A CITY A WEEK AND WHY...BENTONVILLE, ARKANSAS

A CITY A WEEK AND WHY...BENTONVILLE, ARKANSAS

A visit to Bentonville, Arkansas is surprisingly satisfying--or perhaps it is more accurate to say it is satisfying in surprising ways.  One expects to be impressed by Crystal Bridges, which after all has become something of a phenomenon since opening in November of 2011. One also anticipates or at least hopes to find small town charm in Bentonville.  Walmart fortunes notwithstanding, it is still a town of less than 30,000 people in the northwest corner of a lightly populated state. The surprise comes from the fact that Bentonville is a place where not one, but two, very large cultural visions meet.

One vision, of course, belongs to Alice Walton.  Crystal Bridges is the result of her vision for a major new museum of American art to be housed in an extraordinary building designed by architect Moshe Safdie and situated in the semi-wild parklands adjacent to Walton's childhood home.  

The other vision originated in 2006, when preservationists and art collectors Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson decided to rehabilitate a series of connected buildings in their hometown of Louisville, Kentucky.  This resulted in the first 21C, a seemingly improbable combination of hotel and art museum.  There are now three 21C's with several more in the works including one opening next year in Durham in my home state of North Carolina. 

 21 C is a very good hotel, recently rated one of the best in the world by Travel and Leisure.  It is an even better museum.  The 21C in Bentonville sits on the edge of the Crystal Bridges' parkland.  A simple walkway through the woods connects these two great and original visions.  

It feels very complete--and very worth a visit.

A CITY A WEEK AND WHY...NEW YORK

 A CITY A WEEK AND WHY… NEW YORK

What  do we love about New York?  A million and one things--maybe even two 

million and two things...and on any given visit we, like everyone else, may 

head off in this or that direction--theater, music, dance, art, dining, shopping, 

etc., etc, etc. and so on and so forth, for forever and for always--

the opportunities are, of course, endless.  Inevitably though, to this ever 

growing list of activities, unifying impressions do emerge.  I am

 struck by how many of my enduring impressions of New York begin 

at street level. In fact, I've come to think of the street as a kind of urban 

horizon line, serving to orient us all to what goes on above and below it.

    Which brings me to a particularly intriguing set of new and temporary 'markers' on 

New York's urban horizon line--Alice Aycock's recently installed sculptures 

on Park Avenue, collectively known as Paper Chase.  The street level swirl of 

the sculptures is delightful while their very presence throws off a bit of visual tonic.  

In this week's photo, that's the venerable Seagram Building 

in the background, looking positively alive with warmth and gravity 

against the ice cold curls of Paperchase's 'Maelstrom'. 

Aycock's sculptures are up through July so down before our August trip.  Trust us 

though, there'll be plenty else to see and do.  CLICK HERE for our 

CITYWeekend itinerary.

CLICK HERE to go our Facebook page for more images of Paper Chase. 

A CITY A WEEK AND WHY...PHILADELPHIA

 A CITY A WEEK AND WHY… PHILADELPHIA

This one's simple--the answer is art.  Even condensed, the list of great Philadelphia artists and architects is long.  It begins with Charles Wilson Peale and goes on to include Thomas Eakins, Mary Cassatt, Frank Furness, John Sloan, William Glackens, three generations of Calders, Louis Kahn, Alice Neel, Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown.  The city's major cultural institutions are equally impressive and include the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the newly relocated Barnes Foundation. 

This rich and extensive legacy has ushered in a unique and very vital present.  The thriving contemporary art scene in Philadelphia has a quirky intimacy and energy all its own.   Where collectives such as Traction work in new idioms; local institutions like the Fabric Workshop host special exhibitions by artists of international stature.  In fact, this week's photo was taken at Sarah Sze's expansive yet personal installation at the Fabric Workshop.  Gorgeous work.

CLICK HERE for photos from a recent North Carolina Museum of Art trip to Philadelphia.  Great fun!

A CITY A WEEK AND WHY...BERLIN

 A CITY A WEEK AND WHY...

BERLIN

There are many ways to answer the question of 'WHY BERLIN'.  

Indeed, Berlin may 

be one of the world's most 

layered cities--

its many incarnations scraped away 

and 

continually 

added to over a 700 year history.  

The current mix is very rich--contemporary art, 

modern 

architecture, 

evidences of 

the 

Cold War and 

of 

the 

dark, dark

legacies of 

World War I and II…

a

nd then there is Museum Island.  

This UNESCO World Heritage 

Site 

is quite

 literally an island of museums surrounded by 

the River Spree

.  

Together these five museums present 

a gorgeous, almost 

dizzying paean to classical notions of 

beauty.  

The collections include the Pergamon Altar and the Ishtar Gate at the 

Pergamon 

and and Nefertiti at the Neues Museum.

We'll be traveling to Berlin this fall, September 14th to 20th.  The itinerary is not quite set  but we can tell you this--it will include Museum Island and much, much more. Please stay tuned and watch for 'Featured Trip' announcements.  

We think this is going

to be a lot of fun.

****

A CITY A WEEK AND WHY...

Studio Traveler says 'yes' to social media with the launch of a new series.  One city, one observation, one photograph, one weekly post.  Simple as that.  We will begin with a focus on the cities we'll visit in 2014--Berlin; Los Angeles; New York; Philadelphia: Portland, Maine; Quebec; Santa Fe; Seattle and Washington, D.C.  But let's face it--we just love cities so there may some surprises along the way!  

We hope you'll come along…we think it's going to be a lot of fun.