The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is a future museum in Bentonville, Arkansas, U.S. Currently under construction, it is scheduled to open in 2009. It is expected to employ approximately 75 people, and will be within walking distance of downtown Bentonville.[1].
Crystal Bridges was founded by Alice Walton, the daughter of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton. The fifty-million-dollar construction project is designed by architect Moshe Safdie and will include 25,000 feet of gallery space, a library, a 250-seat auditorium, as well as offices, the whole surrounded by gardens and walking trails. Walton is known to have spent several hundred million dollars acquiring paintings for the museum's permanent collection, which will include a Charles Willson Peale portrait of George Washington as well as paintings by George Bellows, Jasper Cropsey, Asher Durand, Thomas Eakins, Marsden Hartley, Winslow Homer, Eastman Johnson, Charles Bird King, and John LaFarge. Many of Crystal Bridges' paintings are currently on extended loan to other U.S. institutions.
Robert G. Workman has been named Executive Director of the museum[2]. In 2005, art historian John Wilmerding was hired for acquisition and advice on museum programming
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