PHOTOS: Crystal Bridges details plan for new visual, performing arts venue in Northwest Arkansas

A rendering shows Momentary, a planned visual and performing arts venue south of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville.
A rendering shows Momentary, a planned visual and performing arts venue south of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville.

Bentonville's Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art on Wednesday unveiled plans for its transformation of a decommissioned food plant into a space for visual and performing arts as well as an artist-in-residency program.

In a statement, museum officials also named Lieven Bertels as the director of the downtown Bentonville arts venue, which will be named Momentary. The project, supported by the Walton Family Foundation, will sit at a plant once home to Kraft Foods.

Bertels, who is set to join the Crystal Bridges team in late September, will oversee planning and development for the facility as well as artistic direction and day-to-day operations.

He previously was the CEO and cultural director of Leeuwarden-Fryslan 2018 European Capital Culture, a year-long festival in the Netherlands.

“The Momentary is poised to be an international destination that demonstrates how contemporary American art and artists intersect with daily life around the globe,” Bertels said in a statement, adding that it will “push boundaries of creativity, blur urban and social lines and provide access to arts-based experiences in a comfortable and well-designed social space.”

The Momentary is currently in the design phase, according to Crystal Bridges. Site work is set to begin in early 2018, with a goal of opening by early 2020.

Read Thursday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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