Crystal Bridges founder Alice Walton to discuss museum expansion
by May 14, 2026 2:00 pm 1,542 views
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art said Thursday (May 14) that it will kick off its expansion opening celebrations on May 29 with a conversation featuring founder Alice Walton, board chair Olivia Walton and Moshe Safdie, founding partner of Safdie Architects.
By Design: A Conversation on the Crystal Bridges Expansion will explore the ideas, ambition and impact behind the milestone. The conversation will be moderated by Nate Freeman, global arts correspondent at “Vanity Fair,” and offer insight into the broader cultural significance of the expansion.
The event will take place at 4 p.m. May 29 at Heartland Whole Health Institute on the Crystal Bridges Campus at 850 Museum Way in Bentonville. Tickets are $15 or $10 for members. Link here for tickets.
In 2005, Alice Walton founded Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art as a nonprofit organization. Alice gifted her art collection to form the basis of the Crystal Bridges collection, and the Walton family donated 120 acres of land in downtown Bentonville as the museum site.
Safdie designed the museum that opened to the public Nov. 11, 2011, at 600 Museum Way. He is also the designer for the museum’s 114,000-square-foot expansion. The expansion to increase the 200,000-square-foot museum footprint by 50% was announced in April 2021. In September 2025, the museum announced “two landmark gifts” and that the opening ceremony for the expansion would take place June 6 and 7.
The gifts comprise art from Crystal Bridges chair Olivia Walton and her husband, Tom Walton, and from collectors Candace and Michael Humphreys of Dallas. Art from the Waltons includes 18 works all by women artists, such as Yayoi Kusama, Alice Neel and Njideka Akunyili Crosby.
Artwork from the Humphreys comprises 200 pieces by more than 100 artists spanning eras and artistic disciplines and introduces new artists to the museum’s holdings.
Olivia Walton is the founder and CEO of Ingeborg Investments and Ingeborg Initiatives and sits on the council of the Momentary. She founded the Maternal and Child Health Center for Policy and Practice at Heartland Forward to support research and policy that improve outcomes for mothers and children. She’s also the founder of OZ Art NWA, which brings contemporary art to public spaces across Northwest Arkansas.