BENTONVILLE — Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art announced Friday a new magazine for its members and gave an update on the number of visits to the museum.
Executive Director Don Bacigalupi announced the debut of C magazine in the museum’s Great Hall. The meaning of C is open to interpretation, he said, but can refer to crystal, culture, creativity, community and collection.
“Our collection is everchanging,” Bacigalupi said. “It’s something that will con- inue to evolve and mature.”
The magazine connects members with the inside story of Crystal Bridges, said Kathryn Roberts, director of membership and guest services for the museum.
About 60 percent of the museum’s members are families, including the Cockrell family of Bentonville, which was invited to receive the first copy of C during the announcement.
Chris and Tessa Cockrell, parents to five children ages 2 through 12, became members to support the museum, Chris Cockrell said. The family moved to Bentonville in 2001 and watched as the museum emerged from the wooded ravine they hike so often.
“It’s helped the community blossom,” Chris Cockrell said. “I love the transformation of what it’s done for this area.”
The family visits the museum almost weekly, Chris Cockrell said. The children have enjoyed the colonial pieces because they fit with their home-school studies, he said.
Laura Jacobs, editor of C, said the first issue was to be mailed Friday, and a second issue is due in September. Jacobs anticipates publishing three a year starting in 2013, she said.
The first issue features a cover story on Nick Cave, the contemporary artist behind Soundsuits.
The story in C describes Soundsuits as costumes that can be worn and allow for movement but that can also be sculptural objects. Cave is a trained dancer and has performed in his suits. The Soundsuits on display at Crystal Bridges are primarily crocheted, one covered in buttons and the other with antique toys.
The museum featured two of Cave’s Soundsuits in Wonder World, a temporary exhibition of contemporary art. One of the Soundsuits is on loan, and one of them is part of the museum’s permanent collection.
The last day for the public to see Wonder World is Monday. It is closing in preparation for a traveling exhibition, The Hudson River School: Nature and the American Vision.
The exhibit features 45 masterworks on loan from the New-York Historical Society, Jacobs said. The exhibition will be open May 5 through Sept. 3. Museum members may view the exhibit for free, but other attendees older than 18 will be charged $5.
“It’s really rare to see these works on view outside of New York,” Jacobs said.
The exhibition from New York will complement a second exhibition on American Encounters: Thomas Cole and the Narrative Landscape, which will be on view from May 12 through Aug. 13.
The American Encounters exhibit will present six American landscape paintings from the Louvre Museum in Paris, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the Terra Foundation of American Art and Crystal Bridges.
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 03/31/2012