2021 Annual Member Magazine

2021

ANNUAL MEMBER MAGA Z INE

Crystal Bridges + the Momentary

CRYSTAL BRIDGES SUPPORTERS

Thank you for your support

Constance Caplan

James Dyke and Helen Porter

CRYSTAL BRIDGES FOUNDING ENDOWMENTS FOR COLLECTIONS, OPERATION, AND BUILDING

Chuck and Terri Erwin Thomas Lon Smith

Shelby and Frederick Gans

Neff and Scarlett Basore

The Bogle Family

David and Cathy Evans Family

Sybil Robson Orr

Stella Boyle Smith Trust, Catherine and Michael Mayton, Trustees

ENDOWED FUNDS EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE THROUGH THE ARTS

SCHOOL VISIT ENDOWMENT

SPONSORED ADMISSION ENDOWMENT

AMERICAN CRAFT

Rick and Beverly Chapman

Valorie and Randy Lawson | Lawco Energy Group TYSON SCHOLARS OF AMERICAN ART ENDOWMENT & DON TYSON PRIZE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF AMERICAN ART

FAMILY EXPERIENCES

Bracken Darrell David Zwirner Gelmart International Galen, Debi, and Alice Havner

The Pamela and Wayne Garrison Family Foundation TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION ENDOWMENT

ACCESS & INCLUSIVITY ENDOWMENT

Alice L. Walton

CLASSROOM LEARNING ENDOWMENT

EDUCATION STUDIOS ENDOWMENT

Doug and Shelley McMillon

Jack and Melba Shewmaker Family

ART AND WELLNESS ENDOWMENT

Mindy and Bob Rich Family Foundation

A D D ITI O NAL CO NTRI BUTO RS EDUCATION AND PROGRAMMING

Reed and Mary Ann Greenwood

The J.M. Smucker Company

TRAILS AND GROUNDS

Neff and Scarlett Basore

Paul and June Carter Family

EXHIBITIONS AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Tony Aquila

Ed and Sasha Bass

21c Museum Hotel Becky and Bob Alexander Ken and Liz Allen AMP Sign and Banner Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Arvest Bank avad3 Event Production Avant Mining, LLC Avis and Bill Bailey Ramsay and Jaquita Ball BISSELL Homecare Blakeman's Fine Jewelry BoozmanHof Regional Eye Clinic & Optical Shop Mary Kathryn and Matt Brown Juan, Marcy, and Joaquin Camacho June Carter Family Chip and Susan Chambers

KFSM TV-CBS Kimberly-Clark Ann Walton Kroenke The J.M. Smucker Company Nicholas and Carolyn Cole Engel & Völkers Jackye and Curtis Finch, Jr. Flintco, LLC Steve Flory Cindy Flynt Walters and Betty Flynt James Freeman and Barbara Yates | James I. Freeman Charitable Trust Harrison and Rhonda French Family General Mills Gary and Robin George GoGo Squeez Greg Thompson Fine Art Laurice A. Hachem Meza Harris Lyda Hill Charles and Shannon Holley Rebecca Hurst and Jim Smith / Smith Hurst, PLC

VAN CLIBURN SERIES ENDOWMENT

Kelly and Marti Sudduth

Reed and Mary Ann Greenwood

Kay and Ellis Melton

Chip and Susan Chambers

Pat Cooper

Kelly and Marti Sudduth Logitech National Endowment for the Arts Catherine and Stephan Roche

Hyde Family Foundation Wade and Kelly Jones Marybeth and Micky Mayfield Donna and Mack McLarty Mark McLarty Morris Foundation, Inc. Murphy Foundation Steve and Susan Nelson Nice-Pak Products, Inc. Northwest Arkansas Naturals Onyx Coffee Lab Ozark Production Services Phillips Procter & Gamble Carolyn and Karl Rathjen Sue and Charles Redfield Pamela Kendall-Rijos and John Rijos Lisenne Rockefeller JT and Imelda Rose

The Simmons Family Fund Audrey J. Walton and Ann Walton Kroenke Chartitable Foundation Univision Arkansas The Russell Berrie Foundation Kate and Greg Schaffer Lee and Linda Scott The Segal Family Foundation Jon and Kim Shirley Esther Silver-Parker Diane and Mark Simmons Starling Family Charitable Fund Lamar and Shari Steiger Stephen and Claudia Strange Barbara and George Sycip Tartaglino Richards Family Foundation Jeff and Sarah Teague / Citizens Bank ViacomCBS Consumer Products Jim and Susan von Gremp Tony Waller The Walmart Museum Deborah Wright Anonymous

LANTERN BEARERS

Alice Walton Loretta Britton John and Patricia Czuba Cathy and David Evans

Linda Kennedy Floyd Tom and Jill King Robert T. Murphy III and Beau G. Reynolds

Annalisa Paliyenko Dennis and Evelyn Shaw Barbara Weinberg

David and Lynnette Werning Dina C. Wood

MOMENTARY SUPPORTERS Tom and Olivia Walton

Thank you for your support

Steuart and Kelly Walton

Alice L. Walton Foundation

Beacon Fund

Rob and Melani Walton Foundation

MOMENTARY FOUNDING FUNDERS

Anna and Carl George Sybil Robson Orr Esther Silver-Parker

Ann Walton Kroenke

Catherine and Stephan Roche

Whitney Kroenke Silverstein and Nick Silverstein Sarah Simmons

21c Museum Hote

Axe and the Oak Distillery

Bentonville Brewing Company J&D Pallets

Olivia Tyson

Bissell Homecare

Larry and Winnie Kearns

Kate and Greg Schaffer Tony Waller

Flintco, LLC

Caryl Stern and Donald LaRosa

Eric and Elda Scott

Deborah Wright

Demara Titzer

Walmart Museum

MO INSIDERS Bill and Beverly Bickell

Ben Blakeman

David and Cathy Evans

Harrison and Rhonda French Family GS Gives - Christopher M. Keogh Alan and Shareen Pruitt Catherine and Stephan Roche

James and Ann McKenzie

JT and Imelda Rose

Alice Walton

Chip and Susan Chambers

James Freeman and Barbara Yates

Hunter Haynes and Tania Chavez

Sue and Charles Redfield

Starling Family Foundation John Tyson

Juan, Marcy and Joaquin Camacho

Chris Ferrara and Mayra Florez

Wade and Kelly Jones

John and Marsha Phillips

Pamela Kendall Rijos and John Rijos

Lee and Linda Scot

Stefan and Peyton Sterns Tom and Olivia Walton

David and Heidi Smith

Marvelyn Stout

Steuart and Kelly Walton

2021

ANNUAL MEMBER MAGAZINE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CHIEF DIVERSITY + INCLUSION OFFICER

Rod Bigelow

SENIOR DIRECTOR

Sandy Edwards

DEPUTY DIRECTOR

Jill Wagar

CHIEF CURATOR

Austen Barron Bailly CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS, MARKETING, AND DIGITAL OFFICER

KC Hurst

SENIOR COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER, THE MOMENTARY

Emily Neuman EDITOR

Erica Harmon SENIOR DESIGNER

Olivia Walton*

CONTRIBUTORS

Erica Harmon interviews employees at Fox Trail Distillery during the harvest of the Cheers to 10 Years anniversary gin (see pg. 48).

Dear Member,

Alejo Benedetti Mindy Besaw Natalie Demaree Jen Padgett Larissa Randall Meredith Wagner MARKETING DIRECTOR

Alison Nation

I think it’s safe to say, in many regards, that Crystal Bridges and the Momentary like to compete with themselves. In 2021, the Momentary hosted the first FreshGrass | Bentonville music festival and brought the beach indoors with the performance opera Sun & Sea. Sea. Crystal Bridges featured its first craft exhibition, announced a 50-percent expansion of the museum, expanded its community engagement and conversation efforts, and celebrated its 10-year anniversary—and those are just the highlights. I am constantly amazed by our staff and volunteers who persistently outdo themselves to provide the best possible experiences, and I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge them as we close out another unpredictable year that demanded us to pivot with flexibility and grace.

I want to be honest with you: this year has been tough. But among the struggles, we still have so much to celebrate. 10 years of Crystal Bridges is an incredible milestone.

We have yet to know the depths of inspiration that have started in the galleries and on the grounds in the past decade. What new ideas can spark from a few moments spent with Yayoi Kusama, Kerry James Marshall, Tavares Strachan, or Jaune Quickto-See Smith? Art may not have all the answers, but it does invite creative thought, and I can say personally that, since working here, I do get more questions correct on Jeopardy Jeopardy!!

PHOTOGRAPHY

Stephen Ironside Daniel Moody Dero Sanford

A Letter from Alice Walton News Member Travel The First Decade: Milestones of Crystal Bridges

CRYSTAL BRIDGES COLLECTION AND EXHIBITIONS 13 New Acquisitions 15 Committed to Craft 19 It Takes a Village to Raise a Museum 22 10 Art Moments in 2021 27 Moments Along the Trails 29 2022 Exhibitions MOMENTARY VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS 31 Visual and Performing Arts Bring New Perspectives to the Momentary 35 Bentonville’s Newest Live Music Venue

MEMBERSHIP + DEVELOPMENT

Peggy Boyles Amanda Brush Emily Ironside Tonya Jackson Leah Miles Loria Oliver Diego Quiñones MacKenzie Springer Kerri Thomson Devanee Williams Christy Witt

* We have two Olivia Waltons at Crystal Bridges. One is the new Board Chair of Crystal Bridges (see pg. 10), and the other is our talented senior graphic designer. The latter Olivia is the designer of this magazine.

In this issue, looking back on both 2021 and 10 years of Crystal Bridges, the overarching theme examines how Crystal Bridges and the Momentary are expanding their horizons. This can be seen literally—in the expansion the museum announced earlier this year—as well as figuratively when we think about what it means to be community-centered institutions, what stories we want to tell, and ask, what's next?

Erica Harmon Editor

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COMMUNITY & LEARNING 37 You Belong Community Resource Fair 39 Q&A with the Chief Learning Officer 42 In Real Time 43 What Does It Mean to Be a Community-Centered Museum?

FOOD, DRINK, AND SHOPPING 47 The Momentary Expands Its Culinary Offerings Anniversary Beer, Coffee, and Gin 48 49 The Museum Store Gets a New Look 50 Build Your Personal Art Collection at the Momentary Shop PEOPLE 51 Meet an Original Member 54 Last Word from Rod

A note about masks: The face covering mandate was temporarily lifted in 2021, which is why some images portray people not wearing masks.

A Letter from Alice Walton Hello my friends, I can hardly believe it’s been a decade since Crystal Bridges opened its doors to the public for the first time on 11/11/11.

This museum has exceeded all of my wildest expectations, my biggest dreams, and it continues to astound me. It’s a source of great personal pride and joy, especially when I see schoolchildren walking through the galleries. I’m thankful for this opportunity to introduce children to the beauty of art and nature, both in this community and beyond. This is their museum—a place to grow up, just as it was for myself and my brothers.

Earlier this year, I had the privilege to reconnect with my good friend, architect Moshe Safdie, to discuss the expansion of our wonderful museum. We’re adding 100,000 square feet of gallery and education spaces so more people can access these offerings. This growth also allows us to tell a broader, inclusive story of the American experience as we add more Native American and craft artworks into our galleries.

Last year, I announced the formation of the Whole Health Institute which focuses on radically redesigning the systems that impact our health and well-being. Earlier this year, I shared the news that we’ll also develop a Whole Health School of Medicine and that the Alice L. Walton Foundation is working with Cleveland Clinic to enhance specialty care services in our region.

Over the past decade, Crystal Bridges’ success inspired me to undertake other significant projects. In 2017, I established the Art Bridges Foundation to expand access to American art across the nation, especially by providing funding support to museums of all sizes in order to create projects that educate, inspire, and deepen engagement with local communities. Art Bridges’ goal is to get art out of vaults and in front of people across the country. It has its own art collection, and it also partners with museums with vast collections to share art with institutions throughout the US. To date, Art Bridges has worked with 170 organizations in 46 states, funding 400+ projects that have reached millions of people.

