BENTONVILLE, ARK.- Today, the Art Bridges Foundation announced the Art Bridges Collection Loan Partnership, a new initiative dedicated to bringing American art out of storage and on view into communities across the U.S. To launch this program, Art Bridges has partnered with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Joslyn Art Museum (Omaha, NE), and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (Bentonville, AR) to make artworks from their permanent collections available as long-term loans.

At museums across the U.S., a significant portion of their collections sit in storage. These collections consist of important works of art that are inaccessible to the public. While most museums would like to get art out of storage and on view, financial constraints and staff capacity severely impact their ability to lend artwork to other institutions. Now, the Art Bridges Collection Loan Partnership presents a new lending model that allows museums to circulate their collections.

The program aims to increase the display of works of art by BIPOC, LGBTQIA+ and women artists to fill in gaps in museum collections. Additionally, the program will expand access and increase transparency in the process for borrowing artworks among museums of all sizes.

“The Art Bridges Collection Loan Partnership is going to increase opportunities for museums to expand their art collections and tell broader stories,” said Alice Walton, founder and board chair, Art Bridges. “We started Art Bridges to help museums bring art out of storage and support arts programs that enhance connections with local audiences across the U.S. I am thrilled the Collection Loan Partnership furthers Art Bridges’ mission, and provides a platform for smaller and large museums to develop new working relationships.”




The pilot phase of the Art Bridges Collection Loan Partnership offers nearly 170 works of art by 136 artists such as Mickalene Thomas, Mary Cassatt, Dolores Guerrero-Cruz, Kehinde Wiley, and Andy Warhol to name a few and includes diverse media such as paintings, lithographs, photographs, sculpture, and video.

Art Bridges presents the artworks in groupings of 5-7 objects available as long-term loans of 12-24 months. Artworks can be hung together or dispersed throughout an institution’s galleries. Upon completion of the initial loan, the groupings will travel to another participating museum where the artwork will be installed for another 12-24 months.

Art Bridges covers all costs to prepare and ship the artworks to the borrowing museums. The foundation encourages borrowing museums to apply for accompanying Learning & Engagement funding to support the activation and interpretation of Collection Loan Partnership artworks. Learning & Engagement funding supports multidisciplinary programming, interpretive materials, and community outreach.

“The Art Bridges Collection Loan Partnership is a major achievement for our foundation and an innovative contribution to the museum field. This new program helps to reimagine traditional lending models and will foster connections among museums,” said Paul Provost, CEO, Art Bridges. “We look forward to working with more participating museums—as both lenders and borrowers—as we continue to build this program.”

On view Summer 2022, loans from the permanent collections of Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Joslyn Art Museum, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and Art Bridges will be installed at the following institutions as part of the Art Bridges Collection Loan Partnership:

• Ackland Art Museum (Chapel Hill, NC)
• Figge Art Museum (Davenport, IA)
• Hudson River Museum (Yonkers, NY)
• Mattatuck Museum (Waterbury, CT)
• Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art (Manhattan, KS)
• Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg (St. Petersburg, FL)
• Peoria Riverfront Museum (Peoria, IL)
• Plains Art Museum (Fargo, ND)
• Portland Museum of Art (Portland, ME)