Crystal Bridges, Coca-Cola open pavilion on trail

BENTONVILLE - Officials with Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and Coca-Cola North America gathered in the museum’s Great Hall on Thursday to dedicate a covered pavilion where trail walkers can quench their thirst and visitors can take shelter while waiting for the museum’s shuttle.

The dedication was to take place at the new Coca-Cola Hydration Station - in the museum’s overflow parking area near Orchards Trail - but blustery winter conditions prompted organizers to move the celebration inside. The occasion was marked with a Coke toast by Sandy Douglas, president of Coca-Cola North America and global chief customer officer, and Crystal Bridges founder Alice Walton.

In 2013, the museum’s tracking device, called an Eco-counter, counted more than 220,000 people as they strolled, cycled or ran along one of Crystal Bridges’ six trails.

Coca-Cola was a corporate sponsor for the museum’s opening Nov. 11, 2011, and has continued to be a marquee benefactor. Douglas made note of the progress at Crystal Bridges since the museum’s doors opened.

“In just two short years, you all have helped make Crystal Bridges a distinctive cultural jewel that has become a special destination for people across the United States and around the world to experience American art,” Douglas said.

In response, Walton said, “You committed to us when we were a hole in the ground and a dream. And I’ll never forget that.”

General admission to Crystal Bridges is sponsored by Wal-Mart. There is no cost to view the museum’s permanent collection, which is on view year-round, though some special and traveling exhibitions come with a fee. Coca-Cola is ranked in the Top 40 food companies in terms of the amount of business it does with Wal-Mart.

Coke-brand bottled water, sodas and other beverages will be available for purchase at the pavilion, which is made of concrete, native stone, metal and Cor-ten steel. Bench seating is made from recycled plastic bottles. The station also has a digital display screen with a map and museum and exhibition news, as well as recycling facilities.

Scott Eccleston, director of facilities and grounds at Crystal Bridges, said the spot will also serve as an access point to the yet-to-be-built Amazeum family learning center, whose property starts about 200 feet due east from the hydration station. The children’s museum is expected to open in 2015.

“It’s going to be a busy area,” Eccleston said.

Eccleston said he was aware of the heavy foot traffic along Crystal Bridges’ 3.5 miles of trails, but until the Eco-counter was installed on Jan. 1, 2013, there was no way to know how widely the trails were used. The tracker uses a directional laser beam to count only those who travel the hard-surface Art Trail, a 1/3-mile trek from the museum’s south entrance to nearby Compton Gardens.

The trails, which feature sculptures and gardens, are open from dawn to 10 p.m. daily.

“We want people inside experiencing art, and we want people outside experiencing art,” Eccleston said. The goal is to draw nature lovers inside the museum and vice versa. More activities are planned to draw people out onto the grounds, he said.

Art along the art trail includes James Turrell’s Skyspace, The Way of Color (2009), a stone and concrete dome with a stainless steel ocular that incorporates the changing natural light with an LED light show; Dan Ostermiller’s Shore Lunch (1999), a bronze statue of a bear; and Andre Harvey’s Stella (2009), a realistic-looking pig cast in bronze.

After the dedication, participants followed Della Patteson,former corporate art curator for Coca-Cola, to Crystal Bridges’ 20th-century art gallery for a lecture on the museum’s recently acquired Andy Warhol painting, Coca-Cola [3]. Crystal Bridges bought the artwork last November during an auction at Christie’s in New York. According to the Coca-Cola Co. and Christie’s websites, the purchase price was $57 million, on the upper end of the anticipated sale range of $40 million-$60 million.

When the Warhol’s Coca-Cola [3] opened for public viewing, Coca-Cola provided free bottles of Coke to museum patrons.

Arkansas, Pages 12 on 02/10/2014

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