A world-class collection of American art, stunning architecture, and 120 acres of Ozark forest with five miles of trails. Admission to the museum is always free.
Planning a visit to Crystal Bridges this spring? Use this guide to learn what’s on and what to expect this season.
We have something for all types of learners. From educator resources to family activities to scholars, find what speaks to you and engage with us.
There’s more to the museum than just the galleries— come enjoy hands-on creative fun with art classes for all ages and experience levels..
Crystal Bridges members receive year-round perks, invitations to member-only events, travel opportunities, and more!
Museum & Buildings
Trails and Grounds open daily sunrise to sunset.
Coming soon to a library near you: the CB to You Mobile Art Lab!
The CB to You Mobile Art Lab is a traveling pop-up art experience energizing the power of community through art. Featuring regional artists from across Northwest Arkansas, the art lab will be visiting local libraries and festivals around the region to bring artmaking, music, storytelling, and more.
The mobile art lab will run from May 7 to November 3, with each stop featuring art- and community-inspired activities for all ages. From creative experiences with a visiting artist to writing workshops, free special exhibition tickets, free art kits to take home, live music, and more, each stop is packed with inspired fun for everyone.
Find out when CB to You is coming to your community here, or sign up for eNews to learn more about what’s happening with Crystal Bridges.
The CB to You Mobile Art Lab is brought to you in collaboration with six regional artists: Bia Furtado, Summer Park, Bryan Waytula, Joel Martin, Lynette Thrower, and Regan Chrisman-Bowman.
Additional collaborations include: art totes created by Tram Colwin; Dear Friend, a series of collaborative public artworks by Leah Grant; the Mobile Print Cart, a collaboration between local printmaker Junli Song and Somewhere Studios; music and movement experiences guided by community organizations Music Moves and Latin X Theater Project; DJ sounds arranged by Her Set, Her Sound; and live chalk murals created by community artists.
Please see individual event listings for details on artists, activities, and performances.
There are currently no related events. Check out our Calendar for a full list of upcoming events.
Keep an eye on this space for updates about new stops and CB to You events, or sign up for eNews and be the first to hear where the mobile art lab is headed next!
Leah Grant lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas. She graduated with her MFA in Studio Art from the University of Arkansas’ School of Art program in 2021. She graduated with her BFA from Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas in 2016. Leah incorporates collage techniques and images from a personal archive to recontextualize her experiences by revealing and concealing the vulnerable parts of her identity. Her background is in printmaking but she also utilizes photography, writing, audio, and video in her art practice.
Tram is the artist and designer behind Tram Colwin Art, where she creates custom artwork, prints, and stationery goods. She was born in Vietnam and lived there until her family immigrated to America in 1996, following other relatives straight to Bentonville, Arkansas. With every piece Tram creates, she tries to capture the beauty that can be found in nature and in everyday life. Her hope is that after viewing her art, people will be drawn to search out the beauty of nature and the world around them.
Bia Furtado is a visual artist who works primarily in ceramics. Recently graduated from Carleton College, where she acquired a double major in Studio Art and in French and Francophone Studies, Bia currently attends the University of Arkansas as a first-year post-bacculaurate in Ceramics. Drawn to the archival qualities of clay and its widespread significance throughout history, she uses this same material to create sculptures and environments that investigate the mythologies and absurdities intertwined within socially constructed narratives and personal memories.
Park So-eun (1992, Korea) is a ceramic visual artist. After graduating from Sangmyung University in Korea, she is currently completing a master’s degree at Tainan National University of Arts in Taiwan. Through her work, she talks about the patriarchal and discriminatory ideologies hidden in culture and language as ceramic sculptures.
Lynette Thrower is a poet and short story writer living in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Her work has appeared in Applause Literary Journal and Arkansas English Journal. One of her roles as a poet is the acknowledgement, honoring, and celebration of the humanity and life’s purpose of the under-celebrated, undervalued, and forgotten. She is also committed to interrogating the “what ifs” and to imagining the undocumented sides of conversations in her poetry.
Lynette is a 2018 grant recipient and member of the inaugural cohort of the Artists 360 project sponsored by the MidAmerica Arts Alliance and Walton Family Foundation. She is also an alumna of the Open Mouth Reading Series and a member of the 2020 Nick Cave Until artists convening. She has served as a guest instructor on magic realism at the Write Now writers’ workshop at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Lynette has performed her poetry at venues such as the Momentary and the Levitt Amp Fort Smith Music Series and has participated in panel discussions such as Fort Smith’s 64/6 Downtown’s 2022 Our Town’s Excellence conversation on art in the River Valley. She holds a B.A. in English with a minor in Rhetoric and Writing from the University of Arkansas Fort Smith.
