Check Out The Amazing Art You Can Find Along Rochester Trails

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I really appreciate the amount of art that you can find around Rochester, Minnesota. I love being on the trails around Rochester and all of a sudden noticing a sculpture you didn't know existed. Turns out, at least for the art we see on the bike trails in Rochester, we can thank an initiative called Art4Trails for the artwork we get to admire. Throughout this post, you can see some of the art featured on our trails. I didn't know some of these existed!

I have to admit, I'm not good at looking at art. It sounds so silly but some people can look at a painting for such a long time and really appreciate the piece. I go through museums so fast but I'm trying to be a little more mindful about the art I'm seeing and that's why I try to do when I see these pieces scattered around Rochester.

The thing is, you may look at a piece and think 'What the heck is going on here?' which is what I've done plenty of times. But what I'm trying to think about is what I take from the piece, how do I interpret it? Like this piece that you can see along the bike trails.

But then there is art along the trails like the one below. It's pretty easy to figure out what the figures in the sculpture are supposed to be depicting.

And the one below is one of my personal favorites.

Like I mentioned earlier, Art4Trails is the initiative that got all of this art onto our trails. On the Rochester Art Center website, it says, "Art4Trails is a public art initiative to promote local artists and enhance our public parks by installing original art along Rochester's bike trails." This all started in 2016 and since then they've "commissioned 13 permanent and 16 temporary sculptures and unveiled the work of 24 local and regional artists." I love that!

As of January 3rd of 2022 they are looking for "proposals for four temporary outdoor, site-specific art installations at locations along the bike trails near downtown Rochester." If that's something you're interested in, check out more details!

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