Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

  I've wanted to visit Crystal Bridges since I first heard about it last year.  Alice Walton, daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton, was the driving force behind building a museum of American art in Bentonville, Arkansas near the location of the first Walmart store.  The museum was designed by Moshe Safdie and opened on 11/11/11.  With over $300 million donated by Alice Walton, the museum has acquired an extensive collection of American art. 

  We took a beautiful scenic drive up 540 from Fort Smith to reach Bentonville, and stayed in Bentonville for the night.  The museum is open until 6pm, and the grounds stay open until dusk.  Admission is free (sponsored by Walmart), but the museum is closed on Tuesdays.  We arrived at the museum by about 3 in the afternoon.  The first thing you see when you arrive is an enormous silver tree sculpture, and an interesting rounded building that disappears down the hill. 

  After taking a quick picture by the tree sculpture, we headed to the overlook by the stairs and elevators and caught our first glimpses of the rest of the building. 

 

 

 

 

  After heading down several flights of stairs we came out into a round courtyard with the museum store on one side and the museum entrance on the other.  We checked in and received a copy of the Family Guide for each of the kids.  These booklets contain information about the galleries with some suggestions of pieces of art for them to find and questions and activities. 

 

  Since we only had a few hours to see everything, we chose to start with the permanent collection and see if we had time after that for the temporary exhibits which charge an additional fee.  We followed the galleries from Colonial era portraits all the way around through contemporary art.  One of my favorites was a set of artist palette's painted to look like children's faces, with the thumb holes where the mouth would be. 

  The gallery space winds around through the building and across one of the two crystal bridges. 

  We also enjoyed the Norman Rockwell painting of Rosie the Riveter.

  The modern art in the final gallery is a little more unique and varied than the paintings from the earlier years.  We liked this one, which was an amazingly lifelike (except for size!) self portrait of sorts.

 

This one was a giant red lens, which gave you an interesting view of the bridge and the courtyard space.

 

 

 There are many sculptures featured in the museum and on the "Art Trail" around the grounds.  There are miles of trails with beautiful landscaping, bridges, springs and more.  We spent another hour or two exploring the grounds.  The kids really liked the animal sculptures.

    The last of the trails we explored had bridges across the stream, one of which was a large rock slab.  The kids loved that area, and spent some time playing troll under the bridge.  These were some of my favorite photos from the day.

 

 

 

  We passed by the café and coffee shop in the second bridge, and the art studio where kids can work on a piece of art of their own, but did not have time to stay for long.  We also enjoyed the museum store, which had all sorts of fun and unique gifts.  If we make it back, we'll plan to spend a little longer, and have more time for the trails.  I'd also probably stay closer to the museum, because the trails were full of bikers and runners in the evening and it would be a gorgeous place to get some exercise. 

  I'd heard from several people that this was a beautiful museum and well worth a visit, and it didn't disappoint.  This was truly a unique experience and a one-of-a-kind setting.   I've added the link to the museum to our list of links on the right side of the page.  Check it out!