Crystal Bridges Museum Tacks on a Big Expansion, Just 15 Years After Opening, and Packs it With American Art
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, has opened a major expansion just 15 years after its 2011 debut, adding about 114,000 square feet to its original 200,000-square-foot facility. Founder Alice Walton—described by Bloomberg as the world’s richest woman at $143 billion—said she and architect Moshe Safdie accelerated a long-term plan so Safdie could design the addition, which continues the original building’s curving forms and materials such as concrete, cedar, and copper. The expansion includes new galleries and education/programming areas, plus a 14,000-square-foot exhibition space, and introduces a new northern entry while spanning two ponds in a figure-eight layout. The museum did not disclose the project’s cost; the new space is hosting “Keith Haring in 3D,” co-curated by Glenn Adamson, and the institution notes it has welcomed about 15 million visitors since opening while remaining free to the public (exceeding an early projection of 250,000 annual visitors).
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This story was covered in Reopenings, Strikes, and Art’s Political Crossfire