BENTONVILLE — Ally Gruener has had hundreds of requests from people who want to rent space at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art for weddings, receptions, meetings, club events and employee appreciation gatherings.
Gruener, the museum’s special events manager, said she will begin answering those requests in the order they were received after the museum opens Friday.
“Having events at Crystal Bridges will be especially wonderful as it [will give] your guests an opportunity to enjoy the art, the architecture and the landscape,” said Gruener, who is a former director of special events at the Chicago History Museum.
Crystal Bridges has five meeting rooms of various sizes, ranging from one that seats 16 people around a conference table to another that seats 40 people classroom style. The museum’s Great Hall can hold approximately 250 people seated at round tables or up to 550 people for a reception. Eleven, the museum’s restaurant, can seat 290 or hold about 600 for a reception.
Meeting space will be available by the half day beginning at $600 and full day starting at $1,000.
The cost of renting the Great Hall will depend on the time and day of the event. Saturdays from 6:30-11:30 p.m., the space is at a premium — $7,000. For any evening but Saturday, from 6:30-9:30 p.m., the hall will go for $5,000, or if event planners would like the event to last as late at 11:30 p.m., $6,000.
With rental of the Great Hall comes access to one of the museum’s five art galleries for the first hour of the event. No food or drinks are allowed in the gallery. A limited number of tables and chairs are also included with rental, with the exact number based on the size of the space rented.
Scott Beal, director of sales at the Embassy Suites hotel and the connecting John Q. Hammons Center in Rogers, said the museum will draw plenty of visitors to the area. He said he doesn’t look at the museum as competition for event space.
“A group might hold their meetings here” he said of the Hammons Center, “and use their Great Hall for their one night out. … It enhances our area because it gives people a choice,” Beal said.
Event planners initially will only be able to use the Eleven restaurant for catering. After a while, the museum plans to keep a list of approved caterers who may be used at the museum for events. Qualifications for caterers will include having at least two years’ experience, appropriate insurance and licensing, positive references, a proven track record with regulatory authorities and a demonstrated ability to pull off high-quality events, Gruener said.
Shellie Morrison, founder of The Event Group in Fayetteville, applied for her business to be an approved caterer in June. Morrison said she was invited early on as part of a group of area planners to provide input on the museum’s meeting spaces.
Morrison is glad to have more options to offer her clients.
“Other than hotel space, there are not [many] event spaces in Benton County,” she said. It’s always fun to have a unique venue like other cities have, such as museums and aquariums.”
Nonprofit organizations will get a price break on using the spaces, but they must be selected by lottery. No fundraisers are allowed. Four nonprofit groups each year will be selected to use the Great Hall, and 18 organizations will be allowed to use meeting space. They will not be charged the room fee but must cover labor costs, such as janitorial, security and room setup.
The museum will publish community-space request applications on its website each year, beginning on Sept. 1. Nonprofit organizations will have until Nov. 1 to submit proposals for events that comply with museum guidelines to be considered for the lottery. The winners will be notified by Nov. 15.