Love culture and art? You’ll love the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. This fun (and free) activity is perfect for solo travelers, couples, and families, alike!
I visited Minneapolis for the first time last year while attending a work conference and had one spare afternoon to explore the city. I was able to walk to the Sculpture Garden from the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis. It would typically be about a 15 minute walk without stopping but you go through Loring Park (we’ll come back to this a little later), so it took me a lot longer since I was exploring.
What You’ll See at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden
The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden is adjacent to the Walker Art Center, a contemporary art museum. Admission to the museum is $15 for adults, $13 for seniors, and $10 for students, but the sculpture garden is completely free! Kids 0-18 also get into the museum for free.
TIP: There are some free days at the museum, so check out the schedule before visiting. They currently offer Target Free Thursday Nights and Free First Saturdays.
In the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, you’ll find more than 40 pieces of art in all shapes and sizes. Below are a few of my favorites!
Spoonbridge and Cherry
The Spoonbridge and Cherry sculpture is the most popular piece of art in the garden and has become a Minneapolis icon. Created by Swedish artists Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Spoonbridge and Cherry was the first sculpture commissioned for the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. It was installed in 1988. The spoon is more than 50 feet long!
Hahn/Cock
Hahn/Cock was created by German artist Katharina Fritsch. This bright blue hen is one of the most attention grabbing sculptures in the garden and looks so pretty with the clouds behind it. The sculpture is almost 25 feet high and is one of the newer pieces at the Garden, debuting in 2017.
LOVE
The LOVE sculpture was designed by artists Robert Indiana and is another of the iconic sculptures within the park. There are several versions of this love sculpture, but the one at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden is made of steel and measures 8′ by 8′.
Nearby to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden
Do you see that bridge behind the Spoonbridge and Cherry sculpture? If you have time, I’d recommend taking it to Loring Park. The Whitney Footbridge crosses 17 lanes of traffic!
The bridge itself is a really pretty blue and makes for a great Instagram spot. 🙂
One of my favorite parts about this bridge is the John Ashbery poem on the beams. I loved walking the bridge while reading the poem and fortunately it was a quiet day so I didn’t have to worry about running into anybody! I googled the lyrics to find out the poet and also learned the poem was commissioned specifically for the bridge.
You’ve crossed the bridge and now you’re in Loring Park, a 33 acre park that offers walking and biking paths, tennis and basketball courts, gardens, a pond, a dog park, and more. If you’re walking the direction from the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, you’ll want to make sure you cross the entire park to get to my favorite spot on the other side (keep reading, haha).
I spent at least an hour wandering the park and snapping photos. I also enjoyed watching the ducks in the pond.
Once you get to the other side of the park, you’ll find my favorite spot: Berger Fountain. It is found along Willow Street, between Yale Place and West Grant Street.
It is one of the prettiest fountains I’ve ever seen, like a dandelion blowing in the wind!
Other Minneapolis Sculpture Garden Information
The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden is open every day of the year from 6 am to 12 midnight. It was just remodeled a couple years ago and now has more green space for picnicking and relaxing. There is now an underground system for recycling the water that is used on the garden.
Bringing kids with you? You may want to download the self-guided tour that has some activities and information about the sculptures.
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