An Interview with Alice Walton: Crystal Bridges An Expression of Love

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An Interview with Alice Walton: Crystal Bridges An Expression of Love

by Jan Cottingham on Monday, Mar. 31, 2014 12:00 am

This giant silver tree by sculptor Roxy Paine sits at the entrance to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, founded by Alice Walton (inset) in Bentonville. (Photo of Crystal Bridges by Michael Pirnique)

Left: Charles Bird King Ottoe Half Chief, Husband of Eagle of Delight, ca. 1822. Oil on panel 18 x 14 1/2 in. (45.7 x 36.8 cm) Right: Norman Rockwell, Rosie the Riveter, 1943. Oil on canvas 52 x 40 in. (132.1 x 101.6 cm)

Thomas Moran, Valley of the Catawissa in Autumn, ca. 1862. Oil on canvas 39 3/4 x 63 1/2 in. (101 x 161.3 cm)

Andy Warhol, Dolly Parton, 1985. Synthetic polymer paint and silkscreen ink on canvas 42 x 42 in. (106.7 x 106.7 cm)

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Articles about Alice Walton and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art have tended to focus on big numbers: an $800 million endowment, hundreds of millions of dollars worth of artwork, 200,000 SF of museum space, 250,000 visitors expected to visit the Bentonville showplace yearly. What the stories haven't done is explain why Walton, the only daughter of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, chose art as her way to give not just to northwest Arkansas but to the entire world.