More than six million people have visited the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art since it opened in 2011. Alice Walton’s beautiful oasis has transformed the once-sleepy town of Bentonville, Arkansas, into a thriving artists’ community. Watch her and Crystal Bridges Chairperson Olivia Walton as they share their perspective on art and empowerment in America’s Heartland!
A new festival is coming to Northwest Arkansas courtesy of a partnership among OZ Brands, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and the Momentary.
FORMAT — “For Music + Art + Technology” — is planned to take place Sept. 23-25 on the private Sugar Creek Airstrip, a place with 250 acres of forest-enclosed green land, just six minutes from downtown Bentonville. Tickets will go on sale Friday.
Olivia Walton is also enthusiastic about Northwest Arkansas’ place in the national arts conversation.
“I think we’re on the map; I think Bentonville is up there with Marfa,” she said, referencing the small west Texas town that’s known as an arts hub. “Whenever I’m on the coasts, people know of Crystal Bridges, and they respect what Alice is doing. They admire the collection, and I think we’re on the shortlist for top art destinations in the country.
Olivia Walton, the new board chair for the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, is full of hints of what’s to come. Named in mid-November to the post, she takes over for museum founder Alice Walton in that role. Olivia Walton, a former technology reporter for Bloomberg and NBC, is married to Tom Walton, grandson of Walmart founder Sam Walton. Her background in the arts stems from childhood through college to her adult work.
Northwest Arkansas’ creative economy is getting a boost through the Momentary’s Courtyard Sessions concert series following a year of venue closings and programming restrictions because of the covid-19 pandemic, coordinators say. The series began June 27 and features free, live music by Northwest Arkansas artists from 4:30-7 p.m. Sundays through Sept. 26 in the Momentary’s Arvest Bank Courtyard, said Pia Agrawal, curator of performing arts.
The brothers think Arkansas has a chance to be viewed as the “Colorado of middle America”–a place with abundant outdoor recreational and job opportunities, minus the high cost of living on the West Coast or East Coast.
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