Crystal Bridges Art Day

We visited the Crystal Bridges art museum in Bentonville, AR, (https://crystalbridges.org). Alice Walton (Sam Walton’s daughter) was one of the key persons establishing the museum through the Walton Family Foundation. She is currently the chairwoman of the board.

The museum is set in a gorge over a creek and the architecture of the museum blends the curves of the gorge and bridges the creek over two weirs. The roofs of the buildings are made of curved wood beams supported by suspension cables. Moshe Safdie is the architect.

There was a special exhibit called TheBeyond featuring the art of Georgia O’Keefe and a number of contemporary artists that ends 3-Sep, so we got here just at the right time. One exhibit, called Light Atlas, consists of 360 paintings done by Cynthia Daignault on a six-month trip around the United States. She stopped every 25 miles and painted what was there, no matter what.

On the museum grounds is the Bachman-Wilson House, a Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian (United States of North America) design originally built in New Jersey along a river in 1956. The creek flooded numerous times, damaging the house and requiring renovations. Finally, the owners of the house made a deal with the Crystal Bridges Museum to move the house to the museum grounds. The house was dismantled and rebuilt using a new concrete pad, new concrete block wall, and new skeleton structure.

Chihuly glasswork at the Crystal Bridges Museum