Crystal Bridges At The Massey Presents First Exhibition
Open House Coincides With Bentonville Art Walk
Last updated Friday, June 15, 2007 9:26 PM CDT in News
By Richard Dean Prudenti
THE MORNING NEWS
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BENTONVILLE -- Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art will bring "change and transition" to downtown during today's Bentonville Art Walk.
The museum is scheduled to open exhibit space at 10 a.m. on the first floor of the historic Massey Building, just off the square, as part of the annual downtown celebration of the arts.
The open house will last until 8 p.m., and a children's activity, "Sun Prints," is from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The opening highlights the first in a series of art exhibitions that are free to the public.
"It's all about change and transition," said Chris Crosman, the museum's chief curator, referring to the more than 50 color photographs by William Christenberry now on display.
Crosman will be available to talk with visitors and answer questions about the artwork and gallery at 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.
The exhibition surveys the artist's documentation of southern architecture, signs and landscape. A series of photographs demonstrates changes over time to houses, stores, barns and churches, mostly in rural Alabama, where the artist was born in 1936.
Most of the photos were taken in Hale or Perry counties, near his grandparent's home, and resemble parts of Arkansas.
One series shows Coleman's Cafe in Greensboro, Ala., from its early days of operation when the building prominently displayed a store sign with a Coca-Cola logo in 1967, to its eventual uninhabited state without a sign in 1982.
Christenberry is recognized as one of the first to use color photography as an art form, Crosman said.
Crystal Bridges at the Massey is a temporary facility for Crystal Bridges to experiment with presentation techniques before the museum opens in fall 2009.
Downtown Fixture
Moving into the Massey Building is an attempt "to make people aware the museum wants to be downtown," Crosman said. Its 105-acre site is about a a half-mile northeast of the square.
At the Massey Building, a large meeting room will offer educational activities such as art classes for children. A schedule of activities and programs will be available today.
"We're trying something on a very small scale, so we can do in a bigger and better form when Crystal Bridges opens," Crosman said.
The future museum will be part of a cultural complex with 100,000 square feet of gallery, art research library, meeting and office space, six large classrooms and a 250-seat indoor auditorium. There will be areas for outdoor concerts and public events, sculpture gardens, meditative areas, walking and biking trails.
The Massey Building displays will also give art enthusiasts regular updates on the construction of Crystal Bridges via architectural models, renderings and monthly aerial photographs of the complicated construction.
"We want everyone interested in the building of the Crystal Bridges, and we want people to enjoy the exhibits and all the associated programming," said Bob Workman, executive director for the museum.
Regular hours for Crystal Bridges at the Massey are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. For more information, go to www.crystalbridges.org or call 418-5700.
Art Walk
Festival organizers have added several new attractions this year, including a Main Stage for musicians and a Kids Art Park.
The Main Stage performances begin at 11 a.m. and include performances by Patrick Hall of the 2006 American Idol contest, Sugar Creek Jazz Band, Take Cover, Burford and Miller, Kevin Bennoch, Bent Grass Green, Truth About Movie Starts, Drum Spirit and Bentonville High School Jazz Band.
The Bentonville Art Walk will showcase artwork by about 45 artists from Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas and Texas.
Children will have their own Kids Art Park at Dave Peel Park between 11:30 and 3:30 p.m.
For $1 donations, children and adults can demonstrate their artistic talents by contributing brush strokes on the Public Art Canvas. The artwork eventually will be auctioned and all proceeds will go to Downtown Bentonville.
Go And Do
Crystal Bridges at the Massey Exhibitions
* Sept. 1-16
Paintings from Arkansas Children's Hospital
* Sept. 22-Nov. 25
Thoreau's Walden: A Journey in Photographs by Scot Miller
* Dec. 8-Feb. 24
Selected Works by Susan Morrison
* March 1- May 4
International Exhibition of Botanical Art and Illustration
Source: Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
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