ANOTHER $20 MILLION FOR CRYSTAL BRIDGES

Walmart heiress Alice Walton’s forthcoming Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art gets another $20 million from her father’s company. The donation is dedicated to making admission free for all visitors (they had been considering a $10 fee) as part of the museum’s Next Generation Fund, which is aimed at democratizing the arts.

“One of the greatest challenges for museums today is finding ways to remove barriers to community participation, including admission charges,” said Don Bacigalupi, Crystal Bridges executive director, in a press release. “Walmart has shown extraordinary vision and foresight in funding access to the museum, providing all that Crystal Bridges has to offer to all people at no cost. We know that this gift will allow the museum to become a daily resource in our community.”

Of course this comes after the Walton Family Foundation gave the museum $800 million in May, the largest cash donation ever made to an American art museum. The latest funding will be doled out to the Arkansas institution, set to open Nov. 11, 2011, over a five-year period.

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