Crescent Hotel

Overnight on the Trail
The 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa, a Historic Hotel of America in Eureka Springs.


Fayetteville Artosphere

Walton Arts Center
Arkansas Premier Center for Arts & Entertainment.

Crystal Bridges Art Museum Crystal Bridges Museum
of American Art

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Photographs of trail views were captured by Edward Robison III.

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art – What are people saying?

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art officially opens soon. In preparation for your visit, here is a compliation of recent articles focusing on various aspects  of the museum, its creator, and collection.

Crystal Bridges. Read more at AFAnews.

Crystal Bridges, art connects with landscape. Read more in The Art Newspaper.

The instant museum: “An enviable collection of treasures spanning most of American history…on display in an unlikely place.” Read more at the Huffington Post.

Middle America museum. It “ruffled feathers, challenged stereotypes and raised expectations about this country’s newest major cultural institution.” Read more at the Washington Post.

“Heiress builds a spectacular art museum on family property somewhere in the Deep South.” Read more at the New York Times.

Crystal Bridges museum combines traditional with ‘a little humor’ –  Read more at Tulsa World.

First Look at Alice Walton’s Crystal Bridges Museum Finds No Evidence of “Cultural Money-Laundering” Read more at ArtInfo.

Walmart Heriess brings art museum to the ozarks. Listen to the story on NPR.

Moshe Safdie builds in Bentonville, AR. Read more on Safdie Architects.

See interview with Safdie on Charlie Rose.

New Museum in Middle America. Read more at Reuters.

Museum ‘sends ripples across USA’. Read more at USA Today.

Moshe Safdie’s Crystal Bridges. Read more at the Arhictectural Record.

Museum takes topical approach to important issues through art. Read more at the Washington Post.

In the Arkansas woods, an art museum sprouts tall. Read more in the Kansas City Star.

Learn about what it takes to construct a museum in an Arkansas Ravine. Read more at Engineering News Record.

See a photo gallery at the Kansas City Star.

Read the press preview at the Arkansas Times.

See video of early reviews of Crystal Bridges on MSN.

See video interview with Alice Walton on CBS News.

See early reviews on 4029 Tv.

See Pat Musick exhibit at Crystal Bridges.

Architecture on the Arkansas Art Trail

Interested in architecture? Learn more about architecture in Arkansas and plan on visiting the Top Trail Sites for Architecture on the Arkansas Art Trail.

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art by Moshe Safdie.

An apprentice of Louis Kahn, Safdie’s works are immediately recognizable. Meaningful spaces created by curving architecture that complement the essence of their setting and culture. Crystal Bridges exemplifies Safdie’s principle of responding to the essence of place even bearing its name for the natural creek it spans. See the layout of Crystal Bridges and read about the challenges of constructing these cable roofed buildings and the hurdles of completing this project while continuing to build responsibly, treading as lightly as possible on the landscape. The Crystal Bridges complex pays deference to the natural setting through organic shapes, fantastic views, and native materials used for its construction and is architecture with a purpose. Visit and discover for yourself how Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art’s collection echoes themes of American landscape and life. View an interview with Moshe Safdie on the modern issues in architecture and how he is working to shape the public realm and humanize megascale building.

Thorncrown Chapel by E. Fay Jones.

E. Fay Jones was an apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright and Bruce Goff. Jones created organic architecture from simple materials: wood, stone, glass, and steel and much of Jones work can be found throughout northwest Arkansas. It can be said that the touchstone of his architectural accomplishments is Thorncrown Chapel, a place of “gentle beauty and quiet dignity that celebrates the land and embraces the American Spirit.” Jones received the highest honor awarded by the American Institute of Architects, the Gold Medal, for “humble, original, intelligent, and uncompromising [architecture].” (Quotes taken from the AIA Gold Medal citation presented to Fay Jones. Now part of the Special Collections Division of the University of Arkansas Libraries.)

