Crystal Bridges = Great Museum

This metal tree sculpture, "Yield" by Roxy Paine, is the first work of art you see after a drive through the woods and down into the valley. You can't drive by it. You have to drive to it. You might think that a museum built of cement and copper would be cold but it is as magnificent as the Getty, only surrounded by nature not a city.

To enter you don't just open a door, you stroll through the woods, down a short trail and into a courtyard before you get to the main doors. The gift shop is separate from the rest of the museum. This is a view looking down into the courtyard and across the tops of the buildings. 

Like the Getty the mass plantings will be fabulous. They have used all native materials and with winter coming on they aren't as spectacular as they will be in Spring. 

Once inside the galleries hold great treasures of American Art. The easy thing would have been to buy an example of noted American artists and call it good but no, Ms Walton has chosen well. Nearly all the paintings in the collection are major examples of the artist work. You can travel through time from Peale through Moran and Cassatt, Homer,Sargent, Bellows, Benton, Rockwell, Nevelson, Rauschenberg and tons more in between. 

Worn out after half the galleries we stopped for lunch. Not only is the cafe area spectacular with the glass walls, wood beams with skylights and views of the pond and other galleries, but the food is great, creative and not over priced.  

The cost numbers are spectacular as well. It is said that the building alone cost 1.3Billion. The Walmart Foundation has created an endowment of over 800 million for art purchases. They do have some gaps. Nothing from Taos School and light on the impressionists. They also have a series of trails dotted with sculpture that aren't yet complete with sculpture by Paul Manship and Dan Ostermiller among others. There is lots of room for more great sculpture. 


If you can't get there visit the web site at www.crystalbridges.org
Plan to visit, it is worth the drive. Besides there are several other interesting museums in the Bentonville AR area including the original 5&10 where Walmart began.