As you can see, I’m committed to how access to art, nature, educational opportunities, and health and wellbeing offerings can enhance quality of life. You might be thinking, Alice, it sounds like you’re doing quite a lot! And while that’s true, I’m thankful that my family, and members like you, have been along on this journey every step of the way.

Also that year, I established the Alice L. Walton Foundation which works to enhance the quality of life for individuals by providing access to offerings that improve well-being and create diverse and inclusive communities. The foundation focuses on efforts to expand and diversify educational opportunities that can help put a secure, fulfilling, and selfdetermined life in reach for more Americans and includes major initiatives to increase teacher diversity, expand art programs at universities, and diversify museum leadership.

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Alice and Moshe Safdie discuss the museum's expansion.

Olivia Walton, Alice Walton

“This museum has exceeded all of my wildest expectations, my biggest dreams, and it continues to astound me.”

On that note, I am delighted to let you know that our board member, founding chairperson of the Momentary Council, and my dear niece-in-law Olivia Walton will be taking over as Chair of the Crystal Bridges Board of Directors. I will still be on the Board—we have an expansion to work on, after all!

—but this change will help me focus on all my philanthropic pursuits equally.

I hope that you will continue to be along for the ride. Your support means so much to me, and to our community, and for that I can only say, THANK YOU. In gratitude, Alice Walton

Use your smartphone camera to watch Alice and Moshe Safdie discuss the Crystal Bridges expansion.

Enjoy the Alice Walton Talks Art audio tour.

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Crystal Bridges Hires Two New Positions: Director of Inclusion and Belonging and Curator of Native American Art

The Momentary Adds Space for Parking and Gets New Neighbors

Rendering of Crystal Bridges' expansion. Courtesy of Safdie Architects.

Crystal Bridges Announces Plans for a Size-Doubling Expansion Last spring, Crystal Bridges revealed plans for an expansion that will increase the size of the current museum facilities by 50 percent.

Adding nearly 100,000 square feet to the 200,000-square-foot facility, the new space will increase capacity for presenting art and exhibitions, educational and outreach initiatives, cultural programming, and community events.

Designed by Safdie Architects, the original architects of Crystal Bridges, new structures will house additional galleries, educational facilities, event spaces, a café, and new indoor and outdoor gathering spaces. Members were given the opportunity to learn more about the expansion from museum leadership in a members-only virtual event last spring and will continue to have opportunities for special information sessions. The project is currently in the design development phase with construction commencing in early 2022.

As a precursor to the expansion, a reconfigured main lobby and courtyard, also designed by Safdie Architects, was completed this past summer. Now enclosed in a glass dome, the updates create a more spacious lobby, offer protection from inclement weather, and provide new programming opportunities. The lobby was renamed the Pamela and Wayne Garrison Family Foundation Lobby in honor of their gift to support family experiences at the museum.

The expansion will house additional galleries, educational facilities, event spaces, a café, and new indoor and outdoor gathering spaces.

The Momentary’s new parking garage, designed by Wheeler Kearns Architects, features 600 spots for visitors in a convenient location just south of the building and next door to 8th St. Market. It is scheduled to open in late January 2022. The parking garage features the artwork of Caddo artist Chad “Nish” Earles, providing a cultural reference to the Indigenous people of Arkansas and the land which the Momentary occupies.

The artwork can be found on the garage’s glass scrims.

Additionally, a new housing development initiative, SOMO Artspace Lofts by Artspace Projects, will soon join the Momentary’s campus, situated just south of the main building (hence the name SOMO). Funded by the Walton Family Foundation, the 50-unit mixed-use project will include affordable live/ work housing for artists, creatives, and their families plus a small public art gallery. The anticipated construction start date is March 2022 with completion in March 2023.

Tyson Scholars Kick Off Think Tank Pilot Crystal Bridges and the Tyson Scholars Program introduced the Tyson Think Tank this year, a short-term fellowship opportunity for scholars of American art. The pilot program took place in August 2021 with Dr. Carrie Rebora Barratt, former curator of American art and deputy director for collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as its first Distinguished Scholar. Three additional Think Tank Scholars from Alabama, New York, and Ohio came to Bentonville to explore ideas for re-presenting and reckoning with early American portraiture.

Each year, Crystal Bridges will select a Distinguished Scholar to lead the Tyson Think Tank and invite applications for fellows at varying stages of their careers to pursue original scholarship around a theme or topic of critical importance to the field of American art. The program topic will change each year, but the Crystal Bridges collection will be integral to the conversations and research that takes place.

Ayanna Bledsoe joined the museum this year as its first Director of Inclusion and Belonging.

In this role, Bledsoe works to advance the organization’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts both internally and externally at Crystal Bridges and the Momentary, including developing annual DEI strategies and implementing institutional inclusion policies. She also serves on the museum’s Strategy team which oversees the museum’s vision and initiatives. Her prior professional experience includes roles in both student and academic affairs at universities including Purdue University, Oregon State University, and San Jose State University.

Olivia Walton Named New Board Chair of Crystal Bridges Olivia Walton lends her voice and leadership to advocacy for the arts, childhood well-being, and economic empowerment in America’s Heartland. In November 2021, she was named board chairperson for Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Olivia also serves as executive board chair of the Momentary, principal of Ingeborg Investments, and is a co-founder of Heartland Summit.

In her personal philanthropy, Olivia focuses on promoting the arts as an economic driver, improving the well-being of children in Northwest Arkansas and the Arkansas/ Mississippi Delta, and women’s empowerment.

Olivia leads the vision for OZ Art NWA, which supports the regional arts scene with its own collection on view throughout Bentonville and collaborates with regional and national artists to bring outdoor art to parks and trails. She also serves on the national board of directors for Teach for America.

Olivia’s curiosity, interest in big ideas, and desire to make a difference come from her years of experience as a national journalist for NBC News, MSNBC, and as an anchor for Bloomberg Television in New York and London. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and her master’s degree from the London School of Economics. Olivia lives in Bentonville, Arkansas with her husband, Tom, and their two daughters.

Polly Nordstrand joined Crystal Bridges this year as the museum’s first Curator of Native American Art, bringing to the role more than 20 years of museum experience and expertise in Native American art and history.

In her role, Nordstrand is focused on building relationships with Native nations, developing the museum’s Native American art collection and program, and providing vision for Native art at Crystal Bridges and beyond. Prior to joining Crystal Bridges, Nordstrand served as curator of southwest art at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College where she produced a varied exhibition schedule including solo shows by Baseera Khan, Nora Naranjo Morse, Christine Howard Sandoval, and Anna Tsouhlarakis. She has taught at University of Colorado– Denver, Cornell University, and University of Denver, and previously, she was associate curator of Native arts at the Denver Art Museum where she led a contemporary Native art acquisitions project adding works by Jeffrey Gibson, James Luna, and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith to the collection. Nordstrand has also worked as a curator for the National Park Service.

(left to right) Deputy Director Jill Wagar, Wayne Garrison, Pamela Garrison, Alexandra Garrison Neville, and Executive Director Rod Bigelow.

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NEWS

NEWS

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2022 Member Travel Come travel with us! Crystal Bridges and Momentary members have the opportunity to travel with our leadership team to some of the best art locations in the world. Tour museums and galleries, meet with collectors and art dealers, and enjoy the company of fellow members in some of the greatest cities in the world.

The First Decade:

Milestones of Crystal Bridges Take a trip down memory lane as we recap some of the significant moments in the museum’s first 10 years.

2014

Crystal Bridges

Santa Fe

August 2022 Kindred Spirits level

Toronto, Canada October 2022 Kindred Spirits level only

2011

Fall in the Ozarks

Crystal Bridges opens its doors to the public for the first time on 11/11/11.

Day Trip All members

2012

Same location, two different experiences.

The Momentary

Santa Fe

By the end of the museum’s first year, attendance exceeded 600,000— more than double the original projection.

August 2022 MO Insiders & MO Travelers*

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NEWS

2015

Toronto, Canada

Fall in the Ozarks

2016

Day Trip All members

Tonya Jackson oversees the member travel program at Crystal Bridges and the Momentary. Contact Tonya for inquiries about member travel at Tonya.Jackson@CrystalBridges.org or 479.657.2447.

2013

A research study among students and teachers, created by Crystal Bridges and the University of Arkansas, shows an increase in critical thinking, tolerance, empathy, and cultural interest after a museum field trip.

2017 Chihuly: In the Gallery and In the Forest becomes the highest-attended exhibition ever. The North Forest opens and the North Elevator Tower grants access to the trail from the museum.

2020 The Momentary opens on 02/22/20 in downtown Bentonville with a mission to champion contemporary art’s role in everyday life.

2018

Moved from its original location in order to preserve it, the Frank Lloyd Wrightdesigned Bachman-Wilson House opens to the public.

October 2022 MO Insiders & MO Travelers*

*The MO Travel Program is an add-on membership opportunity for MO Friend and MO Insider-level members. Want to become a MO Traveler? Email Memberships@CrystalBridges-theMomentary.org, or call the Member Priority Line at 479.418.5728.

State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now features 227 works by 100+ artists from around the country, garnering national attention.

A summit followed, bringing thought leaders and artists to Crystal Bridges.

+ The museum announces the opening of a new contemporary art space in a 63,000-square-foot former cheese factory.

The museum receives a gift of famed pianist Van Cliburn’s grand piano and launched an annual Van Cliburn Concert Series.

The newly redesigned Early American Art Galleries tell a more inclusive story, adding Native American, folk, and Spanish colonial objects, contemporary works, and bilingual text to the space.

2019 New artworks and experiences illuminate the museum, including North Forest Lights and the acquisition of Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room.

+ Crystal Bridges and the Momentary develop, package, and deliver 12,000 My Museum Kits, 28,050 meals, 6,615 food boxes, 1,022 cleaning supply kits, and 500 personal care kits for community members in need during the pandemic.

2021 We’re expanding! Learn more on page 9.

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New Acquisitions

Learn about a few of the artworks Crystal Bridges acquired in 2021.

Melissa Cody (Navajo) Walking Off No Water Mesa,, 2021 Mesa Jen Padgett Associate Curator

David Drake Twenty-Five Gallon Four-Handled Stoneware Jar, Jar, 1858 Larissa Randall Curatorial Associate, American Art

This massive ceramic jar was created in 1858 by David Drake, a skilled potter and poet born into slavery in the Edgefield District of South Carolina in 1801. His work attests to his breadth and depth of skills. He turned huge vessels on a wheel, hand-built jars and jugs using coil techniques, glazed vessels by dipping and pouring, and experimented with different glaze ratios to create varied surfaces. Drake incised poetry on jars throughout his adult life despite South Carolina's 1740 passage of the Negro Act, which criminalized people who were enslaved for learning to read and write, among other freedoms. This jar includes a poem, etched into its surface: “A very Large Jar which has 4 handles pack it full of fresh meats then light candles.”

Organized neatly in rhyming pentameter, the couplet reveals Drake’s poetic expertise. The verse is self-referential and affirms the scale, design, and purpose of the object. The poem, along with Drake’s signature and inscribed date, chronicles both his own place in the world and signals the beginning of this object’s life and history.

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CB COLLECTION & E XHIBITIONS

Using brilliant colors to form intricate geometric patterns, Melissa Cody creates powerful weavings that vibrate with energy. As a fourth-generation Navajo weaver, Cody uses traditional techniques passed down through her family. She first began learning these skills at age five from her mother, accomplished weaver Lola Cody.

Carrying forward the long history of Navajo weavers responding to the changing landscape through their designs, Melissa Cody uses imagery to tell stories that reflect her personal experience and reality.

Her electrifying palette, tightly woven structure, and experimental designs at an extraordinary scale distinguish her artistic vision.

The new work acquired by the museum, reaching 11 feet in height, is the largest and most complex weaving Cody has completed to date. Its title refers to No Water Mesa on the western part of the Navajo reservation, where Cody grew up and where her parents still reside. Cody has traveled broadly— she once explained that “constant movement is what fuels my work”—and now lives in Long Beach, California.

