BENTONVILLE — On a sunny weekday morning, summer campers help groundskeeper Marty Powers dig potatoes in the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History’s heirloom vegetable garden in Springdale.
Inside, senior volunteers pore over vintage editions of The Springdale News, researching an upcoming exhibit and a recent acquisition.
Up the road in Rogers, youngsters are exploring the Attic, a “please-touch” exhibit at the Rogers Historical Museum, while adults pore over an exhibit about Coin Harvey’s vanished resort called Monte Ne.
While Northwest Arkansas boasts museums focusing on the Civil War, flight and military history, American Indians and even country doctors, the Shiloh Museum and the Rogers Historical Museum are the busiest, reeling in some 26,000 visitors a year.
Both Gaye Bland, the director of the Rogers museum, and Allyn Lord, director of the Shiloh Museum, expect opportunities and challenges to come with the opening of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
Museum goers are museum goers, Lord said.
“And one of our goals is to make sure Crystal Bridges visitors of all kinds know that we’re one of the premier places to stop if they want to see another museum in Northwest Arkansas,” she said.
Conversely, both women expect a temporary decline in the number of local visitors coming through their doors.
“I think for a little while [Crystal Bridges] may sort of suck the air out of the room,” Bland said. “That’s where everybody will want to be.”
Bland thinks she may even have some trouble getting volunteers, but again, she expects it to be short-lived.
And the reality of an exciting new museum on the block will be tempered by the boon of visitors from across the country and around the world.
“People who come in from out of town to see Crystal Bridges won’t do just that one thing, and I base that on personal experience,” Bland said. For example, a Civil War buff will seek out Pea Ridge National Military Park or Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park. And a family will look for “things that are more fun for the kids.”
“That’s how we’ll position ourselves,” she said. “We’re in a charming historic downtown, we’re absolutely free, and we have tons of hands-on activities for kids. I think we can compete on that basis.”
Like Crystal Bridges, the Shiloh museum was born out of one person’s passion for collecting. It was Judge Guy Howard’s collection of archeological artifacts that was purchased by the Springdale City Council in 1965 as the basis for a museum.
“It took three years to get that collection organized and catalogued and to convert the old library building into a museum,” Lord said. The doors opened in 1968, and residents flocked in with donations, making the new museum a repository of Springdale history.
“Springdalians in general just brought us into their hearts and made us part of the community,” Lord said.
Nothing about the opening of Crystal Bridges changes the mission, Lord says.
“People see art in all sorts of things — quilts, pottery, bluebirds of happiness — and people can see history in art, as well,” she said. Northwest Arkansas’ museums and arts organizations already share many complementary missions, Lord said, and Crystal Bridges will simply bring a new facet to the resulting collaborations.
“That’s one of the things that makes Northwest Arkansas unique and wonderful,” she said.
The Rogers Historical Museum shares a similar background with the Shiloh Museum, because it was born of and continues to be supported by the city, according to Bland, its director. It too has a historic structure, the Hawkins House, which was the museum’s second home. And, like the Shiloh Museum, its focus is on families, with exhibits that “satisfy a wide range of ages.”
“I think serving families with school-age children is at the heart of what we do,” Bland said. “And one of the things that strengthens that ability is that we’re supported by the city and able to be free. When you’re looking for something to do with your family, cost is a big factor.
You can come here at no cost, unless there’s a rare charge for a special exhibit.”
This article was previously published in NWA Media on July 22, 2011.