Free First Saturday: Keith Haring Art Fest 2024

BRKFST Dance Company Performance and Mini Workshop, 11:30 am
Join BRKFST Dance Company in the McGuire Theater for a breaking showcase! Watch expert breakers show off their favorite moves and original choreography, then join the company onstage to learn and try out some moves of your own. Interactive participation is optional; all skill levels welcome.

Keith Haring: The Boy Who Just Kept Drawing Reading with Author Kay Haring, 12:15 pm
How do you know you’re an artist? Join author Kay Haring as she reads Keith Haring: The Boy Who Just Kept Drawing, a book for children exploring her older brother’s early interest in art and his life as an internationally celebrated artist and activist. A Q&A and book signing follows the reading. A limited number of books will be available for purchase on-site in the Walker Shop and online.

Artist’s Boombox with DJ Michel.Be, 1–2:30 pm
Keith Haring loved to play music while painting, often blasting it through a mini boombox he carried with him. Enjoy terrace views and dance it out to songs that filled the New York City airwaves through the 1980s, specially selected by DJ Michel.Be.

Metro Transit Art Bus and Food Drive, 10 am–3 pm
Have you ever seen a bus that’s also an artwork? Featuring exterior illustration by Lili Lennox, the Metro Transit Art Bus will be open to explore! See every nook and cranny, plus practice what boarding and riding the bus can be like. Agate Housing & Services will be on board the bus, accepting nonperishable food donations throughout the day.

Art-Making Activity: Minnesota Pop Shop Patches, 10 am–3 pm
Artist Keith Haring opened a functioning store called the Pop Shop, where fans could buy buttons, patches, and clothing featuring his playful and political illustrations. Join teaching artist Hibaaq Ibrahim to create your own take-home Minnesotan “pop shop” patch featuring an iconic local landmark or scene.

Art-Making Activity: Sash-yay, 10 am–3 pm
Create, decorate, and wear a Day-Glo sash fit for a dance party, inspired by the brilliant neon stripes Haring painted over the gallery walls at his first New York City art opening.

Tour for Families, 11:30 am
Tour for General Audiences, 1 pm
Recorrido público en español, 3 pm
Join a Walker educator for a family friendly guided tour of artworks on view in the galleries at 11:30 am (40 min.). Take a guided tour for general audiences at 1 pm (60 min.) or a tour for general audiences in Spanish at 3 pm (60 min.). Tours explore a selection of artworks across current exhibitions and include interactive discussion. Meet at the Main Lobby desk five minutes before the tour starts.

Visit the Walker Art Center Library, 10 am–3 pm
The Walker’s library is open! Explore the stacks while completing a fun scavenger hunt that will get you looking closely at books. The library entrance is through the Art Lab.

Visit Free First Saturday on Saturday, June 1, and take Metro Transit for free. Click here for your free ride pass.

The 11:30 am BRKFST Dance Company performance and 12:15 pm author reading with Kay Haring will have ASL interpretation.

Content guidance: The exhibition Keith Haring: Art Is for Everybody includes subjects related to politics, sexuality, and the body. Several works in the exhibition contain mature content and nudity. One room in Gallery 1 includes sexually explicit imagery. Visitors do not need to walk through this room to access the rest of the exhibition. Activities planned for this event focus on kid-friendly artworks.

Sensory note: Videos on view may include flickering effects or sounds that change in volume, pitch, and tone. One room glows with colorful light.

For information about accessibility or to request additional accommodations for this program, call 612-375-7564 or email access@walkerart.org.

For more information about accessibility at the Walker, visit our Access page.

Founded in 2014 and based in St. Paul, BRKFST Dance Company creates intellectually rigorous and physically demanding works of art through breaking and contemporary dance vernacular. BRKFST’s choreographic collaboration is rooted in the Hip Hop adage “Each One Teach One,” which states: regardless of class, race, experience, age, or gender, everyone remains both teacher and student. Breaking culture is their lineage—knowledge gained through battles is passed down to the new generation. Their compositions are informed by their lived experiences as working class, queer, and BIPOC. BRKFST has premiered work at Walker Art Center, Southern Theater, Cowles Center, and Orchestra Hall (with the Minnesota Orchestra), Temple Theater (with the Des Moines Symphony), Belding Theater (with the Hartford Symphony), and in Dublin, Ireland for Dance2Connect Hip Hop Festival. Accolades include: Caroline Hearst Choreographer-In-Residence; Creative Residency at the National Center for Choreography, Akron; National Performance Network Creations, Development, Storytelling and Documentation grants; New England Foundation for the Arts National Dance Project Production grant; Minnesota State Arts Board grants; Mid Atlantic Arts US Artists International grant; and Minnesota Regional Arts Council grants.

Kay Haring is the oldest of three sisters to artist Keith Haring. Coming from an artistic family, she did her share of sketching and drawing while in her teens but later found expressing herself with words was more to her liking. For her professional career, she spent many years in the nonprofit field, both in management and fundraising capacities and as a volunteer. She is interested in sharing messages that are inspirational and thought-provoking. She wrote the book Keith Haring: The Boy Who Just Kept Drawing to ensure Keith was remembered for his philanthropy and his significant projects completed with children, who inspired his imagination. She now enjoys sharing Keith’s life with elementary school students in an assembly called “Think Big. Work Hard. Give Back.” After a decade spent in California and Hawaii, Kay and her husband have recently returned to their roots in Pennsylvania to enjoy retirement.

With family roots in Chicago, Michel.Be was born and raised in South Minneapolis. Radical healing and revolutionary practice lies at the core of their artistry and community work. Michel.Be is driven to evoke spiritual power through music while creating positive dance spaces and artistic opportunities for Black, Indigenous, People of Color, Transgender, Gender Non-Conforming, Womyn, and Youth. Performing locally and internationally, DJ Michel.Be uses music to impact nightlife dance floors, radio, and grassroots movement spaces. As a DJ and curator, Michel has collaborated with organizations such as Intermedia Arts, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Walker Art Center, Juxtaposition Arts, Twin Cities Pride, First Avenue, and many more. DJ Michel.Be has also hosted radio programs and has been featured on local stations such as KMOJ, KRSM, JAZZ88, KFAI, and MN Public Radio. From vinyl to digital, DJ Michel.Be aims to embody the evolving spiritual chronicle of music in pursuit of the Afro Future.