Forbes profiles the new Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts

The renovated Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts in Little Rock is the centerpiece of a new Forbes travel review, in which the former Arkansas Arts Center is referred to as “the most inviting art museum in America.”

Travel contributor Chadd Scott has plenty of positive things to say about the museum’s collections and architecture. A couple of notes include:

The museology equivalent of an all-star game, if that all-star game included the best players from the 100 years spanning roughly 1860 to 1960.

Curators aren’t trying to put over their thesis work by highlighting obscure artists unfairly left out of the canon or niche movements, instead, they’ve brought familiarity and accessibility to what, for many, can be unfamiliar and intimidating spaces. But everyone can like and recognize a Monet. On the walls are names people have heard of.

The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts achieves a level of diversity in work on view for an historic museum that could only result from a complete reboot, which the renovation provided for. Black artists share equal footing with white artists. Native American, Asian American, Latin American artists receive more than token representation. Ryan RedCorn’s (Osage) monumental photograph of a Plains Cree mother and daughter just inside the gallery door makes a dramatic statement.

Women artists are equal to men.

For every white face represented staring back from the walls, there’s a Black face.

Inviting.

In addition to the Museum of Fine Arts, Scott goes on to brag on Little Rock’s other cultural attractions and the food and beer scene. Read the review at this link.