Celebrating a decade of world-class art in Bentonville, Arkansas, Crystal Bridges has big shows and big plans going forward.
This November marks 10 impressive years of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art bringing world-class art to Bentonville in northwest Arkansas, which, the museum acknowledges, is the home of the Caddo, Quapaw, and Osage, as well as other Indigenous caretakers of the region’s land and water.
Since 2011, Crystal Bridges has increased accessibility to American art in the heartland, emphasizing the connection between nature, art, and architecture.
Even as it celebrates a decade of existence, the museum looks forward to the future with plans for a 100,000-square-foot expansion in the works.
The museum has doubled its art collection to include more than 3,500 objects, with a focus on works by artists underrepresented in art history, including pieces by Native American artists such as Dyani White Hawk (Lakota), David Bradley (Chippewa), and Frank Big Bear (Anishinabe).
The 2022 exhibition calendar boasts three big temporary shows: the museum’s first fashion exhibition, Fashioning America: Grit to Glamour; its first architecture exhibition, Architecture at Home; and The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse.
David Bradley, Rio Grande Casino Landscape, 2000, acrylic on canvas, 36" × 36"
Fashioning America opens September 10, 2022 and runs through January 30, 2023; it will feature two centuries of uniquely American sartorial expressions in everything from cowboy boots and denim jeans to zoot suits and Teri Greeves’ (Kiowa) beaded stiletto sneakers.
On view now through January 31, 2022 is In American Waters: The Sea in American Painting, revealing marine painting to be much more than ship portraits through the works of a wide range of modern and historical artists, including Georgia O’Keeffe, Kay WalkingStick (Cherokee), Norman Rockwell, Thomas Hart Benton, Jacob Lawrence, and more.
Photography: (Cover image) courtesy Stephen Lang; (All others) courtesy Edward C. Robison III
Cover Image: Teri Greeves, Abstraction: Kiowa by Design, 2014, beads on canvas high-heeled sneakers, 11.5" x 10" x 4"
