Art & Gardens at the Fair

The Minnesota State Fair is home to a vast number of artistic displays and gardens for fair guests to view during the Great Minnesota Get-Together.

Fine Arts

The Minnesota State Fair’s Fine Arts Exhibition is the state’s largest juried art show. Winning artworks are displayed every day of the fair in the Fine Arts Center. The special exhibition, Studio: HERE, features a different studio artist at work each day of the fair. Be a Fine Arts Detective quiz rounds out the experience for children and adults, alike!

Learn more about our Fine Arts competition and the Fine Arts Center.

Joyful World Mural Park

Featuring large-scale artworks painted live by Minnesota artists each day of the fair. Artists create murals that reflect the world they want to live in. Produced in partnership with Forecast Public Art and supported by the Minnesota State Fair Foundation.  Joyful World Mural Park is located South of the Grandstand, east of Grandstand Ramp. View a map.

This year’s artists:

• FLAHN MANLY (top left): Flahn Manly is a Minneapolis-based contemporary artist specializing in figurative painting with a concentration on portraiture. Manly works extensively with both oil and acrylic mediums to capture the beauty, strength and resilience of primarily people of color. Manly’s mural will depict the joy of being kids and doing what kids do best — creating joy from the simplest things, just for fun.
• GENIE HIEN TRAN (top right): Genie Hien Tran is a multidisciplinary artist and designer born in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and currently based in Minneapolis. Tran’s artistic practice explores the complexity and nuances of memory, home and belonging through installation, collage and textile. Tran’s mural will celebrate Vietnamese street food and the joy of gathering and sharing a meal together.
• KALAKA (bottom left): Chilean by birth and Venezuelan by upbringing, Kalaka is a Minneapolis-based painter, muralist and illustrator. His mural will represent four characters – children in masks and celebratory dresses from various regions – who appear like fantastic creatures drawing from various aspects of their traditions.
• XENA GOLDMAN (bottom right): Xena Goldman is a Minneapolis-based painter, muralist, comic artist and illustrator. Goldman’s work is inspired by interpersonal experiences, mental health, storytelling and sociopolitical resistance. Goldman’s mural will depict a world where artists’ mindsets look more like a garden of abundant inspiration than a desert where resources are few and far between.

Giant Sing Along

Sing in a field of microphones karaoke-style! Visit the Giant Sing Along daily from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. North of Lee Ave. between Underwood & Cooper streets.Giant Sing Along is a public art project created by Daily tous les jours in co-production of the Minnesota State Fair and the Minnesota State Fair Foundation. Stop by for your chance to sing some hit tunes – view a list of this year’s songs here once available!

 

Art & Sculpture

View a list and map of all the sculptures and art the fair has to offer. Download here.

Gardens

View a list of all the beautiful gardens the fair has to offer. Download here.

Commemorative Art

From 2004 through 2023, the State Fair commissioned an artist each year to create a piece that represents their interpretation of the State Fair. Check out gallery of past artwork. Posters and limited-edition signed prints are available for sale through the Minnesota State Fair Foundation (651-288-4327 or info@msffoundation.org). Posters and prints are subject to availability and some editions may no longer be available.

The original 2023 Minnesota State Fair Official Commemorative Art (shown here), created by crop artist Liz Schreiber, is currently on display through March 2025 at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport Terminal 1 as part of the Arts@MSP program.

In 2024, the Minnesota State Fair is transitioning from commissioning artists to create commemorative artwork to instead working with in-house designers to produce a featured design incorporating fair elements that celebrate the Great Minnesota Get-Together. Unique to 2024, this featured design will be showcased beginning in late July 2024 and appear on select merchandise available through State FairWear gift shops.