BENTONVILLE, Ark. — On April 24, Crystal Bridges announced that its campus had been officially named an arboretum, or a botanical garden for trees.
The honor was awarded to Crystal Bridges by the ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation Program. Sitting on 120 acres of Ozark forest, Crystal Bridges is the only museum in Arkansas to be recognized as such.
Landscape and Outdoor Experience Manager Samantha Best said that distinction aligns with the museum’s mission.
“One of the things that I think makes Crystal Bridges so unique is our commitment to our three pillars of art, architecture, and nature,” Best said. ‘The fact that we're now an arboretum really shows how art and nature come together in this space. You don't often see that in museums.”
Having a Level 1 Arboretum status means the museum has a team that tends the grounds and takes care of the ecosystem, a governing body, an arboretum plan, and at least 25 different species of woody plants.
Along with the dozens of species of trees on the museum’s grounds, Best said there is a key new addition to the collection.
Crystal Bridges is currently working with Hobbs State Park and the Ozark Chinquapin Foundation to plant Ozark chinquapin trees in the Crystal Bridges forest.
“That's a very important tree that almost succumbed to a blight completely in the 1960s,” Best said. “Once that tree was gone, we lost a huge food source for our wildlife and even for people. The fact that we're bringing this tree back with those partners is a really beautiful, wonderful thing that's happening here.”
Best said this is all part of the museum’s commitment to caring for the Ozark forest, adding that the arboretum status shows the dedication to environmental stewardship and education.
“It also really shows the community that we want to teach people about the trees that are here [and] about the nature that exists on our site so that they can take that knowledge into their own lives and use it to the benefit of the environment they're in,” Best said.
The museum will celebrate its new arboretum status with an Arbor Day celebration Saturday, April 27 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. The festivities will include nature-themed activities and a tree sapling giveaway at the museum entrance.
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