Crystal Bridges Director to Speak at the Clark October 7

Williamstown, MA - Currently under construction in Bentonville, Arkansas, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art founded by Alice Walton is envisioned as a premier national art institution dedicated to American art and artists that will spur the continued economic development of Northwest Arkansas. On Tuesday, October 7, Robert G. Workman, executive director of Crystal Bridges, will discuss the art, architecture, and planning of this new museum project scheduled to be completed in 2010. His lecture, "Creating a Sense of Place: Art, Architecture, and Nature at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art," part of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute's Directors' Perspective Series, will be held at 7 pm.
Admission to the lecture is free.

Similar to the Clark's campus enhancement and expansion program, Crystal Bridges embraces its rural surroundings creating a park-like campus in which visitors interact with art and the natural environment. Reed Hilderbrand, landscape architect for the Clark's expansion, has been selected as landscape architect
for Crystal Bridges. The main pavilions at Crystal Bridges are designed by architect Moshe Safdie, and will house a permanent collection of American art masterworks from the colonial era to the present day. The heart of the permanent collection will include the Hudson River School masterwork Kindred Spirits by
Asher B. Durand; Charles Willson Peale's 18th-century painting of George Washington; Gilbert Stuart's George Washington (The Constable-Hamilton Portrait); Portrait of Professor Benjamin H. Rand by Thomas Eakins; Spring, by Winslow Homer; and Marsden Hartley's Hall of the Mountain King. A dynamic
temporary exhibitions program will complement the holdings of the permanent collection and exemplify the diversity of American artists.

Workman, a 30-year museum professional with a comprehensive background in all aspects of museum management, has been involved with the project since its inception. He began his association with Crystal Bridges in December 2003, working as a consultant to assist with early-stage planning, acquisitions, building design, and pre-construction processes. Prior to joining the Crystal Bridges project, Workman was deputy director of the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, where he led the museum's $39 million renovation project and expansion.