Caponi Art Park and Learning Center About the Park In a complex world, where the wholesome human experience is impoverished by over-specialization, the mission of the Caponi Art Park is to make art accessible to people of all ages and backgrounds by providing a cultural and educational center where people come together with art and nature to restore, nurture and maintain the basic unity of the human spirit. Located on 60-acres of rolling wooded hills in Eagan, Minnesota, the Caponi Art Park is a place where people can experience art in all its forms in an integrated way, demonstrating that creativity is a universal and necessary part of daily living. The Art Park itself is offered as a work of art and constant backdrop to all other programs. The brick and dirt paths are linear drawings, retraced and animated by each person who walks on them. The rock walls and shaped earth are the sculpture into which conventional works serve as details of the organic whole. History of the Park The Caponi Art Park and Learning Center began as an outdoor laboratory to teach and demonstrate the importance of creativity in healthy living. In making the Art Park, Anthony Caponi, sculptor, retired professor and chair of the Art Department of Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, created serious works as an extension of his home life to demonstrate that creativity is a basic and ever present human quality that in rare occasions achieves the level of art. For more than 30 years, Caponi has devoted himself to developing the 60-acre site as a center for the arts, a place where both the visual and performing arts could be presented, and fostered, in a natural setting. With the encouragement of local government and residents of the south-metro area, the Caponi Art Park non-profit corporation was formed in 1992, to develop the park as a local and regional cultural resource and to make a contribution to the field of art on a national level. The Caponi Art Park and Learning Center opened in 1987 for tours and planned activities by schools and other organized groups. Since 1994 the Art Park has presented free activities and performances by the region's top artists. The Park has also hosted several artists-in-residence and commissioned new theatrical and musical works. Learn more about one of the park's largest sculptures Pompeii. About the Founder Voice From The Mountains by Anthony Caponi A new book by the founder of the Art Park From the Publisher - Ruminator Books Press, St. Paul, MN Voice from the Mountains offers the unforgettable story of one man's pilgrimage-from a bygone way of life to a new culture and pays tribute to the power of art and the love of family. The pages of this intimate and engaging memoir feature short poetic vignettes that, when read together, create a richly vivid tale of Caponi's idyllic childhood in Pretare, a small Italian mountain village, and his contrasting immigration and experiences as a young man in modern American culture. It also incorporates Caponi's years as a U.S. soldier during WWII, which brought him back to Italy and lead to his eventual return to the mountain of his youth. A sculptor by trade, Caponi's visual sensibilities are reflected in the text, as each page offers a crucial tile in the incredible mosaic that is his life story. Available at online booksellers. All text and images © Copyright, Caponi Art Park. All Rights Reserved.