Powderhorn Park
Home to the city’s annual Mayday festival as well as the historic Powderhorn Art Fair, Powderhorn Park is a neighborhood that has always held workers’ rights and artistic expression at its center. Circled by four busy corridors—38th and Lake Streets to the south and north, Chicago and Cedar Avenues to the west and east—the neighborhood contains dozens of labor unions, performance venues, affinity spaces, and arts organizations, with the wide green expanse of Powderhorn Park itself frequently serving as a site of gathering and collaboration. Each year, the Powderhorn Art Fair brings thousands of people from across the Twin Cities to the neighborhood to engage with local artists, admire the murals that line the Lake Street corridor, and experience immersive arts installations; and in the spring, the community-led Mayday Festival provides a model for decentralized community gathering. At Chicago Fire Arts, artists stoke embers into flames, lighting the way for new generations; in the Avalon Theatre, In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre has preserved decades of puppet and mask arts history for community exploration and use; and at Upstream Arts, sensory-supportive community programming is expanding pathways to artistic expression, ensuring that all community members have the resources and opportunities to tell their own stories, in their own ways. These organizations and events are not only instrumental in bringing new visitors to Powderhorn Park, they are also keepers of neighborhood stories—stories of resistance, of joy, of mourning, of celebration—the kinds of stories that shape community memory and identity. These stories take living action at the corner of 38th Street and Chicago, where Powderhorn Park meets three other neighborhoods at George Floyd Square. Here, Powderhorn Park residents have gathered for years in collective witness, memorial, and mutual aid: painting murals, providing food and shelter, and holding space for all visitors, carrying forward Powderhorn Park’s long legacy of collective care and advocacy.
Powderhorn Park is your go-to for:
Diversity: Influenced by many generations of immigrant entrepreneurs, Midtown’s businesses reflect Minneapolis’ diversity.
Markets: Small grocers and convenience shops means that your essential needs are always within reach including the Midtown Farmers Market
History: With two unique museums, the Somali Museum of Minnesota and American Swedish Institute, Midtown holds a lot of Minneapolis' history.
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