Cody’s dazzling weavings have been on view at Crystal Bridges previously as loans to the temporary exhibitions Art for a New Understanding: Native Voices, 1950s to Now (2018) and Crafting America (2021). Bringing her work into the collection aligns with our commitment to foreground both Indigenous artists and craft, while the themes of history, identity, family, and community within her weavings speak to a range of stories we can tell.

Bisa Butler I Am Not Your Negro, Negro, 2019 Alejo Benedetti Associate Curator, Contemporary Art

Positioned against two bright-pink patterns, a brilliantly dressed man sits cross-legged holding a thumb up to his mouth in a pensive pose. Festooned mostly in abstract patterns, the man’s pants are the rare exception, decorated with airplanes and clocks featuring different time zones.

The title, I Am Not Your Negro, Negro, borrows directly from the words of writer James Baldwin. Bisa Butler created this work as a tribute to Black intellectuals broadly, many of whom, like Baldwin, pursued opportunities outside the United States.

Instead of tying the depiction to one recognizable intellectual, Butler selected a 1936 photograph by Dorothea Lange simply labeled “Negro in Greenville, Mississippi” as source material.

In Butler’s quilted reworking, the man’s pose remains mostly unchanged, but he is re-dressed and relocated into a sea of color and pattern.

Butler’s hallmark bright colors have their roots in her training at Howard University under the tutelage of Jeff Donaldson, who was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas and one of the founding members of AfriCOBRA, an artists’ collective that featured prominently in 2018’s Soul of a Nation exhibition. Merging AfriCOBRA “Kool-Aid” colors with longstanding quilting traditions, this work connects to other quilted works in the collection, including Selah (2017) by Sanford Biggers and Maya’s Quilt (1989) by Faith Ringgold, demonstrating the expansive expressions possible within traditions of quilting.

Clara Driscoll, Tiffany Studios Wisteria table lamp, lamp, ca. 1905-1906 Mindy Besaw Director of Fellowships, Research, and University Partnerships and Curator, American Art

While Tiffany lamps are well-known today, the crucial contributions of women designers and workers in their design and creation has only recently been recognized. Designed by Clara Driscoll (1861-1944), the Wisteria table lamp is composed of nearly 2,000 small pieces of glass. In 1906, the cost for the lamp was $400, one of the most expensive Tiffany lamps at the time.

Born Clara Pierce Wolcott in Tallmadge, Ohio, Driscoll was trained at Cleveland’s design school (now Cleveland Institute of Arts), and by 1888, moved to New York to study at the Metropolitan Museum of Art School. In New York, she quickly found work at Tiffany Glass Company. Driscoll worked for Tiffany on and off from around 1888 to 1909 (and had to suspend employment while she was married, because Tiffany forbid married women from working at his firm).

For many years, Driscoll was the head of the Women’s Glass Cutting department at Tiffany. In addition to designing lamps and lampshades, Driscoll managed a large department of young women, known as the “Tiffany Girls,” who specialized in selecting and cutting glass for windows, shades, and mosaics.

She also personally oversaw numerous monumental and costly commissions and won a bronze medal at the 1900 Paris World’s Fair for her dragonfly lamp design.

CB COLLECTION & E XHIBITIONS

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Committed to Craft

Crystal Bridges’ First Craft Exhibition Sparks a Commitment to Champion Craft Erica Harmon Editor

Every object tells a story. For Crafting America, America, Crystal Bridges’ first exhibition dedicated solely to craft, co-curators Jen Padgett and Glenn Adamson gathered 120 craft objects, made from the 1940s to 2020, that showed how inclusive stories of the United States can be when told through craft.

“A focus on craft expands our ideas about American art,” said Padgett. “By centering skilled making, we add greater texture, more varied materials, and a wider range of artists to the stories we tell. Craft and art are not separate categories, instead they overlap and interweave.”

For example, the works of artist George Nakashima and his teacher Gentaro Kenneth Hikogawa demonstrated that the imparting of skills from one generation to another is the lifeblood of craft. Nakashima was incarcerated during World War II, like many other Japanese Americans, and while at Minidoka War Relocation Camp in Idaho encountered Gentaro Hikogawa, who taught him traditional Japanese carpentry skills.

Hikogawa made Untitled (Chest of Drawers) (ca. 1942–1945) at Minidoka during World War II. He had trained extensively in carpentry in Japan, learning traditional joinery techniques before immigrating to the United States in 1924. During the forced wartime incarceration, he addressed the need for furniture and applied his woodworking mastery in harsh conditions with limited resources.

Craft can also be inspired by art of the past.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Crystal Bridges commissioned Wisconsinbased artist Beth Lipman to create a new work. She chose to respond to a set of eighteenth-century paintings in the Crystal Bridges collection, known as the Levy-Franks portraits, and attributed to the artist Gerardus Duyckinck I. Titled Belonging(s) (2020), Lipman’s clear-cast glass sculpture is in the form of a traveling trunk with objects fabricated in glass inside such as plates, candlesticks, cacao pods, sugar cane, and a slave collar, references to the family’s merchant trading business.

Above: Belonging(s) (2020) by Beth Lipman sits underneath portraits of the Levy-Franks family.

Top: Lounge with Free-Form Arm Rocking Chair (1973)

by George Nakashima and Unititled (Chest of Drawers) (Ca. 1942–1945) by Gentaro Kenneth Hikogawa.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The American Institute of Architects, Houston Design Collection, museum purchase funded by friends of Chuck Thomsen, in his honor, 2015.9

MEMBER MOMENT

MEMBER MOMENT

“Crafting America was the first exhibition that I came to and it was awesome. I think it is so interesting to see how much is in Northwest Arkansas, and then just the beauty of what people can create just with their hands.”

Eileen Remley, member

Opposite page left: Rondena Rondena,, (1956), by Peter Voulkas. Quenza Collection, USA

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CB COLLECTION & E XHIBITIONS

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Share Your Craft Story During the exibition’s run, Crystal Bridges launched Share Your Craft Story, a community-driven project created to collect stories about personal connections to craft objects. From February to May 2021, we received dozens of fascinating stories such as these tied to beautiful and interesting craft objects:

"For me, it's about letting go of expectations and my own sense of wanting to master something and allowing the material, the form, the decoration to reveal itself." –Steven Young Lee

Tree of Life (Arbol de la Vida) Contributed

by Rodrigo Salas

Top: Consuelo Jimenez Underwood, Home of the Brave, Brave, 2013.

Left: Steven Young Lee, Vase with Dragon,, 2020.

Dragon

Created by Cecilio Sanchez Fierro My wife and I are avid collectors of both fine art and folk art of up-and-coming American and Mexican artists. This twofeet tall Arbol de la Vida clay sculpture was made-to-order by artisan Cecilio Sanchez Fierro in Metepec, Mexico, in 2020. It took him two months to finish it.

These sculptures are extremely delicate, thus we had to pick it up at the artisan’s home in Metepec, pack it following techniques that are often used by museums, and bring it back to Bentonville as a carry-on item. Fortunately, we were able to get it here in one piece! Now it is prominently featured in our entrance hall.

Grieved

Contributed and created

by Jill Rumoshosky Werner The work that is shown is called Grieved.. It is the only artwork Grieved that I ever made in response to the sudden death of my only child when he was 15. The quilt, which is 2 inches wide by 10 yards long, is an installation piece that is arranged differently every time, just like my memory of him.

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CB COLLECTION & E XHIBITIONS

New Acquisitions With the support of the Fund for Craft, Crystal Bridges acquired the following works seen in Crafting America, America, which will continue to show the impact of craft in the art world and beyond:

Happiest Day of My Life

Steven Young Lee, Vase with Dragon, Dragon, 2020, porcelain, cobalt inlay, and glaze

Contributed and created by Lisa Bartlett I am an artist and crafter. I am passionate about telling a story. This is how this story goes: I found a box of old photos at an estate sale. On the back of this drab photo it was written, “To Uncle Smith Feb. 9th, This was the happiest day of my life.” Since I don’t know why it was the happiest day, I can only imagine and create my own stories. I feel this young woman has so much potential in a world of adversity. She is every girl, she is smart and fierce. I like to celebrate and honor her every year on February 9.

Christine Nofchissey McHorse, Diné (Navajo), Adbibo,, 2018, micaceous clay Adbibo

Windgate’s Gift to Advance Craft The Little Rock, Arkansas-based Windgate Charitable Foundation has long been a champion of craft around the country. In 2021, the foundation provided a generous gift to the museum that will advance the field of craft through research, programmatic support, acquisitions (Fund for Craft), and the hiring of a dedicated curator of craft. “Contemporary crafts in America are the backbone of the creative community, enabling artists to develop the skills and physically produce the work they envision,” said Robyn Horn, Windgate Foundation Board Chair.

Andy Paiko, Reliquary Group, Group, 2020, blown, sculpted, etched, lacquered, and assembled glass, twine, and wax Michael Peterson, Coastal Stack XV, XV, 2017, carved, sandblasted, and bleached madrone burl with sumi ink Consuelo Jimenez Underwood, Home of the Brave, Brave, 2013, wire, silk, fabric, safety pins, and synthetic and natural threads

Special thanks to our Crafting America exhibition sponsors: Windgate Foundation, Blakeman’s Fine Jewelry, Phillips, and Morris Foundation, Inc. Crafting America has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

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At the museum’s Art Night Out event last August, I took a moment to look down the vast hallway connecting the new lobby space to Eleven. People were everywhere, laughing, drinking, listening to a live pianist, and enjoying Crystal Bridges. I had not seen this many people at the museum since the pandemic began, and while everyone was masked up, it felt a little more like normal. I made my way down the hall to the Crystal Bridges at 10 exhibition, and the space was no less crowded. People of all ages floated through the rooms, trying to catch sight of everything they could before moving to the next room. This time, there was much more than art to see. Crystal Bridges at 10 was developed as an opportunity to celebrate the museum’s first decade by foregrounding artist voices and embracing the community while also setting sights on the future. It was a great opportunity to see the collection in new ways, showcase new acquisitions such as self-portraits

by Rosa Rolanda and Meleko Mokgosi, but beyond that, this exhibition, unlike any other, was a love letter to many of those who helped raise Crystal Bridges in its infant decade.

It Takes a Village to Raise a Museum Crystal Bridges at 10 Celebrates Art and Community Erica Harmon Editor

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Opposite page: A group poses in a tableau vivant, vivant, staged to look like The Lantern Bearers (1908)

by Maxfield Parrish.

Right: Artist Ziba Rajabi talks to visitors near her work.

Bottom: visitors enjoy the Mark Dion Elemental Collections installation.

Artists Take Over the Gallery Artists determined what visitors saw in certain sections. Artist and curator Dyani White Hawk, whose work She Gives (Quiet Strength V) (2019) can be found in the Crystal Bridges collection, curated a section which she titled Walking Toward US. “The ‘US’ in the statement capitalized alludes to both us as in all people, all humanity, all life, and it also alludes to the United States and a decision to actively walk towards the values that this nation supposedly represents,” said White Hawk. “And in order to do that, we have to learn one another’s stories. We have to be able to understand each other as full human beings.”

She notes that the works she chose demonstrate a diversity of lived experiences on this land. “I pulled works of artists whose practices I deeply value and respect”—those of Martine Gutierrez, Kerry James Marshall, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, and Firelei Baez, to name a few.

Over the course of two months, Fayetteville-based artist Ziba Rajabi developed a room-sized, site-specific work in the gallery titled Glitched Home (2021). I spoke with her after she completed the piece. She told me it took her about a week longer to complete than she planned, because she was so engaged with visitors during the hours she spent working in the galleries.

“I’m relieved, but also I’m so excited to see the finished work on the wall,” she said. The mixed-media artwork consists of about 2,500 panels that Rajabi made of canvas, paint, photographs, and a reflective material she made by hand. “The whole idea of Glitched Home comes from my experience of being away from home and not being able to see my family and home in person,” she said. Rajabi is from Iran and continues close relationships with family and home through technology, which can “glitch” and flatten.

