Walton/WalMart Mseum begun in AR

From Arkansas Business 5/3/2007

UPDATED: Walton Dedicates Site for Crystal Bridges Museum
By Mike Capshaw - 5/3/2007 10:23:31 AM

"Under gray skies, about 150 community leaders crammed beneath a white canvas canopy for the site dedication for Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art on Thursday in Bentonville.

After a long, hugging embrace with an old friend, Alice Walton spoke about her first trip in to the construction zone that's turned a wooded valley of her family's property into piles of limestone and red clay." ...

"Announced in May 2005, the $50 million museum is expected to lure more than 250,000 people through its doors each year after it opens in 2009.
At the dedication, Walton joked about not climbing the stage more gracefully after "climbing these hills for years." " ...

"At more than 100,000-SF, Crystal Bridges museum will sit within 100 wooded acres and include galleries for permanent collections and special exhibits, a public education center with an auditorium, a professional education center with classrooms, walking trails and a central pond.

So far, the museum's collection includes paintings by Charles Wilson Peale, Charles Bird King, Winslow Homer, Norman Rockwell and an 1849 painting called “Kindred Spirits” by Asher B. Durand, which Walton paid $35 million for in 2005.

There will be about 30,000 SF of total gallery space with about 17,000 SF dedicated to the permanent collection."

for the full story see: http://arkansasbusiness.com/article.aspx?lID=84&sID=85&ms=86&cID=Z&aID=98002.21263.110128