The Walker Art Center’s contribution to the Northern Spark Festival explores quiet, intimate experiences and nocturnal activities within public and communal space. Nightshift presents a range of activities spread throughout the Walker Art Center and Open Field including live headphone concerts in the James Turrell SkyPesher, bedtime stories with local writers, stargazing, choreographed and impromptu sleep position performances and many more surprises. The Walker galleries and building amenities will be open for late night viewing and relaxation. The programming will close with fresh donuts delivered at sunrise.

Pull an all-nighter at the Walker as you attend live headphone concerts in the outdoor Skyspace chamber, gather around for bedtime stories with local writers, poets, and songwriters, or drift off to never-never land with performance artist Marcus Young’s lullaby project. Bring your sleeping bag and take on a role in a Busby Berkeley–style dreamscape on the lawn, or head indoors to learn the secret language of sleep positions. Other surprises unfolding during Nightshift include special late-late-night gallery hours for the exhibitions Exposed and Goshka Macuga: It Broke from Within.

Deciphering Death: Gallery Talk with Corner Lorren Jackson

Friedman Gallery
10pm

Join Hennepin County coroner Lorren Jackson for a casual talk on deciphering death with the Exposed galleries.

Drawing NIGHTCLUB

Open Field Grove
10pm to Midnight

Join in making collaborative drawings under the twinkling lights of the Open Field Grove. Think glowsticks and blacklights for this nocturnal round of social art making.

Skyspace Headphone Concert

James Turrell Skypesher
10pm – 5am

Plug into the cozy confines of the James Turrell Sky Pesher for a series of live concerts featuring local musicians performing through a series of headphone jacks and amps.

Jim Woodring: Artist Talk and Performance

Walker Cinema
Midnight

Woodring will be making large ink drawings with a giant pen, while conversing with the audience, ending with a in-depth tour through his surreal oneiric landscape. Woodring’s Giant Pen was built with funds raised through United States Artists Special Projects.

The Shape of Night: The Language of Sleep

Cargill Lounge
10pm – 2am

Come try, or invent your own sleeping position inspired by Evany Thomas and Amelia Bauer’s book The Secret Language of Sleep: A Couple’s Guide to Thirty-Nine Positions.

The Shape of Night: Busby Berkeley Nocturne

2am
Greenspace outside Cargill Lounge

Bring your sleeping bag to participate in this happening with choreographer Megan Mayer, creating and documenting a Busby Berkeley kaleidoscopic composition.

Bedtime Stories

Various sites on the Open Field
3am to Dawn

Local writers, poets, comedians and songwriters gather in small groups to exchange tales in a story filibuster till dawn.

Marcus Young: The Lullaby Project

Skyline Room
Midnight – 4am

The Lullaby Project gently breaks the social rules of sleep and public space by inviting participants to sleep in the museum to the singing of lullabies throughout the night.