This inspired her work in panels, which can read as pixels or tiles.

Perhaps the most talked-about section of Crystal Bridges at 10 was Elemental Collections,, four rooms created by artist Mark Collections Dion evoking the elements of air, earth, water, and fire. To create a specific mood in each space, Dion used wallpaper, lighting, color, and unique doorways to frame the experience.

Dion combined art, historical objects, cultural collections, and scientific specimens with objects generously loaned by the University of Arkansas Museum Collections, Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, Arthropod Museum, and Herbarium Collections–objects such as a carrier pigeon, snake specimen, and a giant elephant bird egg. “I’m a scientist and biologist, and so I love to see natural history getting exposure outside of normal natural history museums–to see it in an art museum is amazing,” said Ashley Dowling, original member, dad to self-portrait artist Calder Dowling, and entomologist who helped identify insects for the installation.

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Community Is Key Crystal Bridges tapped into talent from many departments at the University of Arkansas. The university’s Tesseract Center for Immersive Environments and Game Design transformed Francis Guy’s Winter Scene in Brooklyn (1820) into a digital environment, allowing visitors to “step into” the painting and learn more about its history.

In the Art + Nature section, Shawn Irish, head of design and technology at the university’s Department of Theatre, served as the section’s lighting designer. The lights and colors change from the soft, pink hues of an Arkansas dawn, to the brightness of a day in the Ozarks, and finally to a calming, nighttime blue, influencing the way visitors experienced the paintings and sculpture in the space. While Irish’s portfolio includes credits for over 25 shows at TheatreSquared in Fayetteville, Crystal Bridges at 10 is his very first art exhibition credit. “In the lighting design field, we are always looking for new ways to apply what we know,” said Irish.

Self-portraits from the museum’s collection hung next to 24 selfportraits created by K-12 students from around the region. The museum put out a call for submissions and the response was overwhelming. Many of the young artists spoke to curators and guests about their work in the gallery, and an activity table nearby allowed visitors a chance to create their own self-portraits.

In another section, a team of partners at Finding Northwest Arkansas, Engage NWA, and Northwest Arkansas Council identified eight local Northwest Arkansas residents who contribute to the community in essential ways, and these residents became the subject of photos by Brandon Watts, owner of B. Watts Photography and Studio 4seven9—residents like Jazmin Rivas. After witnessing the disproportionate impact COVID-19 was having on the Hispanic community, Rivas left her banking job to work for the Community Clinic, the largest safety-net healthcare provider in the region. The photographs honoring community champions hung alongside Norman

Rockwell’s Rosie the Riveter (1943), which represented the contributions of American female industry workers during World War II. “If there is anything this past decade, especially these past few years has taught us, it is that the vibrancy of a community is inextricably tied to the spirit of caring embodied by its people and expressed by its institutions,” said Aron Shelton, director of Finding Northwest Arkansas. “I am so grateful to Crystal Bridges for embracing the local community over these past 10 years and marking that milestone by celebrating and amplifying their stories. It was such an honor and privilege to collaborate on this project.”

I think it should be noted that I could not fit everything Crystal Bridges at 10 had to offer in this one article. It was truly an explosion of art and community that will never be replicated in quite the same way again, but it left me with a sense that this was a moment in time, and now, the museum is ready to begin the next decade.

Engel & Völkers Steve Flory Gelmart International Greg Thompson Fine Art Jim and Susan von Gremp Meza Harris

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1. Companion Species: Species: A Collaborative Exhibition with the Museum of Native American History

Companion Species sponsored by the Terra Foundation and Micky and Marybeth Mayfield.

Top: Visitors experience art under a customized lighting design in the Art + Nature section.

Bottom: Young visitors take a moment to create their own self-portraits.

Hyde Family Foundation Donna and Mack McLarty Steve and Susan Nelson Catherine and Stephan Roche JT and Imelda Rose Jon and Kim Shirley

Special thanks to our 10th Anniversary Exhibition Season Sponsors (see pg. 52).

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Erica Harmon Editor

Top: Companion Species (Speech Bubble) (2019) by Marie Watt hangs in the Crystal Bridges gallery.

Right: Crystal Bridges artworks are on display next to Native American regalia at MONAH.

Crystal Bridges at 10 exhibition sponsors: iHeart Media Bob and Becky Alexander Anonymous Ramsay and Jaquita Ball Avis and Bill Bailey Juan, Marcy, and Joaquin Camacho

10 Art Moments in 2021

Diane and Mark Simmons Stella Boyle Smith Trust Catherine and Michael Mayton Barbara and George Sycip Deborah Wright David Zwirner

Focus exhibitions at Crystal Bridges are usually found amid the collection galleries. They feature fewer works than a regular exhibition, offering space to hone in on one theme or idea.

Companion Species: We Are All Related was a collaborative focus exhibition between Crystal Bridges and the Museum of Native American History (MONAH) to examine our connections with animals, nature, and each other. It was curated by Mindy Besaw, director of fellowships, research, and university partnerships and curator, American art, Crystal Bridges and Ashley Holland, associate curator, Art Bridges, with the additional perspectives of community members Gayle Ross (Cherokee Nation) and JR Mathews (Quapaw).

The centerpiece of the exhibition was Companion Species (Speech Bubble) (2019)

by Marie Watt (Seneca), created through sewing circles in our region and beyond, which are reflected in the multiple contributions that make up the work. Accompanying the artwork at both Crystal Bridges and MONAH, the exhibition included paintings, sculpture, mixed media, and accessories made by Native and nonNative artists that told stories of companionship and reciprocity through animals, words, and symbolism.

“Within this context of Native American objects and cultures, it helps us see American art differently,” said Besaw.

“It helps point to some of the mythmaking that these objects have contributed to our perceptions of Indigenous peoples.

And at MONAH, instead of only seeing a European view of Native peoples, we can see expression and objects and paintings and regalia that were made by Native people.”

“Companion Species: We Are All Related created an engaging conversation between our art institutions,” said MONAH Director Charlotte Buchanan-Yale. “Joint exhibits such as this make Northwest Arkansas a stronger art and cultural destination.”

Courtesy of Art Bridges, Companion Species is now touring at other museums around the country, including the Chazen Museum of Art at the University of Wisconsin and the Yellowstone Art Musuem in Billings, Montana.

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2. This Is the Day: Day: Celebrating the Resilience of the Black Church This Is the Day brought together 24 artistic representations of Black faith and spirituality to illuminate the resilience of the Black church and the communities it has served for more than 300 years. The artists in This Is the Day, Day, including Bruce Davidson, Faith Ringgold: Shikeith, and Fayetteville-based photographer Aaron R. Turner, celebrate Black American worship while carefully documenting its beautiful and brutalized history. As part of the show, the team asked the leaders of Black churches in the region to think about the religious music they turn to regularly, resulting in a playlist on Crystal Bridges’ Spotify channel.

Jayson Overby, curator of This Is the Day, Day, wrote about his inspiration for the exhibition, excerpted here: “The people that I come from have waded through the cold river waters of south-central Alabama, they’ve migrated upstream, and they’ve stood hand in hand protesting this very fraught country. Yet still, some have yet to wander through the doors and up the stairs of the neoclassical temples that house and uphold the system’s that have inherently kept Black Americans out of its doors.

Want to know something? We belong there—our stories, histories, and bodies—but not at the expense of a diversity hire or a long-term loan. Our contributions to this world do not live within those limitations, our bodies don’t—so why should we? But the thing is, many think otherwise…Somehow, given the history of this country, a safe future for Black folks feels so distant, but still tangible. Across this country, in rural towns and metropolitan cities alike, we continue to persist on. To those to whom it applies, stay Black, vigilant, and hopeful, and be sure to pass it on to the others.”

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4. Selena Forever/Siempre Selena: A Pop Star’s Legacy Selena: Lives On

It’s been 26 years since the tragic passing of Selena Quintanilla-Perez, yet her presence remains a force in the music industry and beyond. With her popular music playing in the gallery at Crystal Bridges, Selena Forever/Siempre Selena is a celebration of a successful and loved young woman. Large-format photographs of Selena, taken by photographer John Dyer in 1992 and 1994, adorn every wall and elevate Selena’s beauty, her fashion, and the image she carefully crafted. Visitors enjoyed posing in front of a backdrop similar to one seen in some of the photographs.

One young museum visitor, named after the singer, donned a Selena onesie while striking a pose (left).

Selena Forever/Siempre Selena was organized for the McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas, by Kate Carey, Head of Education.

Sponsored by Tony Waller.

3. What I Know: Know: A Show About Knowledge One of the great things about looking at art is the ability to take a walk in someone else’s shoes—to see what they see and to learn what they know. The self-taught African American artists from the South featured in What I Know: Gifts from Gordon W. Bailey are storytellers, both of folklore and of life, and they have lots of knowledge to share. The art features scenes and subjects of lived experiences and stories told. For example, Cocaine Dog (1980s), a sculpture made of found materials by Thornton Dial, tells a story of addiction as a female figure clings to a demon.

Herbert Singleton’s striking carved wood mural Angola (1990s) tells a harrowing tale of prison life, a work both rich in story and haunting in its takeaway—that this “story” is rooted in reality.

Just as the wandering subject in Joe Light’s painting seeks wisdom, perhaps it can be found through the work and stories of artists such as these. The paintings and sculptures featured in this exhibition were gifts to Crystal Bridges from Gordon W. Bailey, a scholar, collector, and advocate for all the artists in this exhibition.

5. Julie Alpert Imagines a Section of the Contemporary Art Gallery Meredith Wagner Social Media Manager

They say the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. This rings particularly true in Julie Alpert: Altars, Keepsakes, Squiggles, and Bows, Bows, a site-specific installation that opened this past fall. As Crystal Bridges’ social media manager, I observed Alpert cutting large-scale wooden shapes, selecting paint colors, and applying vibrant patterns to household objects from afar—from Instagram stories, that is—leading up to the public debut of the installation.

Fast forward to a few days after the exhibition opened. It was a Tuesday. The museum was closed. I stepped into a quiet gallery that rang loud with shape, pattern, and color and felt completely surrounded despite my solitude.

The piece-by-piece process I had witnessed unfolding on Instagram came together suddenly and dramatically. A small colored pencil drawing of a bow on graph paper. A collection of scissors, hearts, and hashtags hanging from the ceiling.

A ceramic cat painted teal and pink. Each object could be observed and admired in isolation, but they were clearly crafted to complement the surrounding forms, supporting Alpert’s overarching vision and contributing to the wholeness of the experience.

From hot-pink drips, duct-taped soap dispensers, and framed portraits of cats emerged a surprising sense of harmony and balance. “I want visitors to feel the joy and strangeness of life and memory all at once,” said Alpert. And all at once, all parts combined, altogether, that is exactly how I felt.

The work will be on view through May 16, 2022.

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6. Cross Pollination: Pollination:

At the Intersection of Art, Science, and the Digital Space Cross Pollination: Heade, Cole, Church, and Our Contemporary Moment brings together works of art, photographs, and natural history specimens to examine the interconnection between art and science extending from the nineteenth century to now. The exhibition takes flight from Martin Johnson Heade’s series The Gems of Brazil (ca. 1863-64), a favorite group of 16 paintings in the Crystal Bridges collection portraying hummingbirds, flowers, and a blue morpho butterfly.

Curator Mindy Besaw shares, “Heade’s ambition was to view hummingbirds in their natural habitat and produce paintings that would serve as the basis for a magnificent publication titled Gems of Brazil.

Brazil. In 1863, Heade journeyed by steamship from New York to Brazil where he stayed in Rio de Janeiro for nearly seven months.”

In addition to enjoying the exhibition in the galleries, visitors can also create their own Gems of Brazil-inspired Brazil-inspired painting in the digital space. Creative Director of Production Shane Richey developed a virtual interactive experience that takes visitors along on Heade’s journey to Rio where they can “fill their sketchbooks” and make an original painting inspired by The Gems of Brazil.

Brazil. Visit the Cross Pollination exhibition page on CrystalBridges.org to give it a try!

Cross Pollination is on view through March 21, 2022.

