Crystal Bridges Museum, Bentonville, Arkansas

Alice Walton, daughter of Sam Walton who created Walmart, founded the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. The museum opened on November 11, 2011 as a nonprofit charitable organization. The Walton Family Foundation provided $800 million for the project. A $20 million gift from Walmart was given to support free admission.

The architectural masterpiece blends into the 120-acre ravine and the surrounding streams, lakes, and is incorporated into the native trees of the surrounding Ozark forest. The museum consists of eight interconnected pavilions, including suspension bridges, covering approximately 200,000 square feet.

We spent one full day exploring the museum, not nearly enough time. Rather than listing facts and figures, what follows is a sampling of the artwork that we saw.

Rosie the Riveter

Norman Rockwell

note the sandwich and Mein Kamph under her right foot

Tobacco Sorters

Thomas Hart Benton

Bring me all of your dreams,

You dreamers

Bring me all of your

Heart melodies

That I may wrap them

In a blue cloud-cloth

Away from the too rough fingers

Of the world

LANGSTON HUGHES, FROM "THE DREAM KEEPER"

Maman

Louise Bourgeois

over 30 feet tall, nearly 12 tons

Our Town

Kerry James Marshall

Purple/Amber Sliced Descending Form

Harvey K. Littleton

Basket of Resillience

Kelly Church

woven with black ash and Michigan-sourced copper

Enassamishhinjijweian

(hope of good things to come)

Tom Uttech

Caged Horn

William Morris

Glowing Balls Infinity Room

Yayoi Kusama

Mountain Landscape

Agnes F. Northrop, designer

Tiffany Studios, manufacturer

Time

Max Ferguson

Untitled (Lidded Sphere)

Ralph Bacerra

We the People

Nari Ward

(shoe strings)

Flying Backbone

Georgia O'Keeffe

Blast Furnaces

Elsie Driggs

Pewter Blue Basket

Dale Chihuly

Alice Walton

Founder of the Crystal Bridges

Museum of American Art