Art in the Heartland

A Louisiana native takes us north to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

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There are expansive, inspiring galleries at art museums; there are expansive, ordinary parking lots at big box retailers.  Seldom do the two converge in conversation as they are downright mutually exclusive. At least that was the case until November 11, 2011 when Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art opened in Bentonville, Arkansas, hometown of Walmart stores.

The museum was founded by late retailer Sam Walton’s only daughter, Alice, along with her siblings’ support through the Walton Family Foundation.  A long-time, serious collector, Alice dreamed of providing art and ancillary experiences not only to the town where she grew up, Bentonville, but also beyond to the surrounding region, which holds deep Walton family roots. 

[You might like: The Museum of Old and New Art: The fever dream of a wildly eccentric professional gambler.]

The project broke ground in 2006, placing the forthcoming Crystal Bridges inside 120 wooded acres a short walk north of the courthouse square where Walton opened his namesake dime store in 1950.  In Alice’s words, the site has a “sense of place.”  Where heartland corners of Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Kansas more or less meet, a complex filled with American art would emerge near Crystal Spring, the source of the museum’s name. 

Designed by renowned architect Moshe Safdie, Crystal Bridges is a series of oxidized copper-roofed buildings with shapes evoking giant beetles or armadillos discovered at the bottom of an Ozarks hollow. Spring-fed ponds meander under two of the bridge-like structures.  Amenities include a restaurant, a library of more than 50,000 volumes of art reference material, a concert venue, and an award-winning museum store.  A Frank Lloyd Wright house, rescued from repeated flooding in New Jersey, was disassembled, transported and rebuilt on museum grounds in 2015.  A Usonian design (Wright’s term for “United States of North America”), it’s a modest “everyman” house, which seems as if it were built in the first place for this setting in Benton County, Arkansas, rather than Somerset County, New Jersey.  Another architectural masterwork is R. Buckminster Fuller’s Fly’s Eye Dome, installed on the north lawn. More than 600,000 visitors a year utilize the museum’s four miles of walking trails, which link the museum acreage to downtown.

In 2011, as the museum prepared to open, some skeptics wondered what business a Walmart heiress had with an art museum. Would anyone travel to backwater Bentonville to see American masterworks? And if the museum just ended up serving a conservative local population, could it possibly be world-class?

The initial criticism was surprising to Northwest Arkansas folk since the area is not only home to Walmart but shipping giant J.B. Hunt, Tyson Foods, and a major land grant university as well.  Manufacturers by the hundreds have offices here to mind their Walmart accounts, and if that’s not big business enough, a quarter of the world supply of Little Debbie Cakes is baked in Benton County. Global trade, Ivy-League MBAs, and an understated urbane vibe imbue this market of over 500,000 people.

[Read this: The Cajun Spoon: Ryan Grizzaffi brings authentic Cajun flavors to grocery stores nationwide.]   

The attendance figures quelled most of the big, coastal city critics.  Since opening, the museum has had 4.5 million visitors and enrolled 15,000 memberships.  My museum card, number 2901, places me happily among the first three-thousand “original members.”  Additionally, 280,000 school children have participated in the museum’s ongoing Willard and Pat Walker School Visit program, which provides educational experiences, transportation—even lunches—for school groups at no cost.

Inside the museum

Crystal Bridges’ permanent collection spans five centuries: American masterworks range from the early American to present day.  Great American artists such as John Singer Sargent and James McNeill Whistler reflect on distinct moments in the early American artistic evolution. Iconic works such as Samuel F.B. Morse’s Marquis de Lafayette and Georgia O’Keeffe’s Jimson Weed enhance the permanent collection, in addition to  works by contemporary artists such as Andy Warhol, Kerry James Marshall, Maya Lin, Jaune Quick-To-See-Smith, and Kehinde Wiley.  The collection continues to grow through strategic acquisitions, enhanced by temporary exhibitions.

