MinnPost
Nonprofit, independent journalism. Supported by readers.
MinnPost’s reporting is always free, every single day. We rely on voluntary, tax-deductible donations from readers to support our work. Will you join them with a gift to support our nonprofit newsroom today?
The latest news and events across all forms of the arts.
Delivered every Friday.
Artscape Newsletter | Subscribe for the latest news and events across all forms of the arts. Delivered to your inbox every Thursday.
Walker West Music Academy in St. Paul is sharing its new digs with the community in a two-day grand opening this weekend, part of ushering in the music center’s next stage as a destination for music programing in the Twin Cities.
The academy, which is in the midst of a $19.5 million capital campaign ($13.5 million has been raised so far), moved into the new building at 650 Marshall Ave. in the beginning of 2025. Sporting a bold green and red pattern outside, its architectural and interior design speaks to the African American cultural heritage of the organization.
As you walk into the lobby, a mural greets you showcasing a collage of photographs taken by Walker West’s in-house photographer, Benny Moreno. The founders, the Rev. Carl Walker and Grant West, are seen in the center of a digital mural with the school’s youngest students learning their instruments in the first ring of photos. Further out, the mural depicts more advanced students experiencing the joy of playing. The mural then wraps around the front desk, where the last group of images depict older students and adults from the Walker West community performing.
According to Earl Ross, who heads the strings community at Walker West, the mural reflects the organization’s desire to reflect “wonderment, joy, and excellence” at the academy.
Another series of murals, designed by Black British-born, New York- and Los Angeles-based visual artist Shantell Martin, pops up in different places around the building – including its administrative area, accent walls in the teaching area and covering the seating in two study nooks in the building. Martin’s designs are playful and full of movement. Mixing together poetic text and dancing lines, her artwork has a music of its own.
“We are very excited to have her art represented in the new space,” Ross said.
According to Executive Director Braxton Haulcy, Walker West had a committee that went through an RFP process to find an architecture firm for the new design.
“One of the things we really wanted to make sure that the architects would really be able to do is put together an African American design within the building,” he said.
They chose Locus Architecture to lead the design process. The firm worked with the organization to visualize a Black cultural aesthetic throughout the building.
“When I talked to the architects, they wanted me to explain African American culture to them in my words,” Haulcy recalled. As part of that conversation, Haulcy talked about call and response, a tradition common in the Black church that has its roots in sub-Saharan African culture.
“I said, if you want to design something, you need to look at call and response,” Haulcy said.
The architects took that suggestion to heart, and used it as inspiration for the way they designed the instruction studios. The doorways alternate, jutting out into the hallway and then away from it, creating a physical representation of the call and response so familiar in Black music.
In all, the renovation includes 18 studios, an expansion from their previous space. The building has space for private and group lessons, a digital music production lab, and a large multi-use space that Walker West uses for performances and teaching, in addition to meeting and office space, and a front lobby.
Also underway, Walker West will soon have a 200-seat capacity performance hall, as well as an outdoor pavilion with a bandshell.
“We’re going to utilize that green space to do concerts outside,” Haulcy said. “We’re going to allow the community to use the space as well, because it’s not only a music school, it’s a community gathering space.”
Walker West’s new building is the latest stage of a collaboration begun in 1988 by Walker and West, who had both been separately teaching piano lessons, and decided to bring their businesses together. They met at a church function in South St. Paul, where they were leading separate choirs.
“I thought that his choir was the best thing going,” Walker said. “So I said, ‘Hey. We better start talking.’”
West had known of Walker’s playing, so much so that he could recognize if someone had studied piano with the musician.
“His music smiles,” West recalled.
The two got a lease for the lower part of a duplex on Hague Avenue, and soon added a drum teacher to their new music school. The sound of students learning music didn’t work too well for the upstairs neighbors and after a year, they were asked to leave.
They headed for Selby Avenue, where they opened a space in an old barbecue restaurant. By 1991, they were federally recognized as a nonprofit, and within a decade had added a computer-music lab, and offered private instruction and presented various performance groups.
In 2014, they moved across Selby Avenue into classrooms once used by the School of Visual Arts. There they were able to adapt the space to their needs, but because they had a lease, they didn’t have the same freedom as owning a space.
That’s changed now.
“When we walk into this place, there’s so much of our DNA in here,” West said. “It’s descriptive of our journey. It’s descriptive of where we are now.”
Walker West serves a total of more than 5,600 students – including young people it reaches through its programs in schools across the state. It gives out $100,000 in scholarship money for tuition each year, and besides its programming for school-age children, also offers early childhood classes and programs the Amazing Grace Chorus, a dementia-friendly choir for elders.
When Walker walks into the new building and sees children singing and dancing and playing, he’s struck by how far the organization has come.
“I just get a sense of excitement every time I come here,” he said. “I know I’m going to see something different, just like it is with music. Each day, there is a new dream that has occurred, and every time, it’s a good one.”
Walker said the academy’s new spaces give him a sense of pride.
“It gives me a sense of something that now has occurred in the community that is ours,” he said. “My gosh, it just feels good to say this is something that started with a dream, and look where it is now.”
The grand opening activities take place Friday, April 25, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. with a ribbon cutting ceremony, remarks by Walker West leadership and partners, and a performance by the Kamoinge Strings.
Then on Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., performances by the Walker West Jazz Ensemble, the Amazing Grace Chorus and student string players will take place in addition to facility tours, poetry and food trucks. More information on the grand opening can be found here.
A donation from you helps keep articles like this one paywall-free.
As a nonprofit newsroom, we rely on the support of readers like you to keep our journalism completely free. Will you support MinnPost’s independent reporting with a donation today?
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
by Sheila Regan, MinnPost
April 22, 2025
Keep up with the politics, culture and stories shaping Minnesota with MinnPost’s daily newsletter.
Help keep our independent journalism paywall-free with a donation today!
Put your knowledge to the test with MinnPost’s weekly news quiz.
is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit newsroom
P.O. Box 18438 | Minneapolis, MN 55418 | 612.455.6950
Sign in by entering the code we sent to , or clicking the magic link in the email.
Privacy Policy. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Get the best of MinnPost directly in your email inbox.
Sending to:
