Art Bridges Foundation, referred to as Art Bridges, is an American nonprofit organization founded by

Alice Walton Alice Louise Walton (born October 7, 1949) is an American heiress to the fortune of Walmart as daughter of founder Sam Walton. As of May 2025, Walton has a net worth of $117 billion, making her the richest woman in the world and 13th richest ...

in 2017. The foundation partners with museums across the United States to lend and share

American art Visual art of the United States or American art is visual art made in the United States or by U.S. artists. Before colonization, there were many flourishing traditions of Native American art, and where the Spanish colonized Spanish Colonial arc ...

Foundation overview

Alice Walton announced Art Bridges Foundation in 2017, based in

Bentonville, Arkansas Bentonville is a city in and the county seat of Benton County, Arkansas, United States. The city is centrally located in the county with Rogers, Arkansas, Rogers adjacent to the east. The city proper had a population of 54,164 at the 2020 Unite ...

. Paul Provost was named as the foundation's CEO in 2019. Art Bridges lends American art around the United States, supporting both smaller underfunded museums and large museums. The pieces come from its own collection and, since 2021, from its lending partners, which it connects with borrowing institutions via its Collection Loan Partnership. The intention of the foundation is to showcase art that would otherwise be stored and share the pieces with smaller museums lacking the resources to host the pieces or expand. The foundation has an in-house curatorial department and partners with established museums to organize exhibitions. It also acts like a conventional arts funder, awarding grants to its partner museums. As of 2022, its lending partners include

Joslyn Art Museum The Joslyn Art Museum, commonly referred to as the Joslyn, is a fine arts museum in Omaha, Nebraska, the largest in the state. It opened in 1931 at the initiative of Sarah H. Joslyn, in memory of her husband, businessman George A. Joslyn. Sinc ...

in Omaha, Nebraska,

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 1961 ...

, and the

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is a museum of American art in Bentonville, Arkansas. The museum, founded by Alice Walton and designed by Moshe Safdie, officially opened on 11 November 2011. It offers free public admission. Overview ...

in Bentonville, Arkansas. As of 2022, Art Bridges' board includes the chair Alice Walton,

Michael Govan Michael Govan (born 1963) is the CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Previously, he was president and director of the Dia Art Foundation, and deputy director of the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. Ear ...

Glenn D. Lowry Glenn David Lowry (born September 28, 1954) is an American art historian and director of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City since 1995. His initiatives there include strengthening MoMA's contemporary art program, significantly deve ...

, and Darren Walker.

History

During its inaugural year in 2017, Art Bridges' collection had approximately 40 pieces including

Arshile Gorky Arshile Gorky ( ; born Vostanik Manoug Adoian, ; April 15, 1904 – July 21, 1948) was an Armenian Americans, Armenian-American painter who had a seminal influence on Abstract Expressionism. He spent the last years of his life as a national of the ...

's 1945 painting "Child's Companion", and

Jeff Koons Jeffrey Lynn Koons (; born January 21, 1955) is an American artist recognized for his work dealing with popular culture and his sculptures depicting everyday objects, including balloon animals produced in stainless steel with mirror- finish s ...

' 1985 "One Ball Total Equilibrium Tank (Spalding Dr. J Silver Series)". As of 2021, the foundation had partnered with more than 250 museums and has up to 30 exhibits traveling the country at a given time. In 2022, there were nine reported museums designated as borrowers, which were made up of rural or regional venues with annual budgets of under $7 million. Borrowing museums receive 10–15 pieces at a time. Lent works include paintings, lithographs, photographs, sculptures, and videos. The selected artwork is picked by staff with gender diversity, racial, or demographic identity in mind. In October 2017, Arkansas Business reported that Art Bridges partnered with the

American Federation of Arts The American Federation of Arts (AFA) is a nonprofit organization that creates art exhibitions for presentation in museums around the world, publishes exhibition catalogues, and develops education programs. The organization’s founding in 1909 ...

in New York City to bring the collection "Selections from The Studio Museum in Harlem" to six museums. In 2021, the foundation began the pilot phase of its Collection Loan Partnership, where other museums and foundations could join Art Bridges in lending out their collections to museums. As of 2022, this pilot phase offered 170 pieces of art by 136 artists. During 2023, Art Bridges helped with the initiative that curated the exhibition "Many Wests: Artists Shape an American Idea", which was curated by five museums and organized by the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM; formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds one of the world's lar ...

and Art Bridges.

