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Growing the Collection

The Visual Arts curatorial team meets regularly with the Executive Director and Chief Curator to brainstorm possible acquisitions. The team carefully evaluates each artwork candidate in relation to the Walker’s Long-Range Acquisitions Plan, mission, and institutional priorities. Its formal and conceptual integrity, depth, and meaning are deliberated, as well as its existing collection context, possible audience impact, storage needs, and future use in exhibitions. Upon agreeing to make an acquisition, the team decides whether to pursue the work as a gift or a purchase. Following an agreement with the artist, gallery, or donor, the work is shipped to the Walker to be inspected by our Registration team to ensure excellent condition.
The artwork is then presented at one of five annual Acquisitions Committee Meetings. The Acquisitions Committee has between 15 and 20 Walker Art Center Board members. During the meeting, the curatorial team presents each artwork, and the committee asks questions. Then, the committee’s Chair will call for a vote to recommend all acquisitions to the Board. Following such a vote, the Chair offers a report on the recommended acquisitions at the next Board meeting. The recommendation to accession all new acquisitions is included in the full Board vote. Following Board approval, the work is accessioned into the Collection, after which the registrars issue Artist Questionnaires, prompting artists to share information on how they wish to be identified, as well as any pertinent information related to the artwork.

How we guide decisions

Acquisitions are guided and informed by the Long-Range Acquisitions Plan (LRAP), a document created by the Visual Arts department curatorial team in close collaboration with the Chief Curator and Executive Director. LRAPs are generated through robust dialogue across a typically 16-month period and updated at approximately 5-year intervals. The Walker’s practice of using LRAPs was instituted in 1993, with updated iterations of the document issued in 2001, 2010, 2018, and 2024. LRAPs set the strategic direction for developing the Walker’s collection, outlining key values, strategies, and priorities. As the Walker has a small curatorial team, limited resources on which to draw in an ever-expanding art market, and limited gallery and storage capacity, the LRAP is an important roadmap to guide the team in making choices about which works to pursue to shape the collection.
The 2024 LRAP pursues acquisitions through a framework of three intersecting thematic lenses that reflect pressing issues identified by the curatorial team within cultural discourse today. Not considered comprehensive, these themes are understood to evolve, allowing the curatorial team to respond to changing discourses that affect the ways in which artists make work. The three thematic frameworks are:
1. Embodiment and lived experience at the intersection of race, gender, sexuality, and ability
2. Experiences of diaspora, migration, indigeneity, and sovereignty
3. Entangled ecologies

How to gift work

Each year the Walker’s collection grows through purchases and gifts. Works of art are purchased through designated endowed funds that generate income, a portion of which is used each year for acquisitions. Gifts of art come from collectors who believe that their treasured objects should be available to all. Creating a permanent legacy at the Walker through the gift of art is an important contribution to the future, adding depth and breadth to the collection.
For more information about making a gift of art to the Walker Art Center, please contact Lena Menefee-Cook, Visual Arts department coordinator, at 612-375-7691 or by email to lena.menefee-cook@walkerart.org.
Just flagging that the WAC style guide uses both Walker’s collection/s and Walker Collection. Not sure when to use which but both are fine.