Uploaded October 2021 | Updated September 2026, 5 days ago
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art opened its doors on November 11, 2011 with a mission of welcoming all to celebrate the American spirit in a setting that unites the power of art with the beauty of nature.
In 10 years, 5.6 million visitors have come through the doors, while some 4 million have enjoyed the beauty of the trails around the museum. Crystal Bridges has developed a strong architectural story that began with the Moshe Safdie-designed building and now extends to the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Bachman-Wilson House and R. Buckminster Fuller’s "Fly’s Eye Dome."
Soon after opening, school field trip programs were created at no cost to schools. The programs have since brought nearly 300,000 children to the museum from all over the region for free K-12 school tours that meet curriculum standards. In 2012, the largest study of its kind was conducted to determine the impact these field trips were having on those who attended (involving 11,000 K-12 students and 500 teachers at 123 different schools). Researchers at the University of Arkansas concluded that school field trips provide an increase in critical thinking, recall, tolerance, empathy, and cultural interest, and found that the effect is greatest for rural, high poverty, and minority students.
In 2018, the museum reinstalled its Early American Art Galleries to tell a more inclusive story, adding Native American, folk, and Spanish Colonial objects, contemporary works, and bilingual text. In the past decade, Crystal Bridges has doubled the size of the collection (currently at around 3,500 objects) and featured more than 80 temporary exhibitions, organizing or co-organizing many, including: Hank Willis Thomas: All Things Being Equal…, State of the Art 2020, Crafting America, Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, Men of Steel, Women of Wonder, and Art for a New Understanding: Native Voices, 1950s to Now. In 2020, Crystal Bridges opened the Momentary, a satellite contemporary art space dedicated to championing contemporary art’s role in everyday life, highlighting today’s visual, performing, and culinary arts.
For a decade, Crystal Bridges has offered a place to enjoy a unique blend of art, nature, and architecture on 120 acres of beautiful Ozark forest. As Northwest Arkansas increases access to quality-of-life amenities, the museum is excited to activate the building and grounds in new ways by expanding to add 100,000 square feet of space, a new playscape, programmable parking deck, and more. We are grateful for the community, sponsors, partners, members, and our founder Alice Walton, whose vision is realized in every corner of the campus and has reached far beyond the museum’s walls into the hearts of so many.
Learn more about our first decade open: crystalbridges.org/cheers-to-10-years
Visit our website: CrystalBridges.org
Visit the Momentary's website: theMomentary.org
Sign up for eNews: bit.ly/CrystalBridges-eNews
Follow us on social media
Facebook: https://Facebook.com/CrystalBridgesMu...
Instagram: https://Instagram.com/CrystalBridgesM...
Twitter: Twitter.com/CrystalBridges
LinkedIn: https://LinkedIn.com/company/Crystal-...
Pinterest: Pinterest.com/CrystalBridges
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art opened its doors on November 11, 2011 with a mission of welcoming all to celebrate the American spirit in a setting that unites the power of art with the beauty of nature.
In 10 years, 5.6 million visitors have come through the doors, while some 4 million have enjoyed the beauty of the trails around the museum. Crystal Bridges has developed a strong architectural story that began with the Moshe Safdie-designed building and now extends to the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Bachman-Wilson House and R. Buckminster Fuller’s "Fly’s Eye Dome."
Soon after opening, school field trip programs were created at no cost to schools. The programs have since brought nearly 300,000 children to the museum from all over the region for free K-12 school tours that meet curriculum standards. In 2012, the largest study of its kind was conducted to determine the impact these field trips were having on those who attended (involving 11,000 K-12 students and 500 teachers at 123 different schools). Researchers at the University of Arkansas concluded that school field trips provide an increase in critical thinking, recall, tolerance, empathy, and cultural interest, and found that the effect is greatest for rural, high poverty, and minority students.
In 2018, the museum reinstalled its Early American Art Galleries to tell a more inclusive story, adding Native American, folk, and Spanish Colonial objects, contemporary works, and bilingual text. In the past decade, Crystal Bridges has doubled the size of the collection (currently at around 3,500 objects) and featured more than 80 temporary exhibitions, organizing or co-organizing many, including: Hank Willis Thomas: All Things Being Equal…, State of the Art 2020, Crafting America, Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, Men of Steel, Women of Wonder, and Art for a New Understanding: Native Voices, 1950s to Now. In 2020, Crystal Bridges opened the Momentary, a satellite contemporary art space dedicated to championing contemporary art’s role in everyday life, highlighting today’s visual, performing, and culinary arts.
For a decade, Crystal Bridges has offered a place to enjoy a unique blend of art, nature, and architecture on 120 acres of beautiful Ozark forest. As Northwest Arkansas increases access to quality-of-life amenities, the museum is excited to activate the building and grounds in new ways by expanding to add 100,000 square feet of space, a new playscape, programmable parking deck, and more. We are grateful for the community, sponsors, partners, members, and our founder Alice Walton, whose vision is realized in every corner of the campus and has reached far beyond the museum’s walls into the hearts of so many.
Learn more about our first decade open: crystalbridges.org/cheers-to-10-years
Visit our website: CrystalBridges.org
Visit the Momentary's website: theMomentary.org
Sign up for eNews: bit.ly/CrystalBridges-eNews
Follow us on social media
Facebook: https://Facebook.com/CrystalBridgesMu...
Instagram: https://Instagram.com/CrystalBridgesM...
Twitter: Twitter.com/CrystalBridges
LinkedIn: https://LinkedIn.com/company/Crystal-...
Pinterest: Pinterest.com/CrystalBridges
