Franconia Sculpture Park

If just 1 in 50 park visitors would give Franconia $10 per month, we could operate our artist residencies year-round and remain fully open 365 days a year for our 150,000+ annual visitors. Could you help us reach this level of sustainability?

Support Franconia Sculpture Park!

• Support from donors to offer Open Calls! We pay Emerging Artists ($5000) and Mid-Career Fellowships ($10,000) while also offering good housing, food, equipment, and tools to artists during residencies. Fully funded, we could host 42-50 artist residencies annually. 
• We want to make improvements where the artists take their big dreams to life. Two of our four large gantry systems need repairs in order to function safely. 
• Can you imagine being the only employee on site while 600 visitors are exploring the park? And then, three full school buses pull up? What if a group wants a tour too? It happens every week. Franconia can serve people better and respond to this huge demand if we could hire more staff.
• Artists are way more than cool: they also represent cultures, histories, and communities from around the world. We are only one step away from offering in-depth learning modules created by licensed educators about all the artwork at the park, thanks in part to new signs that link each piece to our website. Imagine being able to serve any school, for free, in grade-level curriculum standards-based lessons, through an array of visionary sculptures that speak to our contemporary world!
• Accessibility improvements are sorely needed. The park currently lacks powered doors, benches, picnic tables, and other amenities that make experiences here accessible for anyone's level of mobility. 

With your gift, you support an organization that:

• Passionately supports artists in an ambitious way through our vibrant artist residency program 
• Provides endless learning experiences and vibrant cultural programming for over 14,000 students of all ages each year
• Provides an inspiring place to enjoy with your friends & family for free
• Creates over $5.3M in local economic activity through Franconia's year-round impact

ABOUT FRANCONIA

Franconia Sculpture Park is the preeminent, artist-centered sculpture park in the Midwest. Founded in 1996, Franconia’s mission is to foster an inclusive community to create and contemplate contemporary art inspired by nature and our ever-evolving world. Located in the scenic St. Croix River Valley of Minnesota, Franconia operates a 50-acre outdoor museum, active artist residency program, and an impressive schedule of more than 60 public programs each year. 

Franconia Sculpture Park is contemporary, bold, inclusive, and equally embraces both the local and the global. We aim to be a national model for how a contemporary outdoor art museum can engage and collaborate with the community. We cultivate critical dialogue between artists and audiences; support artists through the production and presentation of new, experimental work; and educate artists and audiences of tomorrow. Franconia applies creative solutions to topical issues through the vehicle of contemporary sculpture, land art, performance, and social practice. We create programming that is ambitious, innovative, and that is responsive to the wants and needs of artists.

Franconia is free and open to the public 365 days a year from 8am-8pm.