Crystal Bridges Art Loans Will Pay Dividends

You know you’ve got something special when other people want it.

That’s true whether you’re talking about a quality of life that draws people to a region, about a coach at a winning college athletic program who sparks interest at schools with vacancies, or about a world-class museum that houses some of the greatest American art on the planet.

Northwest Arkansas has the first of those three examples pretty much wrapped up. The second?

Well, that’s unfolding all over college sports.

But on the third, we’ve got a new experience for the region. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art opened a year ago in Bentonville and immediately became a major player in the world of art. Beyond the amazing architectureof the museum itself, benefactor Alice Walton’s impressive collection of masterpieces has captured the imagination of everyone from farmers in Gentry to curators of museums in major cities across the globe.

Crystal Bridges has them. Other museums want them.

Still developing operational policies for a museum in its infancy, offcials at Crystal Bridges now face decisions about some of the great pieces in the museum’s collection. Should they be loaned out or kept here in Northwest Arkansas?

“It’s not just that they’re removed from the galleries, it’s that they’re unavailable to educators and guests,” Kevin Murphy, Crystal Bridges’ curator of American Art, recently told a reporter.

When it comes to major museums, the question is always how much to loan out art, not whether it’s going to happen. Northwest Arkansas residents who visit the museum may not be used to that, but Crystal Bridges’ visitors are not so unsophisticated that we won’t appreciate the benefits of a wellplanned and well-executed loan program.

Certainly, one might be disappointed to show up at Crystal Bridges and not get a chance to see one of its major pieces. But what art might be at other museums that the visitors to Crystal Bridges would miss without a vibrant exchange program?

Crystal Bridges’ educational eftorts can only be helped by exchanges of art. This museum is amazing, but it’s not a “set it and forget it” kind of place. An exchange program will ensure Crystal Bridges is an ever-changing experience that will draw visitors back time and time again. And that’s good for tourism, by the way.

Indeed, isn’t it exciting that a museum in Northwest Arkansas is even in the mix when it comes to the market for loaning major pieces of American art? Who would have thought this 10-20 years ago?

If someone misses a piece of museum-owned art they wanted to see, Crystal Bridges isn’t going anywhere. Visitors can just come back again, and again, and again. It’s worth it.

The Crystal Bridges collection needs to be changing all the time. The museum’s own collection includes 2,000 pieces and display space for only 450. Throw in loans made to and by other museums and the Crystal Bridges experience will be an ever-changing one.

Art loans will also pay dividends for the region’s image. Imagine art lovers seeing a great piece in a respected museum in Los Angeles or New York, then glancing down at the informational card with it to learn it’s on loan from a museum in Bentonville, Arkansas. That will, in the long run, chip away at any snobbery that exists about our great state and maybe, just maybe, convince some of these folks to come for a visit.