Happy 11/11!

What’s so great about a line of ones?  It marks the third anniversary of the opening of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art on November 11, 2011. They say good things come in threes, and this year, we have to agree. Each year so far, our galleries have welcomed some 500,000 guests. That brings us to more than 1.5 million visitors! Here are some other things to celebrate on the Museum’s third anniversary;

Paul Manship
“Group of Bears”
Modeled 1932, cast ca. 1999
Bronze

Paul Manship’s sculpture Group of Bears–featuring, you guessed it, THREE BEARS—was one of the first of Crystal Bridges’ outdoor public works to be installed on the grounds. When the Museum  was little more than a big hole in the forest, these bears offered a warm welcome to guests who walked the Crystal Bridges Trail to watch the progress of construction, and served as ambassadors for the Museum collection to our community.

Photo: Timothy Hursley

THREE DOMED ROOFS on our Moshe Safdie-designed building!  Architecture has always been an important part of the equation at Crystal Bridges. From the beginning, our founder, Alice Walton, envisioned a building that would complement—not compete with—the beautiful natural site on which it was placed. Integration of the natural environment into human-built structures is central to Safdie’s work, which made him the perfect choice for Crystal Bridges.

In the year ahead we will unveil the work of another architect for whom nature and the environment played a vital role:  Frank Lloyd Wright, whose Usonian house will open for viewing on the Museum grounds in 2015.

THREE SOFT-SURFACE TRAILS traverse Crystal Bridges’ 120-acre grounds, giving guests an opportunity to immerse themselves in the beauty of the Ozark woods: the Tulip Tree Trail to the southeast, and the Dogwood and Rock Ledge Trails to the north. Thanks to the ongoing love and care of our Grounds crew, the trails continue to be a source of inspiration to our community, as well as a stronghold for native plant species and cultivars.

If you take a stroll through the Museum’s galleries, there are a number of other threes you may encounter:  Consider Adolph Gottlieb’s Trinity, Marsden Hartley’s Painting No. 3, and State of the Art artist Mary Kay’s colorful triptych Zenith. Come on out and see what sort of threes you can discover for yourself.

Mary A. Kay, b. 1954
“Zenith,” 2014
Oil on Canvas

Happy Third Anniversary!