May 27th, 2022
MANKATO, Minn. — Saturday morning, May 21, the 2022 CityArt Walking Sculpture Tour will be installed as thirty-one new pieces—representing nearly $400,000 of art from renowned sculptors throughout the country—are placed throughout the City Center. The recently established Marian Anderson Fund of the Mankato Area Foundation is the Presenting Sponsor of this year’s exhibition, which will showcase new and original works of art in a wide variety of styles, scales and mediums.
To celebrate installation day, CityArt has several activities planned to engage community members and visitors alike. The Blue Earth County and North Mankato Taylor Libraries are again holding the popular Bookmark Design Contest with prizes, donated by Dino’s Pizza, being awarded in a variety of age group categories. Weather permitting, the libraries will also have tables set up in the City Center on the morning of May 21 for kids to create bookmark designs highlighting CityArt. Top winning designs will be printed and distributed by the libraries in the weeks ahead. In addition, this year’s exhibition will again include a scavenger hunt and audio tour.
CityArt is also hosting a community gathering and open house Saturday morning from 9:00-11:00 a.m. The Mankato Freemasons are donating the use of the newly renovated Historic Masonic Hall—City Center Mankato’s newest wedding and event space. CityArt Walking Sculpture Tour brochures with maps of this year’s tour will be available as well as materials for the bookmark contest. Light refreshments will be served while supply lasts. The renovated Masonic Hall will also be open for guests to tour. CityArt volunteer tour guides will lead free tours of the new sculptures at 9:30 a.m., 10:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.
Since the CityArt program’s founding in 2011, $4.5 million in sculptures have been shown on our city streets, eighteen sculptures have been sold to private individuals or businesses and twenty-eight sculptures have been added to Greater Mankato’s permanent public art collection. This type of large-scale public art programming would not be possible without the continued financial and in-kind investment from businesses, the cities of Mankato and North Mankato, area foundations and individuals.
“After these many years, the continued overwhelming positive response from the community amazes me,” said Tami Paulsen, co-founder and current chair of the CityArt program. “We are so grateful for the very generous financial and in-kind support the CityArt Walking Sculpture Tour continues to receive from so many. This year, we especially want to acknowledge Marian Anderson for her generosity to our community and thank the Marian Anderson Fund of the Mankato Area Foundation for their Presenting Sponsorship of our 2022 tour.”
“Marian Anderson believed in giving back to a community that had supported her and that she called home,” said Nancy Zallek, CEO of the Mankato Area Foundation. “Marian’s charitable giving will continue forever through a fund established with the Mankato Area Foundation (MAF). She asked that her legacy fund focus on promoting visual arts and history. For that reason, we believe supporting CityArt’s Walking Sculpture Tour aligns beautifully with her emphasis on promoting arts and aesthetics.”
The continued success of CityArt has allowed the program to expand into multiple additional public art initiatives including CityArt On the Go (traffic signal box murals), the Mni Mural (flood wall mural) and Silo Art—turning Greater Mankato into a major arts and cultural destination. The CityArt committee is exploring other new initiatives and public updates about these will be forthcoming soon.
“It is extremely gratifying to see the growing enthusiasm and support for public art in our community,” said Paulsen. “The Walking Sculpture Tour and other CityArt initiatives have fulfilled our original vision, to help spur downtown revitalization and make Greater Mankato a more beautiful, inviting and vibrant community.”
Since CityArt was founded in 2011, thousands of local citizens and visitors alike have enjoyed the Walking Sculpture Tour and it is consistently identified as one of our community’s top-rated attractions. CityArt is a joint program of the City Center Partnership and Twin Rivers Council for the Arts. For more information about CityArt and this year’s Walking Sculpture Tour, please visit www.cityartmankato.com
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About CityArt Walking Sculpture Tour
The CityArt Walking Sculpture Tour is an exciting exhibit of outdoor sculptures displayed year-round in the City Centers of Mankato and North Mankato. Local, regional and national artists submit their sculptures to CityArt in the fall and selected sculptures are installed and exhibited in the program for one year. During that time, the sculptures are eligible for various artistic awards and prizes and are also promoted to the public for sale or lease. CityArt is a joint program of the City Center Partnership and Twin Rivers Council for the Arts dedicated to bringing public art to the community. CityArt initiatives include the Walking Sculpture Tour, CityArt On the Go, the Mankato Flood Wall Mural, the City Center Public Art Tour, and the Silo Art Project.
About City Center Partnership
City Center Partnership, a downtown development organization, is a business unit of Greater Mankato Growth, Inc. (GMG) which includes the chamber of commerce and economic development organization, Greater Mankato Growth, the local convention and visitor’s bureau, Visit Mankato and GreenSeam, which utilizes agriculture to build on the region’s extensive agribusiness assets to develop ag economy.
About Twin Rivers Council for the Arts
Twin Rivers Council for the Arts is a collaborative alliance of local arts and cultural organizations, individual artists, and community members who share a vision for the arts in Greater Mankato. Twin Rivers Council for the Arts serves as a unifying voice, advocating for and connecting arts groups to the community by providing services and shared resources to affiliate members throughout southern Minnesota.