My favorites include Gilbert Stuart’s “Washington” (the familiar dollar bill portrait), Warhol’s “Dolly” (Art in Arkansas? Then your Warhol must be Dolly Parton, the serious, simultaneously tongue-in-cheek choice) and Norman Rockwell’s “Rosie the Riveter.” “Supine Woman” by Wayne Thiebaud reminds me of influential women in my life, flat-out exhausted working moms all. There’s no escaping the iconic Hudson River School in “Kindred Spirits” by Asher Durand.  The serenity, the craft of the work and my having once  lived on the Connecticut side of the Hudson Valley reach me, plus the acquisition story.  Auctioned by Sotheby’s for the New York Public Library, which perhaps wanted to be less an art museum and more a library, Alice Walton bought it for a reported $35 million. Alarms were raised in Manhattan:  A New England treasure purchased with Walmart money (gasp!) would be trucked to Arkansas (gasp!). In the end, “Kindred Spirits” remained in America, showcased near the Bentonville Square rather than in a third-floor dining room two blocks from Times Square.

Art in Arkansas? Then your Warhol must be Dolly Parton, the serious, simultaneously tongue-in-cheek choice.

Reactions from first-time visitors can be palpable, typified by Bill Bradley, my long-time friend and attorney from New Orleans, who flew up in July.  After exploring the galleries on his own, he met me for lunch at Eleven, the museum restaurant. He was in a calm awe gazing across the ponds on either side of the vaulted restaurant windows beneath Arkansas pine structural arcs.  He’s visited famous U.S. and European museums, yet he said, “There’s so much, it’s almost overwhelming.”  A museum-goer enchanted by art, nature and architecture as one—that was the mission laid out by Alice Walton and Moshe Safdie from the get-go.

[Read this: The Unexpected Ozarks.]

General admission to Crystal Bridges is free, funded by Walmart stores corporate, and open each day except Tuesdays, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.  The Frank Lloyd Wright house is also free, but be sure to reserve limited, timed tickets immediately upon arrival or ahead of time at the museum’s website.  Check the site for events and exhibits.  Specially curated exhibits require a nominal fee.

Elsewhere in town in a former cheese plant, the Momentary, an innovative, multidisciplinary arts space opens February 22, 2020. As a satellite to Crystal Bridges intended to champion contemporary art, facilities include galleries, a concert venue, artists workspaces, a black box theater, and a restaurant and bar. 

crystalbridges.org

themomentary.org

An expert’s guide to getting there

From the Florida Parishes:  Leaving Greater Baton Rouge, drive up U.S. 61, then across from Natchez and up U.S. 65 from Ferriday. From Hammond/Covington, take I-55 North to Jackson, then over to Tallulah where you hop on U.S. 65 North from I-20.

Attractions along the way:

Transylvania—Among many Louisiana Delta crossroads with Bohemian names, Transylvania and its bat-emblazoned water tower stand out. There’s little here but a post office and cotton warehouse, yet the amiable postmistress will hand-cancel and decorate your Halloween cards (or any spooky notes throughout the year).  Send your batch pre-stamped and pre-addressed, to Postmaster, Transylvania, LA 71286.  

Watch your speed in Lake Providence; it’s notorious for speeding tickets.

Minsky’s Pecan Market is a tasty stop, especially if the new crop is in, early fall through winter.

The Louisiana Cotton Museum on the north side of town is free and educational. Historical buildings from cotton plantations have been relocated here. A modern museum offers a self-guided tour of cultivation history. Check in at the plantation house first. 

Panola Pepper Corporation (panolapepper.com)—what? They make hot sauce in North Louisiana? Yep. Starting with a decades-old family recipe, the Grady Brown family has been making pepper sauce right on the Mississippi River at their 5,000-acre Panola Plantation since 1983. Visit the office and store 8 am–4 pm Monday–Friday. Call ahead for tour availability. There are scores of products, my three favorites being Panola Gourmet Pepper Sauce, spicy Vampfire (a nod to Transylvania), and Panola Garlic.

Beyond the state line, the Double Quick in Eudora, Arkansas, has some of the best gas-station chicken in the Delta. Fried or roasted, plus tasty sides.  The catfish is excellent too. Or look for a tamale truck between Lake Village and Dumas, and enjoy authentic, somewhat incongruous, regional delicacies.

Approaching Little Rock from Pine Bluff, take I-630 West for the best view of downtown and the state capitol. Meet I-430 North then descend between bluffs to cross the Arkansas River, climbing back into the hills to I-40 West.  No doubt, you’ve left delta lowlands behind for the Ozarks and Ouachitas.

