Douglas Flanders did not meet his grandfather until he was eight years old. His grandparents had been divorced, and his grandmother often looked after him in Minnesota while his grandfather traveled. The summer he turned eight, however, his grandmother decided he was old enough to visit his grandfather, and Europe, for the first time. 

During the late summer of Algeciras, Spain, he and his grandfather went on a road trip to his grandfather’s friend’s barnhouse. The fireplace was lit up in the middle of the summer, and the friend was only dressed in his underwear while drawing on a piece of paper. While drawing, the man suddenly crumpled up the piece of paper and threw it towards the wastebasket. Flanders’ grandfather, however, picked it up, unraveled it, laid it on the table and asked his friend if he could keep it. 

His friend was Pablo Picasso.

Born in Willmar, Minnesota, Flanders had been exposed to art his entire life. His grandmother was a painter, and during his childhood, they often visited the Minnesota Institute of Art and Walker Art Center. Meanwhile, his grandfather had been an art collector, which allowed him to meet prominent art figures in his early life, including Picasso and Joe Murrow. 

This early exposure to art inspired his interest in the subject. After working at an art gallery in New York, Flanders decided to open up his own art gallery in Minnesota in 1972 at the age of 22: Douglas Flanders and Associates. 

The gallery currently resides on 50th & France, holding over 1500 works of different artists. Flanders’ gallery, as well as the larger 50th & France area and the Edina Art Center, have played an integral role in shaping the role of art in Edina, specifically in promoting local art. 

Flanders initially began collecting a wide assortment of art in order to build a well-rounded gallery. 

“We started off just trying to diversify everything that we had, [and] I love pretty much everything that we have,” Flanders said. “If I like it, and if I can afford to buy it, I’ll buy it.” 

Flanders’ gallery was originally founded in a building on Harmon Place, with multiple galleries hosted in the same building. The galleries within the building held joint openings called “gallery crawls,” acting as a place of connection for both artists and art collectors. 

“Thousands of people would go walking through all the shows at all the galleries, and a lot of the bars in the neighborhood would do special appetizers or drinks to tie in with our opening,” Flanders said. “So it was a big fun celebration, and unfortunately, there just wasn’t enough financial support to keep everybody, so they all started closing up and moving out.” 

These financial stresses led Flanders to move his gallery, and he purchased a building on 50th & France in Edina as his gallery’s new location. 

Over the years, Flanders’ gallery showcased and sold the works of renowned artists from a variety of art styles, including Vincent Van Gogh, Georgia O’Keefe, Jackson Pollock, and Motherwell. In addition to big-name artists, Flanders said he works with over 200 Minnesotan artists, the most prominent being George Morrison, a Native American painter and sculptor. 

Flanders’ gallery hosts between six to seven exhibitions a year, each with different themes. The gallery also continuously rotates the art displayed in order to insight client engagement. However, even with the combination of national and local artists displayed, Flanders said he feels that people often overlook his gallery. 

“People walk by [and] they look in the window; if they don’t like what they see in the window they don’t always come in because they think that’s what we’re all about,” Flanders said. 

Flanders’ concerns expand to the larger significance of 50th & France. Even though it’s centered as a district filled with local and commercial businesses, the area also holds importance as a hub for local art.

Five years before the foundation of Flanders’ gallery, Edina hosted its first ever art fair. In collaboration between local businesses in the district, the Edina Art Fair was funded to present the works of numerous local artists and bring business into the area.

“[I think] they knew that it would be a way to bring people from all over the Midwest to 50th & France and to be a draw for the restaurants, for the shops,” 50th & France Business Association Director Rebecca Sorenson said. “So they started really small, and then it just kind of built and built.”

58 years later, the art fair has become a “legacy show,” standing as the oldest running art fair in Minnesota. According to Sorenson, around 200,000 people visit the fair each summer to see the works of around 250 artists, a larger parallel to the thousands who visited the gallery crawls of Flanders’ old building. 

While the art fair remains along the streets of 50th & France, Flanders’ gallery is also located along the route, bringing into combination the legacy of the show and the historical works of the gallery. Flanders said he works separate from the art show, due to his gallery’s focus on “blue-chip,” or fine art, and the fair’s commercial art.

Both Flanders’ gallery and the art fair have also brought about a means of connection between local artists. 

For fine art painter Heather Renaux, the Edina Art Fair had been one of her first fairs and first means of connection with other local artists in Minnesota after moving from California. 

“It is a very small art world here in the Twin Cities but very supportive and super great at sharing information and knowledge,” Renaux said. “Artists don’t get supported in such a huge way by anybody other than their local people. Local people love to support the locals. So I think it’s a really great symbiotic relationship.” 

The art fair has expanded to hold a combination of entertainment and food in order to attract customer interest. Similarly, Flanders rotates his art monthly to gauge client interests. 

“We are probably one of the most diverse galleries in the country because we are unable to figure out [what clients are interested in buying],” Flanders said. 

50th & France plans to host its 58th art fair this summer from June 6–8, with Flanders’ gallery on the usual route. Sorenson said that the specific location of 50th & France holds a special purpose in presenting local art. 

  “When you look at 50th & France, there’s just something special about the fact that you can take over the entire district right and close it down and turn it into this pop up pedestrian zone for people to explore all these artist booths,” she said. 

While 50th & France holds a historical legacy in local and national art, Edina possesses other methods of uplifting art in the city. 

Five years after Flanders’ gallery was founded, the Edina Art Center opened. Over the years, the art center provided art classes in a variety of mediums, from ceramics to painting. The classes were open to all ages, and the art center later expanded to holding programs in senior centers. 

Recreation Supervisor of the Edina Art Center Laura Fulton said she believes that while supporting local artists, the center also promotes creativity in its participants.

“Art is everywhere, and I don’t think everybody realizes that they’re all able to be artists,” Fulton said. “It’s my belief that we all have lots of creativity in our bodies, and we’ve just had it stifled over the years because of what life does to people.” 

In addition to the promotion of art within the art center, the city also has an Arts & Culture Commission. The commission advises the city in art-related programs, also researching grants and other means of support to help art-related initiatives, including the Edina Art Center. 

Edina High School senior Anna Schenk joined the commission during the end of her junior year in order to be “involved with the ‘behind the scenes’ work in the community.” 

“Sometimes it’s easy to sweep art under the rug or pass it aside because it doesn’t feel like a pressing issue; it’s not like a transportation committee or health commission, but art very much needs to be represented because it allows people to find a common ground,” Schenk said.

The commission recently helped to plan the transfer of the Edina Art Center to the Southdale Library. In partnership with the library, the Edina Art Center will be moved to the second floor of the new Southdale Library. Fulton said that part of the reason for the move was to expand the center to new art mediums. The new art center is set to open in August of 2027, with new features that are meant to advance along with the current changes in art; the currently closed ceramics area of the art center will be reopened in the new building, and a media studio will be built to bring technology into art. The media studio, additionally, was made to explore the incorporation of artificial intelligence in art. 

“AI art is kind of up and coming, and it doesn’t matter which side of the equation you’re on, it’s here,” Fulton said. “And if we want to be kind of at the forefront of something like that, we need to understand it, and we need to have the ability to teach people about it.” 

Whether teaching or selling art, the Edina Art Center, Edina Art Fair, and Flanders’ gallery have continually adapted their programs to keep up with the continuous changes in art. 

“I’m still learning things even after being in the business 52 years; it’s a continual learning process,” Flanders said.