Franconia Sculpture Park is an outdoor sculpture park in Franconia, Minnesota, United States, that offers a combination of work, residence, and exhibition space for emerging and established artists. The park, with a rotating collection of over 120 contemporary sculptures, and is free and open to the public. The park draws over 150,000 visitors annually. Franconia Sculpture Park is located at the intersection of U.S. Route 8 and Minnesota State Highway 95 near Taylors Falls, in the St. Croix River Valley region of Minnesota.
History
Franconia Sculpture Park was founded in 1996 by a small group of artists including Tasha Hock, John Hock, and Fuller Cowles. The original park was east of the current location and in 2006 the park moved from its original location to the current site. Since 1996, Franconia has established a reputation as one of the country's most innovative sculpture parks. From 2011 to 2018, Franconia established Franconia in the City, a gallery and education space at the Casket Arts Community Complex in Northeast Minneapolis. The park is governed by a board of directors that in 2019 includes Dorothy Goldie, Amy McKinney, Tamsie Ringler, Eric Bruce, Rebecca Ditsch, Paul Howe, John Joachim, Davis Klaila, Diane Mullin, Stacy O'Reilly, Heather Rutledge, and Linda Seebauer Hansen.. In 2009 Franconia was the only Minnesota arts organization outside of the Twin Cities to receive National Endowment for the Arts/American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding. In 2010 the park was among the selected grantees to receive part of the $20 million allocation from the state of Minnesota's Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
Artist Development
Franconia offers fellowship, internship, and workshop programs that support visual artists at all levels of their career as they create new sculpture to be sited specifically at the park. Artists are creating new work at the park from April through November. The program is publicized by actively soliciting artists' proposals locally, nationally, and internationally. Each year Franconia supports over 40 artists as they create and exhibit new work. Since their founding in 1996, Franconia has supported nearly 800 national and international visual artists.
Arts Learning
In 2013 Franconia launched the Rural Arts Program, with support provided by a Minnesota State Arts Board Arts Access grant, which in its first year served 1,213 rural youth, encouraging interaction and engagement with art and artists. In addition, Franconia has a schedule of exhibition tours, art-making workshops, cast metal sculpture demonstrations, and diverse cultural programming that serves over 14,000 arts learners each year.
Special Events
Each year Franconia hosts an annual Valentine's Day Iron Pour in February, an annual Community Collaboration Hot Metal Pour in August, the Art & Artists Celebration in September, and a Pie & Wine Potluck Soiree in November.
