History
In 1996, a small group of visionary artists, Tasha Hock and C. Fuller Cowles, led by sculptor and educator John Hock, founded Franconia Sculpture Park on a 16-acre rural site, 45 miles northeast of the Twin Cities, near Taylors Falls, Minnesota. The group shared a vision for an arts community where artists would be given the space, assistance, and funding necessary to create and exhibit new work. Artists would be encouraged to work on a physical and intellectual scale not readily available to them and to realize the potential of their individual ambition, talents and vision. The park would be easily accessible from the Twin Cities while the cultural life in the surrounding rural community would be enhanced with the opportunity to experience professional-quality sculpture in an inviting and nontraditional environment.
Specialties
With proximity to the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area, Franconia Sculpture Park provides an expansive, unfettered environment where emerging, mid-career, and established visual artists live, create large-scale three-dimensional artwork, exhibit their work, and engage with the public all in one place. Located in rural Shafer, Minnesota, the monumental artworks featured throughout Franconia Sculpture Park's 43 acre exhibition are created on-site by artists from all over the world. With more than 120 contemporary sculptures on exhibition, the park is free and open to the public 365 days a year, from dawn to dusk.