Support for Cross Pollination and its national tour is provided by Art Bridges. Additional major support has been provided by the Henry Luce Foundation, Terra Foundation for American Art, and Galen, Debi, and Alice Havner.

7. After The

Last Supper: Supper: Rethinking History through Material For eight months, Devorah Sperber’s popular artwork After The Last Supper (2005), made of an astounding 20,736 thread spools, returned to the museum walls alongside After The Mona Lisa 1 (2005). These works play with perception as the abstracted, pixelated-looking grid shifts to a familiar scene when viewed through a clear viewing sphere.

But beyond the awe-inspiring optical illusion of these works, notice the material: thread spools. Textiles and fiber-based materials associated with “women’s work” have traditionally been devalued in the art world. Associate Curator Jen Padgett explored this idea by putting Sperber’s works in conversation with textile-based works by Sonya Clark, Louise Bourgeois, and others who use fabric and thread to directly challenge ideas about which materials reign supreme.

After The Last Supper sponsored by Randy and Valorie Lawson/ Lawco Energy Group and JT and Imelda Rose.

8. In American Waters: Waters: Return to the Sea In American Waters: The Sea in American Painting is Crystal Bridges’ current and final exhibition of 2021. This show, co-curated by Austen Barron Bailly, chief curator, Crystal Bridges, and Dan Finamore, The Russell W. Knight Curator of Maritime Art and History, Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, explores over 200 years of American marine life through paintings by Georgia O’Keeffe, Jacob Lawrence, Amy Sherald, Kay WalkingStick, Nick Cave, Norman Rockwell, Kerry James Marshall, Martin Johnson Heade, Stuart Davis, among more than 80 artists whose works show the breadth and variety of American painters engaged with marine themes.

Arkansas is a landlocked state, rather than sitting on a harbor at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean like Salem, Massachusetts, but the waters that flow through the Natural State, not to mention Crystal Bridges, are worth highlighting. “I hope that people will pause and recognize their connectivity to something far away and vast; that through looking at the paintings in this exhibition and thinking about American art and history, they might see that they actually have a connection to a place like Salem and beyond through the art and through the waters,” said Bailly.

In American Waters is on view through January 31, 2022.

In American Waters sponsored by Bob and Becky Alexander, Harrison and Rhonda French Family, Marybeth and Micky Mayfield, Sue and Charles Redfield, and Jeff and Sarah Teague | Citizens Bank, and James Zigras.

Special thanks to our 10th Anniversary Exhibition Season Sponsors (see pg. 52).

The Van Cliburn Concert Series Endowment Fund supported

by Kelly and Marti Sudduth, Reed and Mary Ann Greenwood, Ellis and Kay Melton, Chip and Susan Chambers, Alice L. Walton.

Special thanks to Tommy Smith and Steinway & Sons.

Infinity Mirrored Room sponsored by David and Cathy Evans Family.

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9. Van

Cliburn Concert Series: Classical Piano Never Sounded So Good The annual Van Cliburn Concert Series returned to Crystal Bridges this year with a mix of virtual and live classical piano performances. To ring in the New Year, the Arkansas Philharmonic Orchestra with NWA Ballet Theatre, the Park Na Conservatory for Violin & Cello, and the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas developed a unique performance pairing music and dance with artworks found in the museum’s collection.

In the fall, classical piano returned to the Great Hall with live performances from renowned pianists Elio Villafranca (pictured above) and Conrad Tao.

10. The Infinity Mirrored Room Reopens This year, Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room—My Heart is Dancing into the Universe (2018), reopened after closing in 2020 due to COVID-19. Preparator Landon Perkins noted: “Much like the universe Kusama creates in her Infinity Room artworks that highlight the temperamental nature of the sublime, the physical materials that make up My Heart is Dancing into the Universe are equally fragile. Everything behind the scenes of this piece is connected, one could say the work in itself is its own technical universe...For it to fully function as intended by the artist’s imagination, we must treat the universe Kusama has created with the greatest of care and respect.”

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Artist Rashid Johnson installed his artwork, The Bruising: For Jules, the Bird, Jack and Leni in May 2021.

Moments Along the Trails

The structure features 20+ plants, some native, some tropical, in a celebration of the interconnection between art and nature.

Courtesy of the the artist and Hauser & Wirth © Rashid Johnson.

Sponsored by Airways Frieght Corp., and James I. Freeman Charitable Trust.

R. Buckminster Fuller's Fly's Eye Dome (detail) moved from the North Lawn to the Orchard Trail in preparation for the museum’s expansion and the upcoming Architecture at Home exhibition (see pg. 30).

The Forest Concert Series returned this summer with live shows by Dazz + Brie, Trout Fishing in America, Ley Line, and more!

Sponsored by Ken and Liz Allen, Chip and Susan Chambers, and the Harrison and Rhonda French Family.

North Forest Lights, created

by Moment Factory, came back to the forest for a third and final season.

Sponsored by the Willard and Pat Walker Charitable Foundation (Lead Sponsor), Arvest Bank, June Carter Family, and Shannon and Charles Holley.

Presented on the Coca-Cola Stage. Sponsored by avad3 event Production and General Mills.

Did you experience Art Trail at Night or Garden Party this year?

These events celebrated art in nature, complete with glow gear.

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The Frank Lloyd Wright House reopened this year after closing due to COVID-19. Members enjoyed an open house event on the lawn, and they also receive free guided tours!

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2022 Exhibitions Crystal Bridges members see these exhibitions for free.

The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse March 12– June 25, 2022 Member Preview: March 11 The Dirty South examines the lasting influence of southern aesthetic and musical traditions spanning the past century of southern Black culture through works of sculpture, paintings, works on paper, assemblage, textiles, and music as well as ephemera from music culture, including instruments, music videos, costumes, lyrics, and personal effects. The Dirty South creates an engaging opportunity to experience a deeper understanding of the South and its undeniable imprint on the history of American art and culture.

The Dirty South is organized by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts: Valerie Cassel Oliver, VMFA’s Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. Coordinated at Crystal Bridges by Alejo Benedetti, associate curator, contemporary art.

Sponsored by Harrison and Rhonda French Family, Esther Silver-Parker, and Deborah Wright. This project is supported in part by a grant from the Arkansas Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Nari Ward, Xquisite LiquorsouL, LiquorsouL, 2009, metal and neon sign, wood with artificial flowers, shoelaces, shoe tips.

Courtesy of the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong, Seoul, and London. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Aldine S. Hartman Endowment Fund, Eric and Jeanette Lipman Fund, Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Endowment.

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Interested in sponsoring an exhibition?

Call Director of Development Emily Ironside at 479.418.5780.

Architecture at Home May 7–November 7, 2022 Member Preview: May 6

Fashioning America: Grit to Glamour Above: R. Buckminster Fuller, Fly’s Eye Dome, Dome, 1961 Below: Anna Sui Western-inspired Ensembles, Men’s Ensemble, Americana Collection, Spring 2017 Ready-to-Wear. Photo by Raoul Gatchalian/Thomas Lau.

This outdoor architecture exhibition brings together five prototypes for homes to spark a dialogue about contemporary housing and how architecture affects our lives.

Through research, interviews, and innovative thinking, five architecture firms based across the Americas (studioSUMO, LEVENBETTS, MUTUO, PPAA [Perez Palacios Arquitectos Asociados], and studio:indigenous) designed and fabricated 500 square-foot prototypes for a contemporary house. Exhibited along the Orchard Trail on the museum’s grounds, and anchored by R. Buckminster Fuller’s Fly’s Eye Dome,, a prototype for an experimental home, Dome visitors will be able to enter and explore these immersive, domestic prototypes.

Architecture at Home is organized by Crystal Bridges and curated by Dylan Turk, special projects editor, architecture and design.

Sponsored by Airways Freight Corp.

Ken and Liz Allen, and Tartaglino Richards Family Foundation.

September 10, 2022–January 30, 2023 Member Preview: September 9 Don’t miss Crystal Bridges’ first exhibition dedicated to fashion and the first to present American fashion as a powerful emblem of global visual culture. From dresses worn by First Ladies to art-inspired garments to iconic fashion moments that defined a generation, Fashioning America conveys uniquely American expressions of innovation, highlights the compelling stories of both designers and wearers that center on opportunity and selfinvention, and amplifies the voices of those who are often left out of dominant fashion narratives.

Fashioning America is organized by Crystal Bridges and curated by guest curator Michelle Tolini Finamore, PhD, a leading fashion curator and historian.

Sponsored by Gelmart International, Jim and Susan von Gremp, JT and Imelda Rose, and Diane and Mark Simmons.

Special thanks to our 10th Anniversary Exhibition Season Sponsors (see pg. 52).

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Visual and Performing Artists Bring New Perspectives to the Momentary Erica Harmon Editor

WHAT’S GOING ON Today’s visual and performing arts hold a mirror to the times we live in, and the work is largely affected by what’s happening around us. Take Kenny Rivero, for example.

His solo exhibition at the Momentary this past summer investigated themes that have been present in his work over the past decade, but the title of the show, The Floor Is Crooked, Crooked, was largely inspired by the pandemic. “The “The Floor Is Crooked came from me thinking about this whole year, and thinking about the pandemic, and just how I’ve had to resituate and sort of reestablish my ground,” said Rivero. “I’ve really had to think about the integrity of the things that I built for myself as foundations, which haven’t felt secure, necessarily. It’s understanding that the floor is always crooked; there’s no level plane on the planet, if you think about it. So why approach it that way?”

Los Angeles-based artist Sarah Cain developed a sitespecific installation for the Momentary after visiting the space before it opened to the public. The show, titled In Nature, Nature, was inspired by the Momentary’s integration into its natural setting and formal observations from nature. While Cain and her team had to adapt to a new production set-up due to the pandemic, the resulting work brought vibrant colors and form to the Momentary’s Lobby Gallery.

From top: Kenny Rivero: The Floor Is Crooked, Sarah Cain: In Nature, and (right) Abigail DeVille's Light of Freedom.

Opposite Page Garrett Bradley: American Rhapsody

To transform a building, just add art. The Momentary, a former cheese factory with an industrial aesthetic, has been reimagined and reshaped several times this year through the work of visual and performing artists. Sarah Cain, Derrick Adams, Diana Al-Hadid, Cauleen Smith, Garrett Bradley, and Kenny Rivero each created solo exhibitions while work by Abigail DeVille and performances such as Ocean Body,, Sun & Sea, Body Sea, and A Thousand Ways activated the space in new and exciting ways. The perspectives and creativity brought to the Momentary in 2021 reflected on our current times, presented stories and histories in a new light, and confronted our relationships with the planet and each other.

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The Momentary hosted two artists-in-residence this year: Rashawn Griffin and Justin Favela. See Griffin's installation on view at the Momentary through May 5, 2022.

The Momentary had the privilege to present Abigail DeVille’s Light of Freedom this year, commissioned

by Madison Square Park Conservancy, New York.

Light of Freedom is a 13-foot-tall reference to the Statue of Liberty’s torch encased in scaffolding and filled with found objects. DeVille created the work while reflecting on the despair and exultation of our current moment of pandemic and protest. “It’s a commemoration of the Black Lives Matter protests and movement and the Black lives here in this continent for 400 years,” said DeVille.

A Thousand Ways is a multi-part performance developed

by Obie Award-winning theatermakers 600 Highwaymen.

The performance requires full audience participation.

Beginning with a phone call with a stranger, then advancing to an in-person conversation with another person, this out-of-your-comfortzone engagement is led by a series of prompts, making each experience completely unique, especially during a time of extreme isolation.

A Thousand Ways provided participants with an opportunity to show up, to have their voice heard, and to make a special connection. Stay tuned for Part Three in 2022.

This year, we also hosted the INVERSE Performance Art Symposium. This program offered a collaborative and communicative space for artists looking to work in conversation with other artists as they individually research and produce their own work. Performances were hosted at the Momentary, developed by the participating artists—an effort that is intended to continue yearly with a festival scheduled for 2022.

