Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art Announces Historic Expansion Opening

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Bentonville, AR - September 8, 2025 - Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art today announced the donations of two landmark gifts of art that will help transform its signature storytelling about the American spirit. Olivia Walton, Chairperson of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and her husband Tom Walton have donated 18 major works, all by women artists, including Yayoi Kusama, Alice Neel, and Njideka Akunyili Crosby. Collectors Candace and Michael Humphreys have given 200 extraordinary artworks by over 100 artists that span eras and artistic disciplines and introduce new artists to the museum's holdings.

Both gifts of art have been donated in celebration of an expansion project that is increasing the museum in size by 50 percent and providing a fully reimagined core gallery experience. The museum announced that the grand opening of the expanded museum will be held on June 6 and 7, 2026.

The 114,000-square-foot expansion by Safdie Architects, the world-renowned designers of the original 200,000-square-foot building, accommodates the public's overwhelming response to Crystal Bridges since its opening in 2011 while amplifying the museum's ability to provide surprise, delight, joyful learning, and an all-embracing range of American stories told through art. While remaining open to the public throughout the construction period, Crystal Bridges is reinstalling nearly every gallery, including an all-new core experience that takes visitors on a thematic journey through American life, landscape, and spirit. Both the Walton and Humphreys gifts will feature prominently in the expanded Crystal Bridges, within the new contemporary art gallery as well as in rotating displays, thematic installations, and interdisciplinary programs.

Alice Walton, Founder of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, said, "This announcement marks an historic day for Crystal Bridges and the entire campus, where art, architecture, nature, education, and wellness now come together to inspire people, enhance their well-being, and build a greater understanding of the American experience. Next June, we will recognize how Safdie Architects' vision helps us welcome all and provides a fitting home for the generous gifts of art from

Olivia, Tom, Candace, and Michael."

Growing the Museum's Collection with Landmark Gifts

Olivia and Tom Walton's gift has been donated in memory of Olivia's mother Monique Knowlton, a celebrated New York gallerist who was well known for her support of women artists. Of the 18 works in the gift, 13 are by artists who are new to the Crystal Bridges collection. Knowlton personally showed three of them in her gallery: Betye Saar, Elaine Reichek, and Helen Oji. Other artists and works reflect Olivia Walton's collecting journey and the resonance of her mother's influence. These include Yayoi Kusama's beloved, large-scale Narcissus Garden (1966), which has been on long-term loan to Crystal Bridges since 2020. Olivia has cited the impact of the Guerrilla Girls, whose campaigns against gender inequity in the art world resonated with her mother's experience as a gallerist. Themes of femininity and selfhood are a central undercurrent in the gift, in works such as Hannah Wilke's Self-Portrait (BC Series) (1990), together with self-portraits by Loie Hollowell and Maria Berrio, which exemplify the ways artists have used their own image to assert identity and resilience across generations.