Thorncrown was awarded the American Institute of Architecture’s Design of the Year Award (1981) and the American Institute of Architecture’s Design of the Decade Award (1980). It is #4 of the members of the American Institute of Architects Top Buildings of the Twentieth Century and won the AIA Twenty-five Year Award for a design that has stood the test of time for more than 25 years (2006).

Tour organic architecture on the Arkansas Art Trail. Experience organic architecture for yourself at the Cottages at Crescent Park. The Cottages are designed by David McKee, apprentice of E. Fay Jones. McKee’s design philosophy is rooted in the principles of organic architecture as developed by Frank Lloyd Wright and E. Fay Jones.

1886 Crescent Hotel by Isaac S. Taylor.

The Crescent was one of America’s most luxurious resort hotels boasting eighteen inch thick walls of White River limestone quarried just miles from the site of the hotel.  Surrounded by acres of pristine woodlands, the hotel sat on top of West Mountain overlooking the valley and town below. Read more about the history of the Crescent Hotel.

Isaac S. Taylor was the chief architect of the Largest World’s Fair ever held,  the St. Louis Exposition in 1904. In the process he was charged with finishing one of the largest public parks in America, Forest Park. He was also a member and Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. Read more about the 1904 Worlds Fair and see photos of structures in the fair.

Victorian Vernacular-Architecture in Eureka Springs

Beginning in the late 1800’s, the machine age triggered the revival of traditional craftsmanship in building and the use of local materials which lead to the Queen Anne and Arts and Crafts style homes. Vernacular buildings inherently weave local traditions, building materials and skills into a recognizable form.

The town of Eureka Springs showcases Victorian vernacular with its many remaining historic structures. In fact, the whole town is on the National Register of Historic Places. Discover Arts and Crafts style elements in the 1905 Basin Park Hotel and Queen Anne residences on both sides of the historic loop. If you are downtown, just look up. Victorian homes are tucked into the mountainsides surrounding downtown Eureka Springs.

Photos that appear on the Arkansas Art Trail website were taken by local Eureka Springs artist Edward C. Robison. See more of his work at Sacred Earth Gallery. For cultural events on the Arkansas Art Trail, find us on Facebook.

FOLLOW THE ARKANSAS ART TRAIL… WHERE NATURE INSPIRES ART.

New Museum Inspires Creation of Art Trail

With attention to the Northwest Arkansas region on a high mark with the opening of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and the Sesquicentennial Commemoration of the Civil War, tourism leaders in the region have come together to develop the Arkansas Art Trail. The trail was designed to give visitors to the area an opportunity to see more of Arkansas-its natural beauty and cultural inspiration.

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is attracting a lot of national attention and is expected to draw large groups of art enthusiasts to its official opening. Welcoming all “to celebrate the American spirit in a setting that unites the power of art with the beauty of landscape,” Crystal Bridges opens November 11, 2011. With that on the horizon, the Arkansas Art Trail has been launched to help these enthusiasts discover other culturally significant sites and inspirational natural settings.  Simply put, the Arkansas Art Trail maps places in the Natural State where nature inspires art. 

Inspired by the well known Hudson Valley Art Trail in New York, the Arkansas Art Trail features breathtaking vistas, mountain views, nationally significant sites, and natural settings.  These points of visual interest are complimented by architectural features and made meaningful by local heritage and cultural sites.  The Arkansas Art Trail includes ten stops that include destinations like Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and historic cowntown Eureka Springs but it also guides trail followers to lesser known but nationally significant points of interest like Boxley Valley and Inspiration Point.

ArkansasArtTrail.com provides resources to guide visitors on their actual or virtual journey along the Trail.  Trail travelers are encouraged to do three simple things: wear comfortable shoes, open their eyes widely, and prepare to be inspired. Realistically, viewing the Arkansas Art Trail in its entirety can take three to seven days depending upon how long visitors choose to linger at each site or how many side trips are taken. The Trail has been organized into three legs that take an average of one day to complete.  Side trips noted include additional inspirational sites with pictorial samples highlighting each leg of the trail.

Images from the trail seen on the website were provided by local Eureka Springs photographer Edward Robison III who owns and operates a gallery in Eureka Springs.

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