Crystal Bridges announced plans for a major expansion designed by Safdie Architects, with construction commencing in early 2022 and an expected completion in 2024. This will increase the size of the facility by roughly 50 percent, adding new galleries, educational facilities, and community spaces to allow for more art, outreach, programs, and events.
Here, Crystal Bridges founder and chairperson Alice Walton discusses the museum’s expansion with Moshe Safdie, founder of Safdie Architects.
Click here to learn more about Crystal Bridges’s expansion plans: bit.ly/Crystal-Bridges-Expansion
Click here for more conversations between Alice Walton and Moshe Safdie about the design and construction of Crystal Bridges: bit.ly/Alice-and-Moshe
ABOUT CRYSTAL BRIDGES
Since opening in 2011, Crystal Bridges has welcomed more than five million visitors to experience the renowned collection with free admission, exhibitions, and five miles of sculpture and walking trails on 120 acres. The museum opened with approximately 1,500 artworks spanning five centuries of American art and has since more than doubled its collection and presented more than 60 exhibitions, organizing or co-organizing many of them including “Crafting America,” which is currently on view. In 2018, the museum re-installed its Early American Galleries to tell a more inclusive story, adding multiple perspectives with Native American, folk, and Spanish Colonial objects, contemporary works, and bilingual text. The museum has been focused on acquiring works by artists underrepresented in art history. Recent acquisitions include works by 25 Native American artists, Sam Gilliam, Amy Sherald, and 34 artworks featured in “State of the Art 2020,” which debuted alongside the grand opening of the Momentary, a 63,000 square foot satellite space dedicated to contemporary art.
In 2019, Crystal Bridges hosted nearly 800 programs and events and welcomed more than 700,000 visitors including 50,000 students participating in school field trips. Committed to providing an accessible experience for visitors of all backgrounds and abilities, the museum provides on-site accommodations and continues to grow its educational programs to serve new audiences through community outreach initiatives. In 2020, the outreach team held over 100 listening sessions with local organizations to hear about COVID challenges. As a result, thousands of meals, food boxes, and house-cleaning supply kits were distributed to schools and families all around the region, each paired with an art kit. The museum is committed to building upon these efforts, with in-depth partnership projects with local artists and social service agencies, and more collaborations that expand the voices and perspectives in the museum.
ABOUT SAFDIE ARCHITECTS
Safdie Architects is an architecture and urban design studio imbued with a spirit of idealism and innovation; drawing upon a depth of experience to solve contemporary building challenges in imaginative and unexpected ways. Safdie Architects is active in a wide variety of project types, scales, and sectors, designing museums, cultural centers, libraries, housing, mixed-use developments, transportation centers, and master plans in geographically and culturally diverse places. The studio’s projects around the world have become beloved resources and symbols of their communities as well as regional and national landmarks. The practice has its design headquarters in Boston with offices in Jerusalem, Toronto, Shanghai, and Singapore. www.safdiearchitects.com.
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