Heartland Whole Health Institute Opens in Bentonville

Heartland Whole Health Institute on the campus of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville features giraffe-stone walls and pre-weathered brass fins that blend with the surrounding Ozark woodlands. (Photo by Tim Hursley provided)

After Walmart heiress Alice Walton ceremoniously cut the ribbon to open her Heartland Whole Health Institute, she celebrated with a fist bump with architect Marlon Blackwell.

Blackwell, of Marlon Blackwell Architects in Fayetteville, was the designer of Walton’s vision for the 85,000-SF institute meant to connect art with a whole-health approach to wellness. Walton, the daughter of Walmart Inc. founder Sam Walton, first announced her plans to have the institute built on the campus of her Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in 2020 at a Northwest Arkansas Council meeting.

“I’m so happy to be here today; it is such a special occasion,” Walton said at the event. “My dream has always been to connect art and wellness, because art is really all about the wellness of the community, and wellness and health care need art as its soul and heart. Bringing these things together has been my ultimate dream.”

The Whole Health Institute’s first floor is open to the public and will have an art gallery, cafe and meeting rooms. The second and third floors are office spaces for the institute and other nonprofit organizations including the Art Bridges Foundation and Alice L. Walton Foundation.

Heartland Whole Health Institute, founded in 2019 by Walton, works with the health care industry in developing a whole-health approach that considers the needs of the whole person with the goal of preventing disease, improving health outcomes and sustaining wellness.

The institute’s grandeur though is in Blackwell’s design that blends the building into the natural geography of the land. It has pecan wood and giraffe stone walls coupled with weathered brass and open views of the land.

Baldwin & Shell of Little Rock was the project’s general contractor. 

“I just can’t tell you enough how much I love this building, Marlon,” Walton said at the event. “I know you have a long life ahead of you, but how you can ever beat this, I don’t know.”

Blackwell praised Walton as the project’s “North Star.”

“This project embodies the core elements of whole health,” Blackwell said during the opening. “It’s surrounded by nature and shaped by nature with trails that invite exploration and discovery, and it is designed to bring people together to learn, to engage and to connect. 

“This building is not just a destination, but it is a gateway to better living and a place that will enrich the lives of everyone who comes here,” he continued.