LITTLE ROCK — For the Eureka Springs Historical Museum, it’s quite an opportunity.
Items from the museum’s collection are expected to be featured in a 2013 exhibit at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. It’s the first time pieces from the historical museum have been featured in a museum the size of Crystal Bridges, which opened Nov. 11, 2011, in Bentonville and has drawn more than 524,000 visitors.
“It’s important to us,” said Sara Armellini, who is in charge of the historical museum’s art collection, as well as the chairman of its board of directors. “We’re a small little museum that’s been struggling for years, and we want people to be more aware we’re here. Perhaps we can even raise more money [as a result].”
The exhibit, titled “People and Places, ” is expected to feature items from six museums. According to assistant Manuela Well-Off-Man, the exhibit will be “a celebration of special places in this region” and is expected to be on view by late January or early February.
In addition to the historical museum, Crystal Bridges has been in discussions with five other organizations about participating in “People and Places.” Three in Arkansas are the Daisy Airgun Museum in Rogers, the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, and the William J. Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock. Two from surrounding states are the Cherokee Heritage Center in Park Hill, Okla., and the Ralph Foster Museum in Hollister, Mo.
“What you often find in small regional museums is that they often feature local or regional history,” said Well-Off-Man, who helps head the team that selects items for the exhibit. “As an art museum that’s also interested in history, we partner objects from partner museums with our own collections, to provide new learning experiences.”
PARTNER MUSEUMS
Crystal Bridges has highlighted regional history since its opening.
The “People and Places” exhibit will be the museum’s second exhibit that features items from regional museums. It will be located in a glass corridor that connects Crystal Bridges’ temporary exhibition gallery to its Great Hall.
That space is currently the home to an exhibit titled “Sharing Our Story: Daily Lives in Northwest Arkansas.” That exhibit has been displayed at Crystal Bridges since its opening and will come down in late December.
Much like the exhibit that will take its place, “Sharing Our Story” features items from the collections of local museums. Well-Off-Man said Crystal Bridges views part of its mission as developing a sense of curiosity about its home region among its visitors, many of whom may hail from outside the area.
“Very early on, we had conversations and meetings with local community leaders and representatives of the tourism industry, because everybody expected Crystal Bridges to have a huge impact on the region,” Well-Off-Man said. “We were thinking of meaningful ways to direct our visitor flow to partner museums so that everybody can benefit from increased visitor numbers.”
Well-Off-Man said officials from several museums have told her they have seen an increase in traffic because of their inclusion in the “Sharing Our Story” exhibit. That’s been the case at the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History.
The Springdale-based Shiloh Museum is one of six organizations whose collections have been featured at Crystal Bridges over the past 10-plus months, and it appears to have had a positive effect on its attendance. In August, the Shiloh Museum drew 602 museum visitors, compared with 472 visitors in August 2011, a 27.5 percent increase.
Also featured in the “Sharing Our Story” exhibit are items from Pea Ridge National Military Park, Rogers Historical Museum, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville museum collections, Wal-Mart Visitors Center and Museum of Native American History, both of which are in Bentonville.
“It was really nice to be apart of the grand opening and to represent the historical side of Northwest Arkansas at the art museum,” said Carolyn Reno, collections manager of Shiloh Museum. “We think we have [had an increase due to the exhibit]. We’ve had visitors come in and say they had gone to Crystal Bridges, and then they decided to come down here to see us.”
Items from the Shiloh Museum that have been displayed at Crystal Bridges include Civil War-era money, a saw from pioneer days, and a doctor’s certificate. The “Sharing Our Story” exhibit covers different time periods, with the Shiloh Museum contributing artifacts from early settlers up to the Civil War.
Other museums covered other time periods. “The University of Arkansas’ strength is definitely prehistory,” Well-Off-Man said.
Reno said the Shiloh Museum has loaned items to numerous museums during its history. Crystal Bridges is one of the largest, and in her opinion, one of the most cooperative partners with whom it has worked.
“They were great to work with,” Reno said. “They were top-notch museum professionals, as far as making arrangements, transporting artifacts and addressing concerns with lighting issues.”
‘HUGE FOR US’
Thus far, Eureka Springs Historical Museum representatives have equally positive things to say about their involvement with Crystal Bridges. The items that are planned to be in the “People and Places” display include artwork by Louis and Elsie Freund, Ozark Skag vases, a sculpture of 1910s-era dancer Irene Castle, and a five-gallon Ozarka water bottle.
“[The selection process] was very collaborative,” said Carol Greer, the secretary of the historical museum’s board. “They toured our museum, we showed them what we have here, and they chose the pieces they want to include in the exhibit.”
In turn, Well-Off-Man said the historical museum was helpful during the selection process and also in the planning leading up to it. Crystal Bridges will be making digital reproductions of the paintings it has chosen to display, while all other items will be originals.
While items from the historical museum are on loan at Crystal Bridges, the museum will display photographs of those pieces, and will display a sign telling visitors that the pieces are temporarily in Bentonville.
“This is huge for us,” Greer said. “We’re very excited about it. We have already seen people coming in here to our museum as a result of the relationship we have with Crystal Bridges.”
Arkansas, Pages 7 on 09/25/2012