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TELLING (HI)STORIES Contemporary art can also present the not-so-distant past in a new light. Derrick Adams: Sanctuary, Sanctuary, for example, was inspired by reference material from The Negro Motorist Green Book (known today as The Green Book) to reimagine safe destinations for Black American travelers, a group who could not travel safely in the United States during the Jim Crow era.

Adams’s mixed-media collages and miniature cars made from travel caps present conversations around travel, leisure, and American history.

In Diana Al-Hadid: Ash in the Trade Winds, Winds, the artist’s abstract wall panels and sculptures, developed in Al-Hadid’s signature process of layering pigments, tell stories that draw from literature and history. “I like to point a spotlight on lessertold stories, or speak to the broader context for the stories we know or take for granted,” said Al-Hadid. “I’m compelled to find patterns or similarities in stories that exist across cultures.”

From top: Derrick Adams: Sanctuary, Sanctuary, Diana Al-Hadid: Ash in the Trade Winds,, and Space Station: Radiant Winds Behind the Sun by Cauleen Smith.

THE OCEAN AND US Our relationship with the ocean was a reoccurring theme presented through performing arts projects this year. In Sun & Sea, Sea, an award-winning Lithuanian opera performance, the Momentary’s interior Tower space was transformed into a day at the beach complete with swimsuit-clad artists alongside community volunteers, all lounging on beach towels atop 25 tons of sand. The haunting lyrics drift between mundane accounts of daily life and observations about climate change affecting us: “You see, we had Christmas at our farmhouse.

But this year, there was no frost, no snow, it felt like it could be Easter!” Sun & Sea came to the Momentary on its first US tour, amids stops in Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles. It was a runaway hit at the 2019 Venice Biennale, earning its all-female creative team the much-coveted Golden Lion.

Ocean Body, Body, a multi-channel sound installation, made its premiere at the Momentary this past summer, complemented by an in-person talk with the artists. Mark DeChiazza’s footage of close friends Helga Davis and Shara Nova together and alone in the waters of the Gulf Coast, interacting with a sculptural dress by artist Annica Cuppateli, layered with original song and narration, creates a multisensory experience of a place where sand, sun, and water surround experiences of intense communion and also of profound isolation.

“We’re honored to have showcased the work and amplified the voices of over a dozen artists this year,” said Kaitlin Garcia-Maestas, associate curator, visual arts. “While the pandemic posed many challenges for our artists and community, in the end, our exhibitions created space for respite and cultural exchange. As we look ahead, we’re excited to continue organizing exhibitions that address timely issues while also broadening the physical possibilities of our galleries.”

Special thanks to all our sponsors: All visual arts exhibitions and projects mentioned here were sponsored by The Coca-Cola Company.

Sarah Cain: In Nature sponsored by Soapbox Influence and Juan, Marcy, and Joaquin Camacho.

Derrick Adams: Sanctuary sponsored by Sarah Simmons, Kate and Greg Schaffer, and Tony Waller.

New Orleans-based artist and filmmaker Garrett Bradley featured stories of race, family, prison reform, and the ongoing discussion of national identity through three film works in her first solo exhibition, Garrett Bradley: American Rhapsody..

Rhapsody..

In Space Station: Radiant Behind the Sun, Sun, Cauleen Smith told stories through film, exploring concepts of utopia and Afrofuturism through pilgrimages to sacred spaces.

With In Some Form or Fashion, Fashion, on view now through March 27, 2022, six artists were invited to take over the Momentary Galleries and tell stories through garments. Pia Camil, Martine Gutierrez, Eric N. Mack, Troy Montes-Michie, Simphiwe Ndzube, and Wendy Red Star each used fabric to consider how the garments we purchase, wear, and dispose of shape our identities.

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Save the Date for these 2022 exhibitions: Esteban Cabeza de Baca: Let Earth Breathe,, April 23 to Breathe September 25, 2022 A Divided Landscape, Landscape, May 14 to September 25, 2022

Diana Al-Hadid: Ash in the Trade Winds sponsored

by Sarah Simmons and Kate and Greg Schaffer.

Space Station: Radiant Behind the Sun sponsored

by Catherine and Stephan Roche and Deborah Wright.

Sun & Sea sponsored by Visit Bentonville.

In Some Form or Fashion sponsored by Cox Communications, Anna and Carl George, Olivia Tyson, Eric and Elda Scott, Flintco, LLC, and Tony Waller.

Above: Sun & Sea: An Opera Performance by Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Grainytė and Lina Lapelytė.

Did you catch BANDALOOP last September?

The vertical dance group who performed during the Momentary’s opening weekend came back for a special performance for members on September 28, 2021.

INVERSE sponsored by Whitney Kroenke Silverstein and Nick Silverstein.

A Thousand Ways sponsored by Visit Bentonville and Caryl Stern & Donald La Rosa.

MO VISUAL & PERFORMING ARTS

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Bentonville’s Newest Live Music Venue Natalie Demaree Social Media Specialist

It’s been said that music bonds people together, and after more than a year of attending virtual concerts and productions apart from one another, we were collectively reminded of how remarkable it is to experience live performance communally.

Whether it be the thrill of jumping up and down or headbobbing to a great tune or having a moment of introspection in a crowd, it’s these shared experiences that build a sense of community.

As an institution that focuses on and responds to the art of today, the Momentary set a goal to bring live music back safely.

Because if we’re honest, the art we’re craving today is the art of gathering.

“We are serious about making the Momentary a ‘living room for the community,’ and music is the key that unlocks that door,” said Olivia Walton, executive board chair of the Momentary and board chair of Crystal Bridges. “Done right, music can be more accessible, bring together all sides of the political spectrum, and simply be less intimidating than a traditional ‘museum space.’”

As a result of this initiative, the Momentary programmed two major music series this summer—Live on the Green Concert Series and Courtyard Sessions—and (finally) hosted the inaugural FreshGrass | Bentonville festival this fall, celebrating today’s bluegrass and roots music.

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The Sounds of Summer As the summer air floated into Bentonville, the lights came up over the Canopy on the Momentary Green and we ushered in a new chapter, welcoming over 97 musicians in total.

Each Friday evening, crowds rolled in for Live on the Green, our family-friendly outdoor concert series, setting up picnic blankets and lawn chairs and enjoying beverages from the nearby RØDE Bar and kebabs from the Momentary Food Truck. Watching the day fade into night, we jammed to the sounds of artists across genres, such as The Accidentals, Willi Carlisle, and Rochelle Bradshaw & Hypnotion, to name a few.

Music lovers didn’t have to wait long for another live-music high. In our Courtyard Sessions series, in partnership with CACHE, crowds were welcomed back every Sunday afternoon.

Community members sang and danced along to the beat of the best upcoming artists in Northwest Arkansas such as DJ Raquel, Ley Lines, Mildenhall, and others.

Returning to Our Roots In early October, FreshGrass | Bentonville made its debut at the Momentary and was the highlight of a live music-filled year.

The two-day, family-friendly festival brought in today’s best bluegrass and roots artists such as Billy Strings, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, Steep Canyon Rangers, Leyla McCalla, Flor de Toloache, and many more. Music fans from near and far braved the rain-spotted weekend and enjoyed incredible performances from different groups across the Momentary campus. Saturday afternoon, the sun came out making the weather just right, and we danced the night away amid a full Momentary Green. It felt good to gather again, and it made us hopeful knowing that this is only the beginning of many phenomenal experiences at the Momentary.

FreshGrass has been held at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts every year since 2011 and attended by thousands of people. FreshGrass | Bentonville is the newest addition to the organization and is intended to become a reoccurring music festival that not only presents great bluegrass music on local, regional, and national levels, but also creates spaces to have meaningful, shared experiences.

Argeo Ascani Joins the Momentary In August, the Momentary welcomed Argeo Ascani as its new programmer of music and festivals. Ascani joined the Momentary from Troy, New York where they worked as a curator at EMPAC—the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Ascani has worked with a range of artists, including electronic music pioneers Kode9 and Oneohtrix Point Never, and mastermind musicians Anne Akiko Meyers and Tyshawn Sorey.

Ascani envisions the Momentary growing into a place where people gather to have thought-provoking, perspectiveenhancing encounters with live performance, they said.

“That could take many forms, whether it is hearing a band you’ve been following online for the first time live, being awed by a virtuoso pianist, experiencing a rich and complex composition, or feeling the music rush over you with the stars overhead,” Ascani said.

Whatever the next year brings, we’ll be sure not to miss a beat with live music on the schedule.

FreshGrass returns to the Momentary, May 20-21, 2022!

Members receive ticket discounts and other perks.

Special thanks to our FreshGrass | Bentonville 2021 sponsors: The Source, Visit Bentonville, Bentonville Brewing Company, and Axe and the Oak Distillery. Courtyard Sessions sponsored

by Tyson Family Foundation.

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You Belong Here The Momentary Hosts a Community Resource Fair in Support of the LGBTQ+ Community On a Saturday in early June, the sun shined bright over the Momentary as vendors, partners, drag performers, impact speakers, staff, and community members came together in celebration and support of the LGBTQ+ community with a campus-wide community resource fair. A large, rainbowcolored balloon arch adorned the entrance to the Arvest Bank Courtyard where food trucks framed an outdoor hangout paired with cool drinks at the nearby RØDE Bar. Inside the Momentary, local partners set up booths with LGBTQ+ support resources, artmaking activities, and shopping while the RØDE House hosted a full itinerary of impact speakers, drag performances by local performers, and music sets by DJ Girlfriend, all free for the public to enjoy. Throughout the day, over 1,700 guests enjoyed the You Belong Community Resource Fair.

“This was our first large-scale gathering the Momentary has hosted since our opening in February 2020, so simply being able to gather together to celebrate and support the

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LBGTQ+ community was joyful, exuberant, and therapeutic,” said Katie Robertson, engagement manager, the Momentary.

“Community organizations, businesses, and advocacy groups filled every nook and cranny of our building, offering LGBTQ+ support resources, education, and allyship for our guests. The words ‘You Belong Here’ have never felt truer than in that moment.”

Rainbow Bridges is an internal resource group for Momentary, Crystal Bridges, and Art Bridges employees that are either part of or support the LGBTQ+ community. "Northwest Arkansas is the fastest growing area in the state of Arkansas,” said Cecil Clifton, Rainbow Bridges co-chair.. “We see people from all over the world come into our region and events like these help to show that all truly are welcome here and that everyone does in fact belong.”

“You Belong” rainbow t-shirts are available for purchase at the Momentary Shop and the Crystal Bridges Museum Store!

Special thanks to all of our partners for participating: ARCare, Arkansas Crisis Center, Arkansas Department of Health, Bentonville Follies, BiSoxual, Blake St. House, Burrell Behavioral Health, Happy State Co., Havenwood, The Hershey Company, Hub of Hope, Human Rights Campaign, Legal Aid of Arkansas, Mars, Marshallese Education Initiative, NWA Center for Sexual Assault, NWA Women’s Shelter, Scott Family Amazeum, Taylor Law, Visit Bentonville, and Whole Health Institute.

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A Q&A with Chief Learning and Engagement Officer Marissa Reyes Erica Harmon Editor

As the director of the Learning and Engagement department at Crystal Bridges—which includes public programs, school programs, community engagement, and access and inclusive programs—Marissa Reyes knows how to balance big, important concepts with a spoonful of sugar.

Born in the Philippines and raised in Chicago, she has spent decades working in education for arts-based organizations.

I recently spoke with Marissa about the vision she has for her department, the future of learning and engagement at Crystal Bridges, and the importance of art in a child’s life.

Erica Harmon: In your opinion, what is an art museum’s role in creating a just, equitable, empathetic, and creative society?

Marissa Reyes: For the Learning and Engagement team to serve that larger vision, we look at four pillars: We work to position the museum as a safe and inclusive hub for social connection, a site for social change through civic engagement, an active center for community participation and collaboration, and as a living classroom for curiosity and joyful learning.

EH: Do you feel like these are things we’re already doing, or are these aspirational pillars?

MR: I think we’re doing them to a certain extent across the institution, but we’re always striving, and it was important to name them so we as a team can rally and coalesce together.

