Checking In / A Note from the Editor

Where Twin Cities, July 05

What’s a Spoonbridge?

St. Louis has its arch; New York, its Statue of Liberty. When you think of Seattle, the Space Needle surely comes to mind. It seems that every city has that special landmark—that icon that captures a city’s individuality, not to mention its airport key chains and postcards.

So what does the Twin Cities have? A giant spoon and cherry. Created by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, the Spoonbridge and Cherry Fountain resides in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden at the Walker Art Center near downtown Minneapolis. At 52 feet in length, one end of the spoon rests on an island in a small pond, its handle acting as a “bridge” connecting the sculpture to shore. A proportionally sized cherry suspends improbably from the spoon’s tip. A bridge only in the imagination, the sculpture is actually a fountain, and during the summer months, water flows from the tip of the maraschino cherry’s stem 30 feet in the air.

While it doesn’t dominate our skyline, the Spoonbridge and Cherry Fountain has come to be the symbolic image for the Twin Cities. Known for blowing ordinary objects out of proportion, the artists have created extraordinary outdoor sculptures around the world. You know their work when you see it: a dropped ice cream cone (Cologne), cupid’s arrow lodged into the ground (San Francisco) or a needle and thread with a large knot balanced above a busy intersection (Milan). I can’t tell you why, but no other sculpture made by the husband-and-wife team has come to be as closely identified with its host city as the
Spoonbridge and Cherry.

The unique artwork was created in 1988 as one of the first structures for the newly created Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, which actually helped restore one of the country’s most beautiful urban gardens. Long ago, the Mississippi River flowed through the site, leaving behind sediment ideal for growing. Minneapolis’ Park Board first acquired the land in 1903, turning the area into a lush public space, which according to Park Board history contained nearly 13,000 square feet of bedding plants and 17,000 square feet of shrub beds. For many years the area was known as Armory Gardens, since the grounds also contained a National Guard Armory and an area for military drills.

During the late 1960s, construction of Interstate 94 entering downtown Minneapolis severed the area’s connection with nearby Loring Park, and city officials utilized the park lands for baseball fields. Twenty years later, collaboration between the Walker Art Center and the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board reclaimed the fields for public space. Its centerpiece: the Spoonbridge and Cherry.

In 1992, the gardens were expanded to 11 acres containing more than 40 sculptures, making it one of the largest urban sculpture gardens in the United States. It’s the perfect place to spend a July afternoon. I think it’s fitting that our city has come to be identified with wonderful art full of whimsy. Maybe that’s why the artists’ work plays a more prominent role here than it does in other cities. It’s who we are—an upbeat community that supports the arts, accessible to all. I’m betting that when I say Philadelphia, you’re thinking Liberty Bell rather than a 45-foot-tall clothespin.

– JOEL SCHETTLER, MANAGING EDITOR

INFO Minneapolis Sculpture Garden / 726 Vineland Place / Minneapolis / 612-370-3996