Awesome Museum!

Monday, September 28 (continued)

 Crystal Bridges
Museum of American Art
in Bentonville, Arkansas

What an unusual museum!  Set in the most beautiful natural landscape of native trees, grasses, a flowing creek, native flowers and shrubs, wonderful walking paths with many outdoor sculptures lining the pathway.  And that is just on the outside!  Inside are lots of historical old paintings by many renowned American artists plus some of the most unusual and most thought provoking works of art.  I am so glad we came here.  It is a must-see if you are ever near this part of our country.

As we drive in we immediately see this incredible stainless steel tree sitting right in the middle of the traffic circle!  Appropriately named "Yield".

Next we were intrigued by this creation that is called "Maelstrom".

And we haven't even made it inside the museum yet.

 The buildings remind us of overturned boats.

                                That is one extremely large spider!

 This female spider is over 30-feet tall and has several 20-lb. eggs in that "sac" under her belly!  

There was of course room after room of great works of art but the quirky exhibits really caught our attention.

This is so crazy, fun,  and unique!  How does anyone even think of creating such a thing?

Throughout the museum are areas that let in the great natural light.

 We kept looking up at the amazing ceiling!

 I can't remember the name of this wood creation.

But right across the hall we looked outdoors and saw this interesting steel sculpture. 

                               Tom found Pinocchio!

                        Can you guess what this is???  I thought it resembled our intestines!

                                                     It's the alphabet!

We kept looking out the huge plate glass windows admiring the tranquil setting.

 What a fascinating way to build a museum, surrounded by water and woods and pathways and outdoor sculptures.

As we came around a corner we saw this old guy sitting there holding onto his paper lunch bag, all alone.

 He looked so real, we expected him to look up and talk to us!

        This is the ceiling over the lunch café inside the museum.

We ventured outdoors to check out the walking/biking paths.  We came upon a vaquero riding a bucking horse.

  
                           Then we saw Charlotte the Pig.......

                               ....and a bear(left) next to a stream....

                         ....and the Tortoise, who passed the Hare.....

                       ....when the Hare stopped to scratch its ear!

The walking/bike path was a nice wide paved pathway that wound its way thru the woods surrounding the Museum.  However there was another "fun" bike path that paralleled the paved pathway.

 And it had "fun" obstacles thrown in for even more adventure! 

We came to an overlook with a place to sit and enjoy the view of the Museum below.

 By this time we were ready to move on so we took a pathway across a bridge......

                                        ....passing over the creek.....

             ....and then we took the stairs up to the parking area.

This is by far our favorite museum ever! 

The buildings, which are filled with impressive art pieces, are so unique and unusual and the wonderful outdoor setting of pathways and sculptures, woods and water, all surrounding the museum combine to make this a special place to visit.  We highly recommend it!  Admission is free!

You can find out more information at www.crystalbridges.org

I will continue the rest our day (Monday 9/28) in my next post....