EH: What about civic engagement? What does that look like on our campus?

MR: On one level, we know that the works in our collection and the artists we invite are engaging with the ideas of now. They don’t shy away from grappling with what’s really important, what’s driving conversations in contemporary society. I think civic engagement, to me, is through the lens of art and the way artists are inviting us to think about civic issues, and then providing that space and platform for our communities to be able to access and use the museum for engagement.

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EH: When we talk about “space,” is it physical, or does space mean something broader?

MR: It’s broader than bricks and mortar. I firmly believe in museums, and I want to shift this idea of a museum as a treasure box that houses precious objects to being more of a toolkit for our community. A museum is there to prompt you to think, to engage with ideas happening in the world through the lens of art.

EH: When we talk about social innovation, what does that mean?

MR: We approach innovation through all our levels of work.

Museums are not static spaces. Social innovation is about living and evolving, and responding to the times through ideas, as well as in conversations with audiences. You can’t stand still.

You’re always iterating on your ideas, looking for feedback and reflecting, and we try to incorporate that mindset in all program development as well as community relationships. From day one, this museum has always been evolving, both literally with our upcoming physical expansion as well as with our ideas and the people we engage.

EH: It seems like a lot for an art museum to take on…

MR: Yes, but there’s also so much fun in the work, and the oneon-one interactions with the public–that’s what makes the job worthwhile.

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EH: In thinking about the work that we do here, how do our members support this?

MR: Their membership supports all of this work—from staff, artists, and art kits to the school lunches we provide to the transportation that takes our Community Engagement team to places all over Northwest Arkansas…none of that would be possible without our members.

EH: What do you like to do on the weekends?

MR: I’m a big fan of our farmer’s market in downtown Bentonville, and I’m going to miss it when the season’s over.

I take my daughter. I love the access to colorful fruits and veggies. Anytime I can tie in a food experience with a motherdaughter bonding moment, I’m all about that. I also love nature.

We love being in a place where we can be surrounded by trees and go hiking and discover all of the trails.

Responding to Issues in Real Time A new program creates space to speak about current events Erica Harmon Editor

EH: Do you have a favorite moment?

MR: We hosted a group of national educators here over the summer. They were walking the trails and came upon the Skyspace. There was already a group of students in there.

The educators came in, and one started humming “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” Before you know it, there was a full-on rendition of it happening in Skyspace with the students and educators joining in. It’s those moments that fill you with so much joy and satisfaction.

EH: We host many multigenerational, family-friendly events.

Why is it important that artists and art be part of a child’s life?

MR: I believe that there are many ways to reach children, and we don’t need to be replicating what they’re doing in schools.

Artists and art provide an opportunity to disrupt the everyday of that child, to activate their imagination, to stimulate their creativity in ways that they may not be getting elsewhere.

Programs such as Family Days and Art Trail at Night are great resources for us to be able to facilitate, what I hope, is an ongoing relationship in that child’s life to culture and the arts whether they stay in this region or they move on to another part of the world, but we’ve done our bit in hooking them early on with the promise of art and creativity to activate their imagination and their curiosity.

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MEMBER MOMENT

“I really enjoy all the opportunities that are provided, and I truly mean all, whether it’s the special events, whether it’s the information that I receive, and just the ability to support the museum.”

Karla Bradley, Original Member + Momentary Member

The January 6 insurrection upon the US Capitol caused us to have a collective moment of reflection early in the year, and we knew we weren’t alone. In response, Crystal Bridges and the Momentary created a space to bring artists, scholars, and community leaders together to discuss the issues of our times as they unfold.

The first virtual panel discussion (titled In Real Time) was held on February 1, less than a month after the events on January 6. The panel, moderated by Dr. Caree Banton, director of the African and African American Studies program at the University of Arkansas, and professors Dr. Najja K. Baptist, assistant professor of political science, and Scott Eidelman, associate professor in the Department of Psychological Science, discussed the insurrection, the historical significance of the moment—even taking it all the way back to Aristotle—and sharing thoughts on how we can move forward (hint: it involves reckoning with and acknowledging our national past). “We are all Americans, but we all experience America differently,” said Dr. Baptist.

A few weeks later, local leaders from the University of Arkansas, Archer Learning Center, and the Fayetteville Public Library came together in the next In Real Time program to discuss the importance of education in moving forward. “If we have brains, we have biases—that’s just how it works, and we have to be willing to do the hard work of challenging ourselves to be better than we were today, because that’s a gift,” said Anthony DiNicola, inclusion liaison of the University

of Arkansas’s Chancellor Office on Diversity and Inclusion.

This panel discussion was followed a few weeks later by a calland-response event, in collaboration with My-T-By-Design Therapeutic Art Studios and Poetic Justice Open Mic Series, in which 10 artists shared an evening of virtual performances.

In response to the Atlanta hate-crime shooting in which eight people were killed, six of whom were Asian American women, as well as victims of hate crimes this past year and beyond, Ensemble HanSori dedicated a music performance of “Ummaya Nuna-Ya (Dear Mother, Dear Sister)” to the women, mothers, sisters and daughters who came to a foreign land in pursuit of a better life. The performance was followed by a discussion on the violence against Asian American Pacific Islander communities.

In June, Arkansas legislators passed HB 1570, a bill prohibiting healthcare professionals from providing transgender people under the age of 18 with gender-affirming healthcare. An In Real Time event came together to address how this legislation affects the transgender community. Moderated

by Evelyn Rios Stafford from NWA Equality, the panel included Rumba Yambú, director of Intransitive, Willow Breshears, founder of Young Transwomen’s Project, and regional artist Hannah McBroom, whose work can be found in the Crystal Bridges collection.

The discussion included the panel’s first-hand accounts of being at demonstrations at the Arkansas Capitol, reflections through art, and the resources that are needed to mobilize around trangender issues. “When it comes to asking for your rights, asking to be treated as human, you don’t do that nicely,” said McBroom. “You have to sometimes make it awkward just so people will actually hear and not just misunderstand you.”

Across these fruitful discussions, several artists and panelists expressed gratitude for having space to talk about these issues.

Crystal Bridges and the Momentary will continue to gather people together around art, performance, and dialogue to reflect on the issues of our times.

Ensemble HanSori performing "Umma-ya Nuna-Ya (Dear Mother, Dear Sister)" in the Great Hall.

Use your smartphone camera to watch In Real Time videos here.

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What Does It Mean to Be a CommunityCentered Museum?

Community Engagement Brings Art Beyond the Museum Walls Erica Harmon Editor

In October, I found myself at the West Fork Public Library alongside a traveling art lab from Crystal Bridges. A band was playing. The local fire department was cooking hot dogs. The mayor was there. Due to COVID-19, West Fork Public Library never had a grand public opening.

When they got a call from Crystal Bridges asking if the museum could bring a traveling mobile art program, complete with artists and activities, to their library, they decided to turn it up a notch and throw a party.

“The CB to You Mobile Art Lab program has been received with overwhelming excitement and tremendous support from our artists, library partners, parks and rec teams, festivals, visitors, everyone,” said Sara Segerlin, head of community engagement at Crystal Bridges.

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Since last fall, CB to You has been taking a “getting to know you” welcome tour around the region, stopping at local libraries in towns such as Siloam Springs, Huntsville, Fort Smith, West Fork, Springdale, and others. The intent is to come back and visit again next year, this time with a rapport built up. “Artmaking is what’s bringing us together, but it’s creating a domino effect to help people understand that we can do more together,” said Segerlin.

The CB to You Mobile Art Lab is one of the many projects managed by the museum’s Community Engagement team led by Segerlin, a department which oversees community partnerships, access and inclusive programs, and which led last year’s Social Connecting Campaign efforts in the wake of the COVID-19 quarantine.

While there have been singular events and efforts to bring Crystal Bridges outside of its 120 acres and into the surrounding communities in recent years (remember the Emma Ave. Block Party in Springdale 2018), programs like CB to You signify a more permanent commitment to community building. But it takes time, trust, and patience to build infrastructure.

“Being mobile and entering a community you don’t know…it’s not easy,” said Segerlin.

“There’s a lot of thought that goes into community building. It’s thinking about the museum’s relationship with all the different communities that surround where the museum is located. Our role is relationship building—opening that door for discussion and

showing how art, artists, and staff members can facilitate dialogue, invite our region to feel welcome and, if they have interest, to participate in the discussion.”

Relationship building is key to becoming a community-centered museum. For many, museum spaces do not feel approachable for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it’s more important to meet people where they are, on their turf, in a place where they feel comfortable (like their local library), to open that door and start a new conversation.

Crystal Bridges also hopes to facilitate connections between artists and community leaders. This past year, the department

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“We’re using the museum's resources to show how art and artists can engage with social issues.”

Stats of the First Decade Crystal Bridges

5.6M 3.6M

3,522 851 87

visitors since opening

artists in the collection

exhibitions at the museum

visitors to the grounds

(Art Trail, B-W Trail, Orchard, and North Forest)

launched the Arts and Social Impact Program (ASAP), which paired three local artists (Kholoud Sawaf, Octavio Logo, and Kalyn Fay Barnoski) with three representatives from active community organizations: Arkansas Coalition of Marshallese, Ozark Regional Transit Authority, and University of Arkansas Medical Sciences.

This year, the pairs worked together to host listening sessions, gather community feedback, and develop a multi-year program of arts-based engagements that addresses community needs through creative collaborations and meaningful partnerships across sectors.

In an effort to tell Marshallese stories, for example, members of the Marshallese community built and carved a canoe on-site at Crystal Bridges, complemented by opening and closing ceremonies with Marshallese performances this past fall.

“We’re using the expertise of the museum to show how art and artists can engage with social issues,” said Segerlin. “We’re also providing opportunities for artists to expand and deepen their socially engaged art practic.

In turn, the museum is learning about what social impact means.”

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300K

objects in the collection

schoolchildren visited (on-site and virtual)

73K

57

visiting Tyson Scholars

social connecting kits and boxes delivered in 2020

The Momentary

220k

visitors since opening

231 programs/ experiences

23

visual art exhibitions + projects

Statistics as of September 30, 2021.

MEMBER MOMENT The relationship is mutually beneficial between all parties, another key element to becoming a community-centered museum, according to Segerlin.

The work is going to take years, perhaps even the next decade of Crystal Bridges’ lifespan to get right, but art can create a space for change to happen, wherever one might find themselves.

ASAP Program sponsored

by Anna and Carl George and Matt and Mary Kathryn Brown.

Community Engagement sponsored by Neff and Scarlett Basore.

“My husband used Crystal Bridges to entice me to not only marry him, but to move to Bentonville. It worked beautifully. It is one of my favorite places on Earth and I am thrilled to still be a member and to enjoy these amazing changes and artworks that are coming through.”

Julie DeMoss, Original Member + Momentary Member

The Momentary Expands Its Culinary Offerings

Raise a Glass to Crystal Bridges Onyx Coffee Lab, Bentonville Brewing Company, and Fox Trail Distillery Create Special Drinks to Recognize the Museum’s 10-Year Milestone

The Momentary added new experiences to its culinary portfolio this year, beginning with the new Momentary Food Truck. While it’s blackand-white design may look unsuspecting at first glance, this culinary experience changes like a chameleon. When it first opened, the food truck offered Japanese Yakitori-style kebabs and fries. Later in the year, it offered Ozark street fare favorites such as street corn, honey-glazed chicken skewers, grilled watermelon and feta skewers, and crunchy birthday cake bites.

What better way to Cheers to 10 Years of Crystal Bridges than with a special beverage? The museum teamed up with Onyx Coffee Lab, Bentonville Brewing Company, and Fox Trail Distillery to create a coffee, beer, and gin in celebration of our 10-year anniversary.

was aged in used bourbon barrels for two years. Each bottle is labeled and has a design featuring the unique architecture of Crystal Bridges.

In the frigid winter months, Winter Glow warmed up visitors with crafted beverages, skewers, s’mores, and more around tableside fire pits. The pop-up experience was a great opportunity to enjoy culinary treats from the RØDE Bar and the Momentary Food Truck as well as outdoor art in the winter months.

