Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art opened its historic expansion on June 6, 2026. Its 114,000 square feet of new space, designed by Safdie Architects, reshapes how visitors experience five centuries of American art.
Alongside the opening, the museum announced a significant wave of acquisitions across ceramics, glass, fiber, metal, and wood, led by Jen Padgett, Windgate Curator of Craft. For readers of Fiber Art Now, two acquisitions in particular are worth a closer look.
The first is Basil Kincaid’s Melanin Activation (2020–2022), a quilted work constructed from the artist’s own clothing, Ghanaian wax fabric, embroidery, and sequins. Kincaid comes from seven generations of quilters. This piece reflects his exploration of generational history and global textile traditions across the African diaspora. The work is currently on view in the America 250: Common Threads exhibition—and its presence has sparked something larger. Kincaid designed a community quilting project for the show, and the museum distributed more than 22,000 fabric squares to schoolchildren across Arkansas along with his instructions. Those squares are now being pieced together in the galleries by volunteer “quilters-in-residence” from local quilt guilds, turning the exhibition into an ongoing, collaborative artwork.
Basil Kincaid; Melanin Activation; 2020–2022; artist’s clothing, Ghanaian wax block fabric, Nigerian lace, cotton, embroidery floss, sequins; 106 x 91 x 1 in.
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas; Purchased with the Fund for Craft, 2026.30
The second major fiber acquisition is Lia Cook‘s Su Series (2006–2015), which sits at the intersection of weaving, photography, and data visualization. Each panel in the series is based on a childhood photograph of the artist, extending the museum’s self-portraiture holdings—which already include work by Rembrandt Peale and Joan Brown—into textile and digital territory. Cook’s interest in perception and the neurological effect of art also connects naturally to Crystal Bridges’ campus neighbors, the Heartland Whole Health Institute and the newly established Alice L. Walton School of Medicine, opening new possibilities for dialogue between art and wellness.
Lia Cook; Su Series; 2006–2015; cotton, rayon; woven; 72 x 132 in.
32 panels, each: 16 x 12 in.
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas; Purchased with the Fund for Craft, 2025.64
What’s especially notable for fiber art lovers is how these works will be displayed. Rather than placing craft in its own dedicated wing, Crystal Bridges reinstalled its entire permanent collection to weave craft throughout every gallery. As Padgett put it, “From quilts to monumental ceramics, the works span a range of materials and forms that can immediately engage our visitors . . . Works based in craft practices appear across our gallery spaces, not separated into a distinct category but centered within a dynamic vision of American art.”
Betty Woodman; House of the South; 1996; glazed earthenware, epoxy resin, lacquer, paint; 159 x 260 x 9.5 in.
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2022.30
Betty Woodman; House of the South; 1996; glazed earthenware, epoxy resin, lacquer, paint; 159 x 260 x 9.5 in.
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2022.30
Norm Sartorius; Spiral; 1998; curly pink ivory wood (South Africa); 11 x 1.25 x 1 in.
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas; Gift of Fleur S. Bresler, 2024.32
One striking example: Bisa Butler’s quilted portrait I Am Not Your Negro will be installed in a gallery exploring fashion and identity, alongside paintings by Barkley Hendricks, Kehinde Wiley, and Thomas Eakins, along with Karen LaMonte’s glass sculpture Chado. The juxtaposition places textile work in direct conversation with painting and sculpture—exactly the kind of integration that pushes fiber art further into the center of the American art story rather than its margins.
For anyone planning a visit to northwest Arkansas, the expansion opening is a chance to see fiber and textile work not as a niche category, but as a thread running through the entire collection.
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Cami Smith is the Fiber Art Now media manager, community engagement coordinator, and a mixed-media artist.
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