After a long night of snowboarding at Trollhaugen and camping in a Wisconsin Walmart parking lot, my fiance and I were making the drive to Ikea and the Mall of America for a little breakfast and shopping. We were just driving along the highway when we noticed some huge sculptures sitting in a field to our left. Intrigued, we whipped the car around and pulled into the parking lot of Franconia Sculpture Park.
There were a few things we noticed when we first stepped out of the car - the giant sculptures spread out across the 43-acre land, a house near one of the sculptures and a person emerging from said house. At first we were pretty confused since we didn't know where we were or if we were supposed to be there. So we took a quick peek inside the small welcome center and learned that this park is a nonprofit (meaning it's FREE to check out, but you're more than welcome to donate), they host family events here (like craft days, live music, artist talks, ect) and some of the artists actually live on location. After making a donation, we started to wander the park.
Franconia Sculpture Park is located near Shafer, MN and is open every day of the year from dawn to dusk. We were there in March at eight or nine in the morning, so we didn't see much of a crowd until we were leaving. Even though it was still pretty brisk, I loved walking through the park. A lot of the sculptures were really huge and all of them were really interesting. Some of the pieces were built like jungle gyms - so I spent a decent amount of time climbing, swinging and sliding on the art. Scroll through the images below to get a better idea of Franconia.
If you get the chance or are looking for an adventure, I'd highly encourage you to pay Franconia Sculpture Park a visit. Until then, take a look at their website to learn more about them and get the latest news about new sculptures and events: http://www.franconia.org/.
Live big.
