By Glenda Rice Collins
Now: Expansion Opening special events take place June 6 & 7, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. — You’re Invited!
On Scene: Safdie Architects-designed expansion to add 114,000 square feet of new galleries, educational spaces, and more — Read on for Photo and Video highlights!
Bentonville, Ark., USA — Being close to the age of gifted philanthropist and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (CB) “woman of the heart” founder Alice Walton; and the world-renowned, globally-celebrated Israeli CB architect Moshe Safdie, life experience plays an important role in my ongoing inspiration to capture the essence of the truly extraordinary, –in my photos and in print. I am also a long-term, art-focused woman of the heart, recovering from inevitable temporary health setbacks!
My happy place of healing & wellness
Having taken a recent, nearly two-year leave-of-absence from my journalistic endeavors, — due to long Covid manifestations and two recent major surgeries — I returned on May 29, with unbridled enthusiasm, for an invited news media preview of this “State of the Art” scene, which now fully embraces my own “whole health” priorities and concepts even more, with Alice Walton’s awesome vision. I’m fully in tune with the overarching Crystal Bridges motto: “You Belong Here.”
Read more: Crystal Bridges Museum at 15: As expansion fuels more synergy & June 6-7 Celebrations — You Belong Here!Phenomenal Progress
Phenomenal CB progress — fueled by Ms. Walton’s own passions, patronage and health concerns; and by architect Safdie’s inspiring, humane designs — now takes center-stage featuring a vast doubling of “happy place” art exhibition space, in an impressively compatible bridge-connected expansion which officially opens June 6.
There is much more to celebrate campus-wide in this art museum’s 15th year!
Examples of extraordinary growth in a multitude of significant ways, produces pleasantly explosive currently trending synergy, and according to Ms. Walton in a PBS interview, “…a collision” of art and medical training that now includes the influence of the new on-site Heartland Whole Health Institute, (HWHI) and the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine (AWSOM)–Awesome!
Expansive Images & Videos
The following images & short videos from last week’s well-attended invited news media Preview will help share the ongoing excitement of this weekend’s multiple CB openings and celebration, starting Today!, — which includes the Keith Haring in 3D exhibition, in newly-expanded gallery space (more about that in a separate news feature coming soon to this website).
PR coordinator Jaslynn Dorsey assisted invited news media on May 29, for a preview tour of expanded space at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Photo by Glenda Rice Collins.
Photo by Glenda Rice Collins.
Photo by Glenda Rice Collins.
Photo by Glenda Rice Collins.
Photo by Glenda Rice Collins.
Welcome: It’s All About Access…for All
“We’re excited to welcome everyone to the Crystal Bridges expansion,” said Rod Bigelow, executive director of Crystal Bridges. “This project represents an extraordinary undertaking for the museum, not only expanding our physical space, but shaping a renewed campus where architecture and nature work in close dialogue. We have carefully moved, stewarded, and reinstalled nearly every work of art in our collection with intention and care. At its core, this expansion is about deepening our mission of access—ensuring that more people, from our local community to visitors across the country, can experience American art in more engaging and lively ways. It’s incredibly rewarding to see this vision come to life, and we look forward to sharing it with all who visit.”
As Alice Walton proclaimed and verified at the sold-out May 29 “By Design: A Conversation on the Crystal Bridges Expansion” special event in the ballroom of the new Heartland Whole Health Institute, “At Crystal Bridges its all about access…for everyone!”
Just a few weeks ago, in that same HWHI ballroom, Crystal Bridges board chairman Olivia Walton, a well-seasoned and articulate journalist herself, hosted SCOTUS associate justice Amy Coney Barrett for another sold-out event, as part of the new “Building Bridges” series, usually live-streamed on Arkansas TV. In that April setting, Bigelow credited Olivia Walton as being “…the one responsible for a lot of what’s possible here.”
As part of Crystal Bridges’ year-long celebration of America at 250, the Building Bridges series honors the American spirit of meeting in the middle with curiosity, courage, and care. “I see myself as the nanny,” said Olivia, the Building Bridges host, regarding Alice’s many special projects “children.”
Leadership
A powerful participant for skilled leadership teamwork, Olivia presides with aplomb as the series brings together thought leaders, artists, and thinkers with differing perspectives to model civic dialogue and the power of meaningful questions.
“Crystal Bridges has always been rooted in the belief that art can expand how we see ourselves, one another, and the world around us,” she has said.. “This next chapter deepens that vision—creating spaces that invite curiosity, creativity, and connection at every turn. By bringing art, architecture, nature, wellness, and education into closer dialogue across the campus, we are continuing to push the boundaries of what a cultural institution can be. The expansion not only broadens access to extraordinary works of American art, but also strengthens the museum’s role as a place where people can gather, learn, reflect, and experience the transformative power of art in community.”
But that’s another set of ever-evolving stories, and with more quotes to share later in additional news features to come on this website.
Unique Architectural Influence
“The inauguration of this second phase marks the culmination of a two-decade collaboration—an evolving dialogue between architect, patron, and institution—that has shaped not only a building, but a shared vision for what a museum can be. Beyond broadening its program, the expansion extends and deepens the museum’s connection to nature—embedding new spaces for community, learning, and the display of art within an architectural language shaped by the region’s terrain,” said Moshe Safdie, founding partner of Safdie Architects. “We have been delighted by the public’s response to the integration of art and nature and look forward to visitors experiencing the expanded museum.”
America’s Art Museum
Crystal Bridges Museum, it appears, served as “the spark” for inspiring the synergy needed for expansive quality-of-life enhancement and the positive cultural developments that Safdie’s architecture is known to inspire.
Now billed as “America’s Art Museum” the original campus influence has expanded into a community village of both hospitality and wellness themes, –setting a very high standard by raising the bar with strong muscles indeed — celebrating masterfully art- and nature-focused architecture once again, repeatedly inspired by the made-in-Heaven duet of founder Alice Walton and design-master Safdie, (b. 1938) –the only architect she trusted to complete the current expansion.
Many more focused news feature articles are yet to come, indeed, amidst a swirl of related ongoing developments here!
Additional news features related to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and The Momentary may be viewed on this website at:
glendaricecollins.com.
Banner photo, Keith Haring’s World, by Glenda Rice Collins.
######
Glenda Rice Collins 