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, including current Artistic Director/CEO John Hock, 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 100,000 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.

Franconia also provides artists the opportunity to exhibit two- and three-dimensional artwork at Franconia in the City @ Casket Gallery in Northeast Minneapolis, 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.