Minneapolis Sculpture Garden and Spoonbridge

The Spoonbridge and Cherry is the reason many people come. Conceived by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, the husband-and-wife team known for turning everyday objects into monumental sculpture, it takes the form of an enormous white spoon whose bowl bridges a small pond, with a bright red cherry perched on the tip. Water sprays from the cherry's stem when the fountain runs, and the surface of the spoon was designed to look wet and gleaming.

Since it was unveiled the piece has become shorthand for Minneapolis, appearing on postcards, magnets, and countless photographs. Part of its appeal is scale and whimsy, a common kitchen object blown up to the size of a building and set among flowers and lawns. It anchors the whole garden, and no visit is complete without walking up to the pond to see just how big the spoon really is.

The garden is an extension of the Walker Art Center, one of the country's leading contemporary art museums, which sits right next door. While the Walker itself is a ticketed indoor museum, the sculpture garden is open and free, a rare thing for a collection of this quality. Works are set on broad lawns and within hedged garden rooms, so wandering the paths feels like moving through a series of outdoor galleries.

The collection ranges widely, from abstract steel forms to figurative and conceptual pieces, and it changes over time as works are added and rotated. Interpretive signs help explain the art, but the garden also rewards simple wandering. Families, students, and downtown workers use it as a park as much as a museum, which is part of its charm, a place where world-class art is woven into the daily life of the city.

The sculpture garden sits at a hinge point in Minneapolis, between downtown, Loring Park, and the leafy neighborhoods to the south. A landmark footbridge arcs over the freeway to connect it with Loring Park and the wider city, part of the Twin Cities' famous chain of parks and green space. From within the garden the downtown skyline rises to the east, and the contrast of sculpture, lawn, and towers is part of the experience.

This land, like all of Minneapolis, lies within the homeland of the Dakota people, whose name for this country, Mni Sota Makoce, gives Minnesota its name. The nearby Mississippi River and the falls at its heart were long central to Dakota life. The garden is an easy anchor for exploring the city on foot, close to museums, parks, and the lakes that give Minneapolis its character.

Spring and summer are the garden's fullest seasons, when the trees leaf out, the flower beds fill in, and the Spoonbridge fountain runs and mists in the warm air. Long summer evenings are a favorite time, when the light turns golden on the sculptures and the skyline glows behind them. The lawns fill with visitors and picnickers.

Fall brings crisp air and turning leaves that set off the sculptures, and quieter paths as the crowds thin. Winter drains the fountain and often blankets the garden in snow, turning the white spoon and its red cherry into a stark, striking scene against the cold sky. Even in the depths of a Minnesota winter, the garden stays open and rewards a bundled-up walk.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.