Since its founding in 1940, the Walker Art Center has collected the visual, performing, and media arts of our time. With nearly 16,000 works by almost 2,500 artists from around the world, it features a diverse range of artistic output, including painting, sculpture, films, performances, books, artist archives, and more.

3 dancers jumping in place and one dancer posed on stage wearing green plaid and blue striped garments

Merce Cunningham Collection

The Merce Cunningham Dance Company Collection includes over 4,000 artifacts that represent 150 dances made in collaboration by Cunningham and various artists, designers, and musicians.

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A live artist on stage holding a stick with a parliament-style wig on top, with small silver skulls on the ground in front of smoke and red lights

Performing Arts Commissions

Since the 1960s, the Walker has supported the creation of new performance work by providing artists with financial support and often other resources, such as space, time, and technical or curatorial expertise.

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a thick black outlined circle with cartoon of a human hand shaking a black and white skeletal hand with orange outlines surrounding it and a strip of the same image repeating behind the circle

Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection

The Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection is a vital resource that serves as a basis for explorations into the histories and creative possibilities of the moving image.

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An art piece of a sliced white cake filled with two cut books that show the binding and pages, atop of a blue porcelain plate next to a fork

Rosemary Furtak Artist Book Collection

This collection of “books that refuse to behave like books” includes books by artists represented in the Walker Art Center’s permanent collection, such as Sol LeWitt, Dieter Roth, Edward Ruscha, and Lawrence Weiner, as well as exemplary work by local book artists.

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