Crystal Bridges and Cooper’s Chapel, Bentonville AR

Crystal Bridges Museum if American Art, Bentonville AR

May 5

We woke up today to a beautiful, crisp morning, which is a perfect recipe for touring and driving in the countryside. Our campground here in Bentonville, is on a golf course with a nice water view from our site so we were happy to take our time getting ready for our visit to Cooper’s Chapel and Crystal Bridges museum.

I’ll start with the Chapel. A beautiful location, highly recommended by friends and I was very excited to see it. Much to my shagrin when we arrived it was closed for renovations…gasp! But nevertheless we walked the trail around the Chapel property lined with beautiful trees along the lake that leads you to the Chapel. We were determined at all cost to get as close as possible and take pictures. We were rewarded with spectacular views nevertheless and one of the workers took pity on us ( I stood there and stared) and let us in for a quick look. Beautiful! A wedding must be gorgeous here 😍 Take a look…the picture on the right was our very disappointing first look, but it’s all good now 😄

Mildred B Cooper Memorial Chapel, AR

From there we drove the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. This museum was founded by Alice Walton, the daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton, and designed by Moshe Safdie. The building is beautiful with undulating lines over water views and glass bridges connecting the buildings, it’s a lovely site.

The collection of American art is impressive starting with Colonial and early nineteenth century art to 1940s and contemporary. They have everything to make my heart sing. Thomas Moran, Marsden Hartley, Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins, George Bellows, Andrew Wyeth, Copleys, Rockwell, Pollock and on and on! What a fabulous collection and such a beautiful setting to house it all 😍

They also have a Frank Lloyd Wright house that was moved to the museum property and reassembled and open for touring. This is a museum worth spending time in and well worth the visit.