Hasta La Ideas

This writer has returned from vacation and though we apologize for not bringing you back trinkets and souvenirs from our travels, we come baring the gift of news. First, a couple of pieces about museum openings. This Friday marks the greatly anticipated first days the public will have to enter the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, home to the massive museum’s founder and heir to the Walmart fortune, Alice Walton. On Friday, Walton will be leading the dedication, along with the museum’s executive director, Don Bacigalupi and the designer behind the project, the renowned starchtect Moshe Safdie. Former President Clinton will also be appearing by video to say hello and kick off the opening. However, unless you acted quickly, even though the museum is miles away from what we city folk would call “civilization,” the museum’s first day is already booked solid.

In other starchitect-designed museum news, the Lansing State Journal has received word that the Zaha Hadid-designed Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum on the campus of Michigan State University is nearing competition with its construction. As of now, the paper reports that it should all be wrapped and largely completed by February, with an official opening now scheduled for some time in late April. Certainly good news for a museum that, like many across the country over the past few years, was struggling to pull in those last few million to finish everything up.

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