A Trip

Crystal Bridges Museum, Bentonville, AR

photograph - Pat Phillips

My sister from Hot Springs Village invited me some weeks ago to go with her to visit the Crystal Bridges Museum in the northwest corner of Arkansas, a little over four hours drive from where I live, and so we did, on the Friday just past.

The museum has a number of wonderful works of art in its permanent collection, but the special exhibit she wanted to see featured the work of artist Norman Rockwell, perhaps best remembered for the hundreds of paintings he created as cover art for the Saturday Evening Post.

Thinking that my son and his wife, who now live in extreme southeastern Kansas, might also enjoy the Rockwell exhibit, we invited them, and their younger daughter and her husband, who live not too far from the museum, to join us.  All being in agreement, we met at a lovely restaurant in Bentonville at the noon hour, had a leisurely and delicious lunch, then went to the museum about a half hour before the time assigned to us.  

I knew beforehand that Crystal Bridges was quite an attraction, but I truly was not prepared to find perhaps a thousand persons already on premises.  It appears it's a popular destination for coach tours, as several "Greyhound"-type vehicles were in evidence.  

After a quite reasonable wait for admittance to the Rockwell gallery, we greatly enjoyed the exhibit, which included actual covers of all of the three hundred twenty six (326) issues of the Saturday Evening Post featuring his work.  Many of these I remember fairly well, as the Saturday Evening Post was delivered to our home in New Mexico for many years. 

After leaving the Rockwell exhibit, we made a fairly quick trip through the rest of the galleries.  The permanent collection contains more than a few highly recognizable and well known works of art, including "Rosie the Riveter,"  a famous Rockwell painting, and works by Gilbert Stuart, Georgia O'Keefe, and Mary Cassatt. More than a small smidgen of the Wal-Mart wealth has been spent to good end.  Thank you, Ms. Alice Walton.

My son's and daughter-in-law's home being less than a two hour drive from the museum, we had already made plans to spend Friday night with them rather than making the longer trek back here.  I don't get to see them as often as I would like since they moved to Kansas, and greatly enjoyed the time spent with them.  We had dinner at one of their favorite restaurants in Joplin, then drove about 20 minutes to reach their home in Baxter Springs, KS.

Sister dropped me off at my home yesterday afternoon, arriving here early enough that I could get in a short nap before bedtime!

Tomorrow is also a day.