Art in Bloom – Minneapolis Institute of Art

Every year, except for 2020 and 2021, the Minneapolis Institute of Art holds Art in Bloom. I think it’s the same weekend each year, and this year it was held the last weekend in April, beginning on Thursday, April 28th and ending on Sunday, May 1st. Artists send in applications to be chosen to interpret one piece of art with flowers. It is fascinating and inspirational to see how well the floral arrangements match the work of art.

Since I just retired I planned to go the first day at opening time, rather than on the weekend when it would be more crowded. I guess I should have known that since Art in Bloom hasn’t been held in three years that it would be busy. But I had no idea we wouldn’t be able to park! Their parking lot was full and all the spots on the streets were taken. They were offering valet parking for $20 but we thought we could just come back later. And that ended up being the next day after lunch.

We were driving towards the museum looking for street parking when we saw a man about to open his car door and he was pointing at his car. We drove past him but since there wasn’t anyone behind us we backed up then asked him if he was motioning to us and he said yes! And that our timing was perfect. Excellent! I have not approached the museum from this direction before and I noticed a sculpture of a head lying on the grass outside the north side of the museum. Check it out in the second gallery below. I also chose it for my featured image above. So cool!!

The museum was still pretty crowded but we managed it okay. I’m not a big fan of crowds and there were tour groups that we had to maneuver around, but it wasn’t too bad. We typically don’t spend many hours at museums and my husband describes what happens as “my eyes are full”, meaning you can only see so much art all at once. But we sure enjoyed what we saw. We didn’t have a plan other than to start on the third floor then work our way down. And we just wandered from gallery to gallery looking for floral arrangements. We saw so many pieces that we had never seen before, and all because there were flowers next to them.

We usually see our favorites when we go to MIA and by the time we’ve done that, it’s usually time to go. On our last visit I chose a gallery that we had never seen before and I think I will continue to do that on successive visits. It seem like a good way to try and see everything there because you can’t possibly see it all in one visit.

Most of the photos that I took were the pieces of art where there was a floral arrangement. But since we were in galleries we had not seen before, we perused other artworks too. So, for my photo galleries the first one is for the artworks with floral arrangements and the other with other pieces that tripped my fancy on this visit to MIA. I hope you will enjoy!!