Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art celebrated its 10-year anniversary with museum-wide events on Nov. 11-14.
The museum opened its doors on Nov. 11, 2021, with the mission to foster the celebration of art, architecture and nature in the American spirit.
The weekend’s events lasted for the entirety of the museum’s hours from opening to closing. Each day there was a new event to partake in.
“We saw about 9,000 people visiting within a span of four days, which is great,” Meredith Wagner, Crystal Bridges social media manager, said. “We celebrated with a number of different activities across the museum.”
Events included art making stations, temporary exhibits and galleries, live musicians, and more.
In addition to the museum’s permanent art collection, several new exhibitions served as part of the anniversary’s happenings.
“We also had free admission to our temporary exhibition In American Waters which is really fantastic,” Erica Harmon, Crystal Bridges copywriter, said. “It is different artworks exploring themes of marine life and specifically how that has helped shape American life as we know it.”
The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass. organized the exhibition, Wagner said. In American Waters is on display at Crystal Bridges until Jan. 31, 2022.
The weekend concluded with Family Day on Sunday with activities for all ages across the entire museum. The Great Hall hosted a birthday party with dancing, cake cutting, and birthday-hat making.
Harmon said she thinks the event encompassed the family feel, and it was a clever way to tie in the museum’s anniversary with a family-friendly event.
Museum members were given cookies, stickers, and other treats on Family Day as a thank-you for their support, Harmon said. The Crystal Bridges team made an effort to get as many people as possible to partake in the celebration.
The Studio hosted several drop-in art making stations throughout the day. Families were able to create celebration cards, sculptures, paintings, and other art forms.
“Our team who works particularly with youth and family activities, they come up with amazing art activities to be able to do,” Harmon said. “Sometimes if we’re partnering on an exhibition or if we happen to have an artist in town usually, they’ll collaborate with some things.”
The “Where To:” project, a collaboration of Ozark Regional Transit and Crystal Bridges, was located on the North Lawn in which anyone was able to contribute illustrations to a bus painting. Artist Octavio Logo led the construction of the mural.