Grants and programs

In 2018, Art Bridges and the

Terra Foundation for American Art The Terra Foundation for American Art is a privately operated nonprofit organization dedicated to the support of American art exhibitions, projects, academic research, and publications worldwide. Its goal is to promote a greater understanding and a ...

granted $2.4 million in funds for museums to develop traveling exhibitions and art sharing among a network of museums intended to be as large as 80 organizations. The money was granted to the

Detroit Institute of Arts The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) is a museum institution located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan. It has list of largest art museums, one of the largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it cove ...

and the

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the list of largest art museums, 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 painting ...

for a six-year program. In addition to that, Art Bridges and Terra Foundation also awarded a research-and-development grant to the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at ...

. In 2020, Art Bridges announced a $5 million initiative called "Bridge Ahead" that intended to support partner museums affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Distributed funds include $20,000 to the

Dennos Museum Center The Dennos Museum Center is a fine art museum and cultural center located in Traverse City, Michigan on the campus of Northwestern Michigan College (NMC). Most notable for its permanent collection of Inuit art, the Dennos Museum opened in 1991 a ...

in Traverse City, Michigan, and $70,000 to the

George Eastman Museum The George Eastman Museum, also referred to as George Eastman House and the International Museum of Photography and Film, is a photography museum in Rochester, New York. Opened to the public in 1949, is the oldest museum dedicated to photography ...

in Rochester, New York. Art Bridges also gives museums funding for other programs such as education about the exhibits or community projects. Partner museums supplement their artwork with tangential education opportunities while working with Art Bridges. The

Allentown Art Museum The Allentown Art Museum of the Lehigh Valley is an art museum located in Allentown, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1934 by a group organized by Walter Emerson Baum, a Pennsylvania impressionist painter. The museum maintains a collection of ov ...

had an exhibition that was accompanied by a quilting and oral history project taught by artists. Art Bridges distributed a grant to the

San Antonio Museum of Art The San Antonio Museum of Art (SAMA) is an art museum in Downtown San Antonio, Downtown San Antonio, Texas, USA. The museum spans 5,000 years of global culture. The museum is housed in the historic former Lone Star Brewing Company, Lone Star Bre ...

that was used to commission three murals by local artists that were unveiled in 2021. The Art Bridges Fellows Program selects individuals from underrepresented populations to participate in a three-year fellowship with the foundation's museum partners. In 2023, the Art Bridges Cohort Program issued a $2 million grant for the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, South Carolina's

Columbia Museum of Art The Columbia Museum of Art is an art museum in the American city of Columbia, South Carolina. History The Columbia Museum of Art was originally in the 1908 private residence of the city's Taylor family. Located on Senate Street in Columbia, ad ...

, and Alabama's

Mobile Museum of Art The Mobile Museum of Art (MMofA) is an art museum located in Mobile, Alabama. It features extensive art collections from the United States, Europe, and non-western art. The museum hosts exhibitions, multi-disciplinary programs (including film, ...

and

Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts is a museum located in Montgomery, Alabama, USA, featuring several art collections. The permanent collection includes examples of 19th- and 20th-century American paintings and sculpture, Southern regional art, O ...

to create a series of traveling exhibitions called the American South Consortium. Tours were set to run from spring 2023 to early 2026.

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://artbridgesfoundation.org Arts foundations based in the United States 2017 establishments in Arkansas