$35 for One-Year Dual Membership at Walker Art Center
Similar deals
- Discounts on dining, shopping, and events
- Free ticket to After Hours party on Friday, November 20
Jump to: Reviews | Guide to Art Museum Banter
Gift loved ones with 365 days of aesthetic enrichment with today’s cultural Groupon. For $35, you’ll get a one-year dual membership (good for two adults in the same residence) to Walker Art Center, a $70 value. With adult admission regularly priced at $10, you only have to visit a few times to make the deal worthwhile. You’ll also get special discounts on dining, shopping, performances, and events, not to mention special discounts on feeling like a cultured member of society.
Considered on par with art-museum majors such as the Museum of Modern Art, Guggenheim, and Hirshhorn, the Walker Art Center began as the Upper Midwest’s first public art gallery in 1927. Today, the 17-acre campus boosts a nationally heralded sculpture garden, Herzog & de Meuron-designed expansion, a restaurant by Wolfgang Puck, a 385-seat theater, and enough art to simultaneously go on three museum dates at the same without anyone running into each other.
Admire the iconic Spoonbridge and Cherry, view Haegue Yang’s first solo U.S. exhibit (from now until February 28, 2010), or schmooze, socialize, and sip with other members at special member events, such as A Think and a Drink. As a member, you’ll also receive 10% off at 20.21, an artsy eatery serving Asian-influenced California cuisine, and be able to attend dance workshops, family events, and films for a special discounted member rate.
If you've been touched by art, this kind of deal on Walker memberships probably has you eagerly awaiting your next gloriously discounted Walker visit. But perhaps you've never been touched by art. In which case, take our advice, and let art touch you in places you've never been touched. There is nothing like the feeling you get after staring past the surface of a canvas, when it begins to subtly unveil itself to you, finally standing before you naked, warmly whispering timeless wisdoms into your ear.
Art can be more fulfilling when experienced with a culturally curious companion—and because you’ll be able to bring your roommate with you each time, this Groupon is a gift that never stops giving. With your membership, you’ll always have something smart and enriching to do, as well as instant fun for blind dates, out-of-town relatives, and foreign exchange students.
Note: This Groupon allows you access to a free ticket to Walker Art Center's After Hours party on Friday, November 20 (a $25 value) if redeemed before date of event.
Reviews
The New York Times’ raved about the Walker Art Center’s expansion, and Yelpers give the museum four stars:
- The Walker Art Center's new home is a masterly example of how exhausted motifs can acquire new meaning when reworked in a fresh setting. – Nicolai Ouroussoff, New York Times
- The Walker gives Minneapolis some serious art cred. – Val B., Yelp
- This is really a great place to spend some quality and unrushed time. Most everything at Walker is an artistic statement both in terms of content and space. – Eric B., Yelp
Guide to Art Museum Banter
Because Americans and a few other nationalities are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with computer-generated masterpieces, art museum attendance has been on the upswing. By patronizing brick-and-mortar locations, art aficionados not only see some of the world's most renowned works, but more importantly, get to practice the art of art museum banter about art. Before taking advantage of today's Groupon, memorize these handy art criticisms, which are guaranteed to apply to any work in the Walker Art Center:
- The brush stroke is large. It would not shock me if the artist painted with a wig or mop. Do you agree with my point of view?
- The way color is used is breathtaking. It is either red, blue, green, or purple, but I would need to take a closer look to be sure.
- Some say those are boxes, but to me they appear as triangles. Either way, this painting is about Lou Gehrig's desire to adopt a dog.
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Need To Know Info
About Walker Art Center
In 1879, a lumber baron named Thomas Barlow Walker built an extra room onto his house. He mounted his 20 favorite paintings on the room's walls and opened it to the public. This private collection transformed into a public gallery with the founding of Walker Art Center in 1927. Over the following decades, the center's staff amassed a collection focused on modern art, gathering works from Pablo Picasso, Henry Moore, and Alberto Giacometti. Today, this permanent collection has expanded to encompass more than 11,000 modern and contemporary paintings, sculptures, and photographs, more than 800 film pieces, and more than 1,200 artists' books.
In the whimsical multistory geometric helix of the Barnes building, seven cube-shaped galleries radiate from a central core on terrazzo floors and under lofted ceilings. Docents lead group tours through the galleries to see rotating exhibitions or play hide-and-seek with Jackson Pollock.
Designed as a contemporary twist on old European opera houses, the center's McGuire Theater draws visitors into its intimate space for live dance, theater, and music performances as well as performance art. Museum exhibits and events also spill outside to a central square and the four quadrants, bordered by granite and evergreen hedges, of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.