We’ve been to the fabulous Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville twice (2012, 2018) since it opened in 2011 and it looks like we need to go a third time, maybe spring 2020 to see the “State of the Art II” exhibit next year — and a new ancillary exhibit space, The Momentary, opening in a former cheese factory. Bentonville also has a another art space, the 21c Museum Hotel which has contemporary art exhibits (Des Moines is supposed to get one of these hotels sometime soon!) A PBS documentary that aired in spring 2019 on the museum’s first State of the Art Exhibit is available for streaming here.
More details here. https://themomentary.org/crystal-bridges-museum-of-american-art-announces-new-developments-for-its-state-of-the-art-exhibition/
State of the Art Documentary on PBS
Remember the State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now exhibition at Crystal Bridges? It was based on a journey in which museum curators visited over 1,000 artists across the country and created an exhibition featuring 102 of these artists whose work had not yet been recognized on a national level. This groundbreaking exhibition is now the subject of a one-hour documentary produced by the Arkansas Educational Television Network premiering nationally on PBS Friday evening, April 26th (2019). Filmmakers Brent and Craig Renaud captured the personal stories of seven diverse artists featured in State of the Art, traveling from the woods of North Carolina to the deserts of Nevada, the backstreets of Pittsburgh to the foothills of Arkansas and the riverbanks of New Orleans.