Minneapolis’s Walker Art Center Becomes First Major U.S. Museum to Stop Contracting Police for Events

ARTNEWS
By Alex Greenberger

The Walker Art Center. COURTESY WALKER ART CENTER

As U.S. museums become the subject of controversy for their responses to the ongoing protests over the killing of George Floyd by policemen in Minneapolis, one major art institution has said it will stop contracting the police for special events. The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis has made a public declaration saying that it will cut its ties to the Minneapolis Police Department. In an Instagram statement that explicitly mentioned the Black Lives Matter movement and Floyd’s death, the museum wrote, “Enough is enough.” No other major U.S. museum has made as direct a response to the ongoing protests as the Walker, which is located in the city where demonstrations first occurred. The statement is a sign that museums are beginning to heed the calls of activists. [More]