Crystal Bridges museum in Arkansas expands with former Kraft Foods factory

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is expanding out of its bucolic wooded setting by adding a space for contemporary art in a former cheese factory in downtown Bentonville, Ark.

The new space, which will also have performance venues for music, film and theater and artist residencies, will open in 2018.

Crystal Bridges director Rod Bigelow loves the grittiness of the 63,000-square-foot 1940s-era Kraft Foods plant, which could not be more different from the elegant Moshe Safdie-designed museum that opened in 2011, although it is less than two miles away.

“It’s an old industrial building you would never build intentionally for art. It has wonderful spaces like 60-foot towers that are very different from the Crystal Bridges building. It is not precious by any means. We intend to let artists lead the way in creating the space,” Bigelow says.

Wheeler Kearns Architects of Chicago has been hired to do the design work, but the intention, Bigelow says, is to “not dramatically affect the architecture of this factory ... and keep the wonderful history of the space alive.”

Brothers Steuart and Tom Walton, nephews of Crystal Bridges founder and Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton, are in charge of development of the new space, and the project will be supported by the Walton Family Foundation.

The family members and museum staff draw inspiration from the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams, Mass., which is housed in a 19th-century industrial complex.

MASS MoCA will collaborate with Crystal Bridges to develop programs and residencies for the new space.

MASS MoCA director, Joseph Thompson, wrote in an email to the Star that the collaboration also will include exhibition sharing: shows that start in Bentonville could travel to MASS MoCA and vice-versa. “I’ve long been a fan of both the aspirations and the results of Crystal Bridges,” Thompson wrote.

Although Crystal Bridges has always collected contemporary art, the new space builds directly on the energy and success of its 2014-2015 exhibition, “State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now.”

That survey of works by 102 artists, chosen after a two-year nationwide search involving 1,000 studio visits in nearly every state, drew more than 170,000 visitors.

“‘State of the Art’ was an eye-opening moment for us,” Bigelow says, “We could see how guests and the general community connect strongly with the art of our times and the artists creating it. This is an opportunity to take another exciting step in that direction.”

Contemporary works from the collection may hang in the space, and new works by resident artists may also be collected, Bigelow says.

“We are staying very open on the definition of art, so it could be performance, dance, theater, music or visual art. We want to be a place people come to from all over. We hope to resonate on an international and national level."

Crystal Bridges is already a popular day-trip and weekend destination for Kansas Citians, a pleasant four-hour drive south through Ozark scenery, because of the way the museum’s setting in nature.

[Steve Paul: Alice Walton’s Ozarks homage to the American spirit is an artistic treasure]

Adding a raw, urban space for contemporary art and performance in hip downtown Bentonville will surely only increase that appeal.

This story was originally published April 1, 2016 at 10:44 AM with the headline "Crystal Bridges museum in Arkansas expands with former Kraft Foods factory."