Franconia Sculpture Park, Shafer

Located in the scenic St. Croix River Valley, Franconia Sculpture Park is a nonprofit arts organization operating a 43-acre outdoor sculpture park, active artist residency, and community arts programming. Franconia was founded in 1996 by a small group of professional artists who envisioned a supportive artist residency community and open-air sculpture laboratory accessible to all. Today, this vision has been achieved through an active artist residency program that serves 40 artists each year and arts learning programming that serves over 150,000 annual visitors. Franconia provides an intriguing and exciting place to discover an ever-changing exhibition of monumental sculpture, and the opportunity to meet artists-in-residence who invite you to engage with their creations.

Through our artist residency program, Franconia awards competitive fellowships and internships to up to 40 emerging, mid-career, and established visual artists each year, supporting the creation and exhibition of large-scale sculpture at our 43-acre sculpture park and artist residency in Franconia, MN. We foster an inspiring outdoor environment for the community to create, engage, and learn about three-dimensional art through an annual exhibition of over 100 sculptures created by artists-in-residence. Find out how to plan Shafer trip without stress by asking Inspirock to help create an itinerary.