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Community Engagement

Outdoor art display with paintings on easels and viewers, including a wheelchair user, along a path.

At Crystal Bridges and the Momentary, we believe in the power of people and art to shape and sustain a just, empathetic, and creative society. Our community engagement work activates the museum’s resources and staff to build trust, welcome diverse perspectives, and nurture authentic relationships with the communities we serve.

The following pillars enable us to support and deepen community engagement through art, both inside and outside the museum:

  1. Art and Social Impact
  2. Art in Communities
  3. Community-Centered Museum
  4. Access and Inclusive Programs

Contact us at Community@CrystalBridges.org.

Group of people outdoors, child hitting piñata, colorful confetti on ground, festive atmosphere.
Art and Social Impact Accelerator (ASAP)

The Arts and Social Impact Accelerator Program (ASAP) cultivates partnerships with social service agencies and local artists in Northwest Arkansas. These partnerships incubate ideas that creatively address social issues through collaboration, arts-based solutions, and socially engaged experiences.

Learn more about ASAP

a woman with a reflection, a woman in a hijab, and an illuminated man.
Kalyn Fay Barnoski, Kholoud Sawaf, and Octavio Logo
Art in Communities

Art in Communities meets people where they are, enhancing arts participation and improving quality of life by providing experiences that promote social connection and belonging.  Traveling to underserved areas, community programming focuses on regional artists, encouraging storytelling among youth and families, social connecting, and empathy building.

Learn more about Art in Communities

Man and child holding cookies with drawings in an outdoor area with green umbrellas.
Community-Centered Museum

As a community-centered museum, Crystal Bridges invites participation and collaboration with diverse local communities and transforms the museum into an inclusive gathering space for our region.

Learn more about how we are a Community-Centered Museum

Performer in traditional dress dancing energetically for seated audience in outdoor amphitheater.
Access and Inclusive Programs

Access and Inclusive programs offer opportunities for our disability communities and seniors to connect with art, both at the museum and meeting people where they are.

Learn more our Access and Inclusive Programs

People gathered indoors at a table, focused on a collaborative art project.

Community Partnerships

Crystal Bridges actively invites and welcomes community partnership opportunities. We seek to partner and co-create with Northwest Arkansas communities both on-site and beyond the walls of the institutions to foster mutual growth and development.

If you’re interested in exploring a partnership opportunity, please contact Community@CrystalBridges.org.

Learn more about our Community Partnerships

People hanging a large, red poster on a brick wall using tape.

Pandemic Relief

Crystal Bridges and the Momentary mobilized museum staff to help our region’s communities during the COVID-19 crisis. We consulted with 30+ partner organizations in health, social services, arts, culture, schools, and housing sectors. Learn more about our COVID-19 programs, which included Art Mends, our Social Connecting Campaign, and more.

Learn more about our Community Engagement efforts

6 Fall Programs Building Community Through Art
Unfinished canoe being built in wood and carved by a Marshallese community member

6 Fall Programs Building Community Through Art

At the Museum People & Community

Come join in these free events intended to build meaningful relationships and support communities through art.

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Checking In with the 2021 ASAP Program Artists and Agencies
Community event in fayetteville as an artist paints on a bus

Checking In with the 2021 ASAP Program Artists and Agencies

People & Community
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A Q&A with Artist Leah Grant
Artist Leah Grant

A Q&A with Artist Leah Grant

People & Community

Get to know Fayetteville-based artist Leah Grant, who lends her expertise to offer creative artmaking activities, poetry, and mental health resources for our Art Mends: Reflect and Connect kit.

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Community Voices: Music Moves (Reggie James and Anthony Ball)
Two smiling men in separate portraits; one outdoors, one indoors with a brick wall background.

Community Voices: Music Moves (Reggie James and Anthony Ball)

People & Community

In our work with community art engagement, our Community team has met some incredible artists and community leadership throughout Northwest Arkansas, but we have also encountered some harsh realities of…

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