EU R EKA S P RI NG S BENTONVILL E
FAYETTE VILLE FORT SMI TH
ARKANSAS
BOOMING BENTONVILLE
Since it made its 2011 debut, Crystal Bridges has quickly become a giant on the Bentonville co o ttourism scene. “Crystal Bridges has had more than 2 million visitors,” ssaid John Lamparski, group sales manager for the Bentonville Convention and Visitors Bureau. “But it’s not just a museum that rests on its laurels. They keep adding new pieces all the time.”
Museum of Native American History
Courtesy Fayetteville Visitors Bureau Courtesy Bentonville CVB
J A N U A R Y / F E B R U A R Y
2 0 1 7
In addition to a regular schedule of popular touring exhibitions, Crystal Bridges has added several significant exhibits. Visitors can tour a home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright that was relocated to the museum campus from its original location in New Jersey. Students at the Fay Jones School of Architecture at the University of Arkansas restored the structure, which had fallen into disrepair. Now groups can marvel at the creativity of America’s most brilliant architectural mind as they experience the home the way Wright intended. The museum also recently announced plans to open a second facility in a 63,000-square-foot former factory building downtown. The factory was built in the 1940s and used by Kraft Foods until 2012. The transformed space will be dedicated to contemporary art exhibitions and live performance space and is expected to open in 2018. Groups with an eye for art will also enjoy a visit to the 21c Museum Hotel. The only one of the 21c locations in a purposebuilt facility, the Bentonville outpost includes an entire floor of gallery space exhibiting the work of contemporary artists from around the world. Tours to the city should also include a stop at the Museum of Native American History. “It’s kind of the hidden gem of Bentonville,” Lamparski said. “It started as a private collection of native and ancient American artifacts. As you walk through the museum, you go through 10,000 years of history and see whole cultures form. We can arrange to have the curator or owner of the museum meet groups and tell them about it.”
selecttraveler.com
31