Walker Art Center’s McGuire Theater

Walker Art Center’s McGuire Theater
Name	McGuire Theater
Location	Minneapolis, Minnesota
Opened	2005
Owner	Walker Art Center
Capacity	300+
Type	Black box / Cinema / Performance venue

Contents

Walker Art Center’s McGuire Theater The McGuire Theater at the Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary performance and screening space known for experimental contemporary art, interdisciplinary performance art, and avant-garde film programs. Located within the Walker's complex in Minneapolis, it serves as a nexus for regional and international artists, curators, and institutions such as the Guggenheim Museum, Museum of Modern Art, Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou, and Serpentine Galleries. The theater has hosted collaborations with festivals like Sundance Film Festival, South by Southwest, Tribeca Film Festival, Venice Biennale, and organizations including Creative Time and Performa.

History

The McGuire Theater emerged during the Walker Art Center's expansion in the early 2000s alongside projects by architects and cultural institutions such as Herzog & de Meuron, OMSW, OMA, Renzo Piano, and Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Its programming lineage traces to partnerships with entities like the Walker Art Center Film Department, Anthology Film Archives, Film Society of Lincoln Center, Pacific Film Archive, and platforms such as Cinema Novo, Rohmer retrospective, and Underground Film Festival. Artists and composers who have appeared include Merce Cunningham, John Cage, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Yvonne Rainer, Trisha Brown, and Marina Abramović. The theater's commissioning and residency activities connected it to institutions like MacDowell, Yaddo, The Kitchen, and Danspace Project.

Designed to integrate with the Walker's galleries and the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, the McGuire Theater's architecture relates to conversations involving I. M. Pei, Frank Gehry, Jean Nouvel, Zaha Hadid, and Snohetta. Interior acoustics and sightlines reflect standards advanced by venues such as Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera House, Walt Disney Concert Hall, and Royal Albert Hall. The theater's staging, seating, and projection facilities draw comparisons with experimental spaces like Judson Memorial Church, The Kitchen, Performance Space New York, and Kunsthalle Basel. Materials and finishes invoke practices seen at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Hayward Gallery, Walker Arts Center Sculpture Garden, and Tate Liverpool.

McGuire Theater programming spans collaborations with curators and institutions such as Okwui Enwezor, Nicholas Serota, Thelma Golden, Massimiliano Gioni, Hans Ulrich Obrist, and organizations like MoMA PS1, Whitney Museum, National Gallery of Art, Stedelijk Museum, and Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Events include contemporary dance seasons linked to Bill T. Jones, Alvin Ailey, Pina Bausch, Akram Khan, and Eiko & Koma; theater and performance series associated with Robert Wilson, Tadeusz Kantor, Heiner Müller, and Andrei Serban; and music events featuring Laurie Anderson, Björk, Kraftwerk, Throbbing Gristle, Brian Eno, and Animal Collective. The venue supports community initiatives in partnership with Minnesota Orchestra, Guthrie Theater, Hennepin Theatre Trust, Walker Art Center Education Department, and Public Art Saint Paul.

Film programs at McGuire range from archival retrospectives drawn from the National Film Registry, British Film Institute, Cinémathèque Française, German Film Archive, and Museum of the Moving Image to new-media presentations aligned with David Lynch, Stanley Kubrick, Jane Campion, Pedro Almodóvar, Agnes Varda, Chantal Akerman, Darren Aronofsky, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Jean-Luc Godard. The theater screens experimental works by artists like Harun Farocki, Patrick Keiller, Chris Marker, Maya Deren, James Benning, Bruce Baillie, and Hollis Frampton. Collaborations have linked the McGuire program to Sundance Satellite Screenings, True/False Film Fest, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Rotterdam Film Festival, and Toronto International Film Festival showcases.

The McGuire Theater houses projection systems compatible with 35mm film, 16mm film, DCP, and digital formats used by distributors such as Criterion Collection, MUBI, Oscilloscope Laboratories, and Janus Films. Audio capabilities meet standards associated with Dolby Digital, DTS, and multichannel setups used by venues like MoMA, Lincoln Center, and Royal Festival Hall. Backstage amenities support productions with connections to rehearsal spaces modeled on Brooklyn Academy of Music, Berlin Volksbühne, La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, and Sadler's Wells. Technical crews have collaborated with touring companies from Paris Opera, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Metropolitan Opera.

Visitor services align with accessibility initiatives championed by organizations such as Americans with Disabilities Act, ADA National Network, Museum Accessibility Program, Access for All, and regional partners like Minnesota Commission on Disability. The Walker’s front-of-house services coordinate with municipal transit systems including Metro Transit (Minnesota), Light rail (Minnesota), and local wayfinding informed by Minneapolis Downtown Council and Meet Minneapolis. Educational outreach and interpretive programs link the theater to Minneapolis Public Schools, University of Minnesota, Macalester College, Hamline University, and community arts partners like Springboard for the Arts and Juxtaposition Arts.