Alice Walton, founder and chair of the board of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, announced Monday that Don Bacigalupi had been appointed the new director of the museum, now under construction in Bentonville.
Bacigalupi, who has been president, director and CEO of the Toledo Museum of Art since 2003, will assume his post in late October. He replaces Bob Workman, who announced in January that he had resigned as executive director. Workman said he decided to leave because he could not make a commitment to stay beyond the museum opening.
At the downtown Bentonville event introducing Bacigalupi (pronounced baa-chee-ga-loop-ee), he said he was most looking forward to the opportunity and the challenge of creating something from the ground up.
"I hope and trust that 100 years from now, our successors will look back at the beginning of Crystal Bridges and say, ‘Boy, oh boy, did they get it right,’" he said. "I look forward to ensuring that comes to pass."
Overseeing the construction of the museum is his first priority, Bacigalupi said. He won’t be able to announce an opening date for the museum, he said, until some major construction milestones have passed
The museum had been scheduled to open in 2010, but construction delays have pushed that back, Arkansas Business reported in March.
Walton, an heir to the Walton family’s Wal-Mart fortune, has been the driving force behind the museum, which is expected to house one of the greatest collections of American art in the world, as well as be a major tourist draw to northwest Arkansas.
The glass-and-wood museum building is designed by architect Moshe Safdie. The museum complex, which sits on a 100-acre site, will comprise more than 100,000 SF of public space that will include galleries, meeting and classroom spaces, an auditorium, areas for outdoor concerts and public events, and sculpture and walking trails.
The museum itself will have more than 50,000 SF of gallery and display space, with most of that devoted to the display of American paintings from the Colonial era to the 21st century.
Bacigalupi is a specialist in post-World War II American art and popular culture. His previously served as executive director of the San Diego Museum of Art (1999 to 2003); director and chief curator of the Blaffer Gallery, the art museum of the University of Houston (1995 to 1999); and the Brown Curator of Contemporary Art at the San Antonio Museum of Art (1993 to 1995).
"After a comprehensive national search, we have found the ideal person for the job in Don," Walton said in a Crystal Bridges Museum news release. "The depth of his experience in managing a museum, his scholarship in American art, and his commitment to arts education are a perfect fit with our mission and will ensure the success of Crystal Bridges."
"The opportunity to lead and help launch a major new art museum is thrilling," Bacigalupi said.
"Crystal Bridges is distinguished among museums worldwide in offering an outstanding collection of American art in a beautiful natural setting. For me, the museum’s vision for offering meaningful learning experiences and a dynamic mix of programming serving local, regional and national audiences is especially important."
While in Toledo, Bacigalupi oversaw the development and opening of the Glass Pavilion, designed by SANAA. The building, an expansion of the museum, was named "Best Museum" design in the world by Travel and Leisure magazine in 2007.
John Wilmerding, art historian and board member of Crystal Bridges Museum, said: "Don is one of finest leaders in the museum field today. With his strong background in arts education and his deep management experience he is uniquely suited to lead Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art."
Bacigalupi received his master’s and doctorate degrees in art history from the University of Texas at Austin, and his bachelor’s degree in art history from the University of Houston, where he was valedictorian. He was a 1996 fellow at the Museum Management Institute of the J. Paul Getty Trust and the American Federation of Arts at the University of California-Berkeley.
Bacigalupi began his career teaching art history at the University of Texas at Austin before moving into museum management. He has served on the boards of organizations such as the Association of Art Museum Directors and currently serves on the board of the national committee of the International Council of Museums. He has also been active in the American Association of Museums.
(Susannah Patton of the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal contributed to this report.)
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