Bentonville Brewing Company’s Art Maker Beer Onyx Coffee Lab’s Anniversary Blend Coffee has a creamy taste with hints of baker’s chocolate, sorghum, dried berries, and burnt panela.

This winter, come inside and grab a drink at the Atrium Bar.

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Fox Trail Distillery’s Cheers to 10 Years Gin

is a limited-time rebrand of their well-loved Homewrecker IPA, mixing the aroma of citra hops with honey malt that carries through the body for a lavish finish.

As always, the Tower Bar continues to offer delicious craft cocktails, special spirits, and rare whiskeys. Looking ahead, Momentary Beverage Manager Zac Bryson is adding mocktails to the menu for everyone to enjoy the craft and beauty of a cocktail. Small groups have the ability to reserve a space in the Tower Bar for meetings or gatherings.

The coffee and beer selections can be purchased at the Coffee Bar at Crystal Bridges or at their respective locations.

The gin can be purchased at Fox Trail Distillery in Rogers or in cocktails at Eleven while supplies last.

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The Museum Store Gets a New Look

Build Your Personal Art Collection at the Momentary Shop This isn’t your average museum gift shop. The Momentary Shop partners with artists from around the world to offer a selection of limited-edition prints and apparel—a great way to build a personal art collection. The shop features prints by artists seen in the State of the Art 2020 exhibition such as Amy Casey, Su Su, Peter Everett, Karen Seapker, and Suchitra Mattai, and a print and hoodie designed by You Belong Here neon sculpture artist Tavares Strachan.

This year, the Momentary also partnered with artist Sarah Cain to develop a custom-designed t-shirt inspired by her site-responsive, solo exhibition Sarah Cain: In Nature, Nature, which was on view at the Momentary earlier this year (see pg. 31).

This year, Crystal Bridges completed the renovation of the museum’s entryway, enclosing the former courtyard with a glass dome and expanding the main lobby, now known as the Pamela and Wayne Garrison Family Foundation Lobby, to provide an improved visitor experience.

As part of this renovation, the Museum Store received a makeover.

Removing the doors and glass windows, the storefront is now completely open and inviting for visitors to find unique gifts and artisan-made crafts.

Among the treasures found at the Museum Store, merchandise is available to commemorate 10 years of Crystal Bridges, including a new t-shirt, mug, and ornament.

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FOOD, DRINK & SHOPPING

Get custom-made limited-edition prints and apparel made by artists.

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Meet an Original Member Crystal Bridges Original Members are recognized for being members since the museum first opened in 2011 (or even before!).

Get to know Original Member Aimée Papazian.

Thank you to our 10th Anniversary Exhibition Season Sponsors!

Crystal Bridges: Tell us a little about yourself.

Where are you from?

Aimée Papazian: I am an artist who lives in Fayetteville with my family. My background is in experimental film, and I worked in video production and web design for many years before finding my way into ceramics and installations. I moved here 15 years ago from New York City.

CB: When did you first learn about Crystal Bridges?

What made you want to be part of it?

AP: When I first moved here, everything about the area was so novel to me that I didn’t realize how much I missed art museums.

After a few years living in Arkansas, I visited The Getty Museum in LA, and I remember walking around quietly crying to myself because I had missed experiencing art like that for so long.

I remember reading an article about Crystal Bridges and seeing renderings of the building. I was thrilled that we were going to get an art museum on this scale in Northwest Arkansas.

CB: What change have you witnessed at Crystal Bridges over the past 10 years?

AP: I remember visiting the site of the museum as it was being built, watching the buildings go up—those shiny, copper roofs on those strange, turtle-y forms. I was there on the first evening the museum opened, pushing my kids around in a stroller. My son is 10—the same age as Crystal Bridges—and I have watched them both grow up. His favorite show was the Moshe Safdie exhibition—I think he was three or four—anyway, he made me pick him up to look at every architectural model for minutes at a time. My arms were burning from the effort of holding him out in front of me, but I was so happy that he was that interested.

CB: Do you have a favorite moment you’d like to share?

AP: My favorite show at Crystal Bridges was definitely the first State of the Art exhibition. I think I saw that show four or five times, because it caught me at a place in my life where I was in a massive transition. I had just quit my job in video, and I was going down the rabbit hole rediscovering art and making, and the world opened up for me. That show introduced me to so many artists, and there was something great around every corner. Some favorites from that show off the top of my head were: the yarn-bombed corridor by Jeila Gueramian, the video The Distance I Can Be From My Son by Lenka Clayton, Meg Hitchcock’s intricate piece made up of words cut from sacred texts, and Laurel Roth Hope’s camouflaged pigeons.

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PEOPLE

Aimée Papazian stands in front of her artwork Voyage of Lost Keys, Keys, on view at the Fayetteville Public Library. Photo credit: Robert Depper.

CB: Favorite artwork or space at the museum?

AP: My favorite pieces change; currently, it’s Lunar Landscape, an unassuming, wall-mounted sculpture by Isamu Noguchi, which I ran into unexpectedly on my last visit (it hadn’t been on view for a while), and it was like bumping into an old friend. Number 184T by Leonardo Drew is up there—it always makes me think of shipping lanes, so orderly—and so is Maya Lin’s Silver Upper White River. Oh, and I adore the tiny painting of haystacks by Martin Johnson Heade.

CB: What keeps you as a member?

AP: Arkansas has natural beauty in spades—arguably the best parts of our state are places that haven’t been touched by humans. What we didn’t have was a place like this. The building nestles into the landscape in such a lovely way, and the spaces themselves flow together and open themselves up to the world outside, and that makes CB easily my favorite built environment in the state. And of course, the collection keeps getting better, and I always need tickets to the talks and special exhibitions.

Why wouldn’t I want to support this place? I love it so much.

CB: In 10 years, what do you think Crystal Bridges will look like?

AP: With the recently announced expansion of the museum, I really can’t wait to see.

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IMAGE CREDITS PG 13–14 FROM LEFT: David Drake, Twenty-Five Gallon FourHandled Stoneware Jar, Jar, 1858, stoneware with alkaline glaze, 24 1/2 x 24 1/4 x 24 1/4 in. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2021.29; Melissa Cody, Walking Off No Water Mesa, Mesa, 2021, wool warp, weft, selvedge cords, and aniline dyes, 132 1/4 × 38 3/4 × 3/16 in. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2021.19; Bisa Butler, I Am Not Your Negro, Negro, 2019, quilted and appliquéd cotton, wool, and chiffon, 77 3/4 x 58 3/4 in. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2021.8; Clara Driscoll, Maker: Tiffany Studios, 1902 - 1932, Wisteria table lamp, lamp, ca. 1905-1906, leaded glass and bronze, 27 in. high, 18 in. shade diameter. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, Gift of the Benedict Silverman Collection, 2021.16. PG 15: 15: Peter Voulkas, Rondena Rondena,, 1956, stoneware, paddled and constructed wheel-thrown elements, brushed cobalt, iron, and white slips, epoxy, 62 in. × 37 3/4 in. × 32 1/2 in.

Quenza Collection, USA. PG 16 FROM TOP: George Nakashima, Lounge with Free-form Arm Rocking Chair, Chair, 1973, American black walnut, rosewood, and hickory, 34 1/4 × 31 1/2 × 31 1/4 in. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the American Institute of Architects, Houston Design Collection, museum purchase funded by friends of Chuck Thomsen, in his honor, 2015.9; Gentaro Kenneth Hikogawa, Untitled (Chest of Drawers), Drawers), ca.

1942-1945, packing crates and greasewood handles, 45 × 35 × 21 in. Collection of Victor Kubo; Beth Lipman, Belonging(s) Belonging(s),, 2020, glass, ceramic, gold lacquer, enamel paint, salt, sand, and adhesive, 27 in. × 40 1/2 in. × 23 in. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2021.3. PG 18 FROM TOP: Consuelo Jimenez Underwood, Home of the Brave, Brave, 2013, wire, silk, fabric, safety pins, and synthetic and natural threads, 72 x 99 in. Courtesy of the artist; Steven Young Lee, Vase with Dragon,, 2020, porcelain, cobalt inlay, and glaze, 17 x 15 x 14 Dragon in. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, Purchased with the Fund for Craft, 2021.25. PG. 28: 28: Rashid Johnson, The Bruising: For Jules, The Bird, Jack and Leni, Leni, 2021, Powder coated steel, plants, shea butter, ceramic pots.

Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth © Rashid Johnson.

PG 28 + 30: R. Buckminster Fuller, Fly’s Eye Dome, Dome, 1961, fabricated ca. 1980, fiberglass-reinforced polyester, 38 x 50 x 50 ft. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville,

Arkansas, 2015.15. Courtesy, The Estate of R. Buckminster Fuller. PG 31: Garrett Bradley: American Rhapsody. Garrett Bradley: American Rhapsody is organized by Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH) and curated by Rebecca Matalon, CAMH Curator. PG 32 FROM TOP: Kenny Rivero: The Floor Is Crooked; Sarah Cain: In Nature; Abigail Deville, Light of Freedom (detail), 2020, welded steel, found bell, cabling, mannequin limbs, and metal scaffolding, 156 x 96 x 96 in.

Collection of the artist. © 2020 Abigail DeVille. Photograph

by Andy Romer /Madison Square Park Conservancy. The exhibition was organized by Madison Park Conservancy, New York. Abigail DeVille Light of Freedom was commissioned by Madison Square Park Conservancy, New York, and was first exhibited in Madison Square Park. PG 33 FROM TOP: Derrick Adams, Keep Your Head Down and Your Eyes Open (detail), 2018, wood, pain and fabric, dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist and Salon 94, New York. Derrick Adams: Sanctuary is organized by Dexter Wimberly and Derrick Adams Studio.

Derrick Adams: Sanctuary was originally presented at the Museum of Arts and Design, New York, from January 25 to August 5, 2018, and was curated with support from MAD’s Curator of Collections Samantha De Tillio.; Diana Al-Hadid: Ash in the Trade Winds; Cauleen Smith, Space Station: Radiant Behind the Sun. PG 34 FROM TOP: Sun & Sea: Sea: An Opera Performance by Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Grainytė and Lina Lapelytė; Founding Producer: Neon Realism; Co-Producers: Nida Art Colony of Vilnius Academy of Arts, Akademie Schloss Solitude Goethe-Institut, Münchner Kammerspiele, National Gallery of Art in Vilnius, Staatsschauspiel Dresden, the Momentary in Bentonville (AR); Sponsor: JCDecaux; Commissioner (Sun & Sea (Marina), Venice, 2019): Rasa Antanavičiūtė. Bandaloop. PG 36 BOTTOM: Photo by Douglas Mason.

Here we are—a decade older and a decade wiser!

I can still remember how my fast my heart was beating those first moments before we opened the doors on 11/11/11—we had no idea what to expect, but knew our members and friends would be there to support us on our first day. We were just getting a sense of who we were and what we could become with time. Today, 10 years later, we are continuously astounded by how our community engages with the museum on every level.

Despite COVID-19, people are finding ways to come together to connect and discover endless possibility through cultural experiences. The museum has served as a place where people have felt safe, supported, and in an environment that advocates dialogue and exchange. Wandering the Momentary Green during FreshGrass, I saw joy, delight, and a sense of togetherness that has been absent for so long. Healing has begun as friendships are forged, creativity is fostered, and artists lead us in a journey of learning and inspiration.

Standing on the starting line of the second decade, we have the opportunity to expand the definition of what an art museum can be, and it is going to be defined by those who engage with us. The growth in Northwest Arkansas is transforming our communities, and we have a responsibility to be a resource for everyone.

Whether it’s providing a platform for those who are already doing the work of community building or simply offering space for art, nature, and reflection, Crystal Bridges and the Momentary are here in service to the community. A place of solace. A place to learn. A place to organize. A place to meet a new friend or have a new experience. Make it your space, and use it to grow in any way you choose.

We look forward to greeting you in 2022, and thank you for 10 years of unending support.

Rod Bigelow

Executive Director and Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

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