Bryan Waytula is a 3rd-generation Cherokee artist (Wolf Clan) following the legacy left by his mother and grandmother, who are both Cherokee National Treasures in the art of Basketry. Waytula started drawing at an early age that continued through high school where he was awarded All-State. This led to accepting an art scholarship to the University of Oklahoma, where he earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Communications. His graduate studies brought him back to Tahlequah, Oklahoma, where he earned his certification to teach art from Northeastern State University. Bryan taught numerous art students from grades 6 through 12 throughout his 14-year career as an educator before transitioning to show his works full time as a professional artist.
Bryan has received numerous awards at a variety of Indian Art Markets across Oklahoma, including national shows at the Santa Fe Indian Market, Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, the Heard Museum, and the Autry Museum of the American West. He’s provided instruction on the use and application of colored pencils with Cherokee Nation citizens at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and created works for professional athletes and their charities. Waytula works in a wide variety of media from painting, clay sculpture, pottery, screen-printing, block printing, and drawing, to newer mediums including resin casting, fabric design, spray painting, and bronze. Bryan has been mentioned in numerous magazines and interviews, and was featured artist on Cherokee Nation’s OsiyoTV in March of 2022.
I grew up overseas, primarily in Bolivia, as a son to Southern Baptist missionaries. After graduating high school in Peru in 2005, I moved back to the United States to attend John Brown University, where I graduated in 2009 with a B.A. in Digital Media with an emphasis in film. I did a few odd jobs until I started working in mental health as a paraprofessional for school-based services. After six years I decided that a change was needed and took my Praxis after completing the nontraditional licensure program. I’ve now taught for six years: two at Decatur Elementary, and I’m working on my fourth year at Greer Lingle Middle School.
Professionally, I’ve illustrated two anthologies for MKeaton Presents and do commissions on the side. Personally, I’ve got a lovely family with a new baby due in September, a cat who doesn’t understand personal space, and a dog who will take herself for walks if no one else will. My favorite illustrators include Moebius and Michael Whelen and I’ll watch anything animated by Don Bluth or Ralph Bakshi.
Regan Chrisman-Boman specializes in printmaking while also creating interdisciplinary work. She received her bachelor’s at the University of Central Missouri and is currently receiving her MFA from the University of Arkansas. Her work explores different themes including private thoughts, intimate moments, secondary worlds, and storytelling.
Junli Song grew up in Chicago, but lived abroad from 2012–2018 in South Korea, England, Italy, and South Africa. Her studies are similarly widespread: she originally majored in economics and international development before returning to the creative path, first with an MA in children’s book illustration, and, currently, an MFA with a concentration in printmaking. As a storyteller, she uses visual narratives to explore the cultural ambiguities of being Chinese American. Drawing upon the fantasy and humor inherent in self-making within diasporic societies, her work reveals how identity is as fluid as inherited stories and traditions are continually evolving.
Lupita Albarrán is a creative artist based in Northwest Arkansas. She received her BFA in Graphic Design, a BA in Studio Photography, and a minor in Art History at the University of Arkansas. Lupita’s primary areas of work are in illustration, graphic design, and photography. Specifically in design, she is interested in visual identity, product packaging design, and typography. Her illustrations typically center around nature or are representative of her cultural background and self-identity. She also runs a small stationery Etsy shop called pitaachips.
LatinX Theatre Project (LXTP) is a socially-engaged theatre group of professionals and young artists-in-training that is committed to continuing an inclusive conversation about community identity through its devised theatre performances. The content of LXTP’s work not only includes original dialogue, movement, music, poetry, and rap; but also brings a focus to the authentic representation of Latinx voices in the arts and community.
In its fourth year, the project continues to develop new performances for the community and educational pieces for schools in the Northwest Arkansas region. LXTP is unique in the composition of its artistic ensemble, and its distinctive approach to creating work that can be experienced outside of the traditional theatre venue suited to collaborate with multidisciplinary cultural, community, and educational organizations across the region.
The extraordinary contribution of African Americans to music of all genres has left a mark globally. Music Moves develops curriculum, programs, and performances to share the stories of these individuals and their influence on American culture. Our mission is to make Black music accessible to students and to our communities through performance and education.
Her Set Her Sound is the facilitator behind elevating the DJs you’ll see and hear from at our labs at the festivals.. Her Set Her Sound is a platform and the first music fest in Northwest Arkansas committed to amplifying and empowering women and non-binary talent. HSHS promotes DJs, producers, and creatives locally and beyond, centers womanism, and produces liberating programs and experiences that celebrate womanhood to heighten a sense of interconnection.
Neff and Scarlett Basore | Matt and Mary Kathryn Brown | Anna and Carl George | Sue and Charles Redfield | Lee and Linda Scott | Dennis and Evelyn Shaw | James and Ann McKenzie
