on opening day and comes back for a sewing night in November. A single afternoon catches one version of each.
The Free Hours Line Up With the Show's Own Calendar
General admission to the Walker is $18 for adults, $16 for seniors 65 and older, and $12 for students with ID. Children 18 and under get in free, as do EBT cardholders, citizens and members of Tribal Nations, and Walker members. Two standing programs make the galleries free for everyone. Every Thursday from 5 to 9 p.m., admission is free for all. On the first Saturday of each month, gallery admission is free from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Here is how the Triennial's own events fall against those hours.
| Date | Event | Time | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fri, Oct. 16 | After Hours: Walker Design Triennial, with DJ Blue Funk and Sasha Bangzz | 8:30 p.m. to midnight | $25, members free |
| Sat, Oct. 17 | Opening-Day Panel in Walker Cinema, then the VESSEL fabric distribution at 3:30 p.m. | 2 p.m. | Free with registration; gallery admission sold separately |
| Wed, Oct. 28 | Evening for Educators | See Walker listing | Free |
| Sat, Nov. 7 | Free First Saturday: Designing Together | 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., galleries open until 5 p.m. | Free with registration |
| Wed, Nov. 18 | Member Night | See Walker listing | Members |
| Thu, Nov. 19 | Learning to Build, Building to Learn: Sewing Studio, Galleries 1 to 3 | 6 to 9 p.m. | Free, no ticket |
The Nov. 19 Sewing Studio falls on a Thursday evening, so the galleries holding the quilt are already free that night. The opening-day panel features Grima in conversation with Dossos, Eleni Petaloti and Franco Raggi. It is free, but the Walker says gallery admission for the activation that follows is sold separately. Registration is online or at the Main Lobby desk that day, and seating is first come, first served.
After the opening weekend, the standing free windows keep coming. Based on the Walker's first-Saturday policy, the free Saturdays during the run fall on Nov. 7, Dec. 5, Jan. 2 and Feb. 6. The last free Thursday before the show closes is Feb. 11. If you want company on a quieter visit, the Walker offers free public tours and free self-guided material on Bloomberg Connects.
Nov. 12 to Jan. 3 Puts Three Shows Under One Roof
Abbas Akhavan: Variations on a Garden opens Nov. 12 in Galleries A and B and runs through April 18, 2027. The Walker calls it the artist's first major U.S. museum survey. The show includes Study for a Monument, bronze casts of plants once plentiful in the Tigris-Euphrates river basin, laid out on white sheets. It also includes cast for a folly, which turns a photograph of the looted Iraq Museum lobby into a theatrical set.
Nov. 12 is a Thursday. That means the Akhavan survey opens on a night when admission is already free from 5 to 9 p.m.
Olalekan Jeyifous: Hydricosmic Litanies has been on view since Aug. 6 and closes Jan. 3, 2027. From Nov. 12 to Jan. 3, all three exhibitions hang at once. That stretch covers every Thursday evening from Nov. 12 through Dec. 31, plus the Dec. 5 and Jan. 2 free Saturdays, when one walk to Vineland Place covers the Triennial, the Akhavan survey and the last weeks of Jeyifous without a ticket. After Jan. 3 the Jeyifous show is gone, and after Feb. 14 only the Akhavan survey remains of this group.
Before Bringing the Whole Household
The Walker posts content and sensory notes for the Triennial. Several works contain sexual content and depictions of genitalia. Some materials may carry aromas or allergens, including feathers, wax and flowers. In Gallery D/Perlman, one artwork plays overlapping sounds, including sirens, that shift in volume, pitch and tone. The access team can be reached at 612-375-7564 or [email protected].
Regular gallery hours are Wednesday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Friday through Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The museum is closed Monday and Tuesday. For visitors coming by car, paid underground parking is on site, with the ramp entrance on Vineland Place at Bryant Avenue.
Food on site is in flux. In April, the Star Tribune reported that the Walker was parting ways with Cardamom, its restaurant, and would look for a new vendor for the space. The Walker's dining page now lists The Café. Its hours are Wednesday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Friday through Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden stays free and open from 6 a.m. to midnight every day, all year. A Thursday gallery visit can start or end with a walk outside, even in January.
The Neighborhood's Own Dates Fall in the Same Weeks
Several Lowry Hill Association listings this fall land within a day or two of the Walker's calendar.
- Sat, Oct. 17. Lowry Hill Service Saturday meets at Sebastian Joe's, 1007 W. Franklin Ave., from 10 to 11:30 a.m. The Triennial panel starts at 2 p.m. the same day.
- Wed, Oct. 21. Uptown Movie Club meets at Lagoon Cinema, 1320 Lagoon Ave., at 7 p.m.
- Wed, Nov. 18. Uptown Movie Club is on the same evening as the Walker's Triennial Member Night.
- Sat, Nov. 21. Service Saturday at Sebastian Joe's comes two days after the Sewing Studio.
- Wed, Dec. 16, and Sat, Dec. 19. The year's last Movie Club and the year's last Service Saturday fall inside the stretch when all three Walker shows overlap.
The full list is on the Lowry Hill Association events page.
If you're curious what your Lowry Hill home is worth this fall, Massad Real Estate can prepare a free home valuation built on what's selling near the Walker right now, so you have a current number on hand the next time you head over on a free Thursday.
