Goodbye Party

A new year is full of potential. It's fresh start -- an opening promise that guarantees that beginning of something truly great.

But for one Northwest Arkansas museum, the start of 2015 is the end of an era.

"State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now," an art exhibit at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, comes to a close Monday. The four-month initiative showcased 227 pieces from 102 artists, ranging in age from 24 to 87 and in geography from around the country, all highlighting the diverse nature of contemporary American art.

The works of art were collected beginning in 2013, when curator Chad Alligood and museum president Don Bacigalupi traveled across the country, approximately 100,000 miles in total, to select works out of some 1,000 studios throughout the United States. Fifty of the 102 artists took part in art talks, educational programs, workshops, demonstrations and discussions at the museum.

The result was a the most popular exhibit at the museum since its opening.

More than 127,000 visitors attended "State of the Art," which boasted a record 3,700 visitors on the day after Thanksgiving alone, according to a Crystal Bridges news release. The exhibition, which examines how today's artists "are informed by the past, innovating with materials old and new and engaging deeply with the issues relevant now," occupied 19,000 square feet of museum space, on the grounds and in downtown Bentonville.

"'State of the Art' is exceptional in terms of the curatorial approach and also represents the largest exhibition since we opened the museum in 2011," writes Rod Bigelow, Crystal Bridges executive director. "It's been rewarding to see the way guests are connecting and sharing the stories and ideas from the exhibition."

Of the exhibits, one of the most popular was arguably "Slow Room," presented by Brooklyn-based artist Jonathan Schipper.

A "nice but average" living room was created in the gallery space of the museum, built from resources found in Arkansas near the museum, says Schipper. Over the course of a month, each piece was pulled into a hole in the wall via thin ropes attached to each piece of furniture and every accessory.

The result? The room was destroyed.

"This can be seen as a negative thing, but to me it is also positive," Schipper says. "The creative process is inherently a destructive one. The room moved from a careful state of order to a carefully orchestrated state of chaos. I admire both states in their place."

Viewers of the piece may not have noticed much movement in the pieces as the installation was so slow to change, which according to Schipper, was the point. "We live in this small slice of time and can remember things from the past and imagine into the future, but the part we occupy is a knife edge of now," he says.

Schipper credits the desire to show this popular installation to a wider audience to its inclusion in "State of the Art."

"I love the art world, but it is really a very small part of the world," he says. "I make conceptual based work, and often people assume that conceptual artwork does not appeal beyond the art initiated and indoctrinated. I have been glad to find that is often not true."

"State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now" will formally close Monday following a Sunday spotlight lecture presented by Alligood at 4 p.m. The curator will share his reflections on co-curating the exhibition and what he envisions coming next for the museum.

Monday morning will see the final viewing for members of the museum, followed by an final art talk at 11 a.m. by San Antonio artist Vincent Valdez, whose large-scale paintings have elicited strong emotions because of their subject matter. His collection, "The Strangest Fruit," is a depiction of five bodies of contemporary Mexican men after their lynching.

He will also present the final master class that afternoon beginning at 1 o'clock.

But before Crystal Bridges bids farewell to "State of the Art," a goodbye party is in order, and that calls for local talent.

Artists Craig Colorusso and Donna Smith will be on hand to welcome patrons for a final weekend of innovative art that includes turning the museum into a free electric lab dance party at 8 p.m. today.

"Friday night is going to be a blast," says Smith, Arkansas native and co-curator of The Shed studio and exhibition space in downtown Fayetteville. "Many of the artists that will be taking part in the forum Saturday will be at the event Friday night."

Guests will be able to experiment with the arts in "playing" with ways technology and art are integrated, she says. There will also be a dance party, complete with VJ and DJ, she says.

The next morning, Smith will take part in the Electric Art Forum, which the museum touts as a way to "tune in to the artists' wavelength" through the use of modern, everyday technologies. Artists will use light, projections, video and sound art in a variety of ways to discuss the impact of technology on experiencing art.

Smith, who often finds herself the subject of her own artwork, will present a body station, she says, equipped with iPads and tablets showing different videos she has made. "A lot of it has to do with the body and me putting myself into confined or self-deprecating situations," she says.

Her work is in part a contemplation on the mind versus the body and focuses on how individuals rationalize emotional states, she says. "Do we focus on our body, or do we focus on how we handle a trauma with our mind?," she says. "I just want people to experience these emotions and be OK with them when they view my work. Maybe a release of emotion, even if it's laughter."

Colorusso doesn't expect an emotional reaction from those who view his work; however, he says he expects people to experience a sense of emotional calm.

"I would simply describe my pieces as chill-out rooms at a rave, without the rave," the Danbury, Conn., native says of "Sun Boxes," his solar power sound installation. "They are environments people can walk into and walk out of. I like the transformative idea of changing what a space is or what it could be. I would like people to take away a sense of always seeing the possibilities, not just what is there."

Colorusso and his wife, attorney Meghan Hart, moved from New England four years ago to a state he knew very little about, he says.

"The only thing I knew about Arkansas was that President Clinton was from Little Rock," the former musician says with a laugh. "I had no idea what I was doing out here when we moved, but I feel like I have left the art world bubble. I wouldn't be surprised if Northwest Arkansas became the new hub for contemporary art."

Crystal Bridges may be poised to become that hub after the great success of "State of the Art." And although the popular exhibit will close its doors next week, the museum looks ahead to even bigger and better artistic opportunities.

"This is just the beginning of the conversation," says Bigelow.