From Acadiana: Take I-49 to north of Texarkana.  Then U.S. 71, the “missing link” of I-49.  Enjoy or endure, depending on your mood, the three-hour, curvy drive through the Ouachita Mountains till reaching Arkansas River towns Fort Smith and Van Buren. This is True Grit and “Hanging Judge Parker” land at the Oklahoma Territory border. Victorian Van Buren has tea rooms, antique shops, and a depot with vintage rail service (amtrainrides.com) through the Boston Mountains. The National Parks Service maintains the old fort site (nps.gov/fosm).

Driving “Up the Hill”:  With either route, your final leg is billboard-free I-49 through the Ozark National Forest’s western edge. The trip is named for driving “up” to Fayetteville for Razorback games.  Ears pop as you near the Bobby Hopper Tunnel (elev. 1,640 ft.). Propelled through the mountain passage, you emerge at my Shangri-la—Northwest Arkansas.   

By air:  Minutes from Bentonville, Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport (XNA) serves all major U.S. hubs. You will connect at Atlanta, DFW, or Houston on Delta, American, or United from MSY, BTR, and LFY.  Round-trips run as low as $200, but near $600 with short lead times. 

Where to stay

Dozens of chain hotels in this business town have been joined by B&Bs. The ultra-trendy 21c Museum Hotel is an experience with its own avant-garde art collection, excellent food and a slick bar where hipsters and hillbillies quaff craft cocktails and local ales. 

Where to eat

“High South” cuisine, brew pubs, and food trucks abound. Don’t expect deep-fried everything, but northern Italian deep-fried olives at Tavola, or house-made pork rinds alongside your carrot cake waffles at Tusk and Trotter are surprising diversions. Crepes Paulette, owned by a Brittany transplant, serves the real deal.

8th Street Market (8stmarket.com), like a year-round food fair, is anchored by Brightwater culinary school and includes a food truck park, gourmet shops, small restaurants, and The Holler with baristas and beer taps flanking shuffleboard courts. Bike Rack Brewing offers craft brews and on certain Sunday afternoons hosts charity-benefit “Beer and Hymns” songfests (beerandhymns.com).  No kidding—it’s progressive Bible Belt.  

While you’re there 

Sam Walton’s 5 & 10 on the square is the central feature of Walmart’s corporate museum (walmartmuseum.com). Inside, see Walton’s beat-up 1979 Ford pickup, two of his offices reconstructed on site, and more. Admission is free. The Spark Café, an adjacent soda fountain, features Yarnell’s Ice Cream, loved by Arkansans as Texans do their Blue Bell.  Order like a local: The unlisted Sam Walton Sundae is butter pecan (his favorite), caramel pecan sauce, whipped cream, and a cherry.  “Live at the Five and Dime” sidewalk concerts entertain Wednesday evenings April through early October.   

The Scott Family Amazeum (amazeum.org) is a rollicking children’s museum near the entrance to Crystal Bridges.  Young’uns load a Walmart truck, scan groceries at check out, finger-paint on glass walls, make videos, plus more.  Sign up for Hershey’s (Chocolate) Lab science experiments.  Closed on Tuesdays.  Kids under two are free, everyone else, $9.50. 

At the Museum of Native American History (monah.us), artifacts range from far North America to Meso-America. Admission is free. Check the schedule, but it is open on Tuesdays when Crystal Bridges is closed.  

Find live music in Bentonville on most Saturdays, when impromptu guitar, fiddle, and banjo jams begin at dusk on the square.  The Arkansas Philharmonic Orchestra (arphil.org) also usually performs downtown at the Record Downtown venue.   

In nearby Fayetteville (experiencefayetteville.com/music), find college town pub-crawls, bluesy clubs and bistros, Broadway tour shows, and orchestra music in one spot:  Dickson Street.  

Finally, thanks in part to Sam Walton’s cycling-enthusiast grandsons Tom and Steuart, and the connection to the 36-mile Razorback Regional Greenway, Bentonville is a national bicycling mecca (visitbentonville.com/bike).  Bring your own or rent near the square. Thankfully, we are not yet littered with rent-by-the-minute bikes and scooters as in big cities.  

visitbentonville.com

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