ART BRIDGES IS helping museums reach their potential to become strong community hubs across the country. Created in 2017 by the renowned philanthropist, art collector, and entrepreneur Alice Walton, the Art Bridges Foundation has quickly become an unsung yet unparalleled collaborator in the arts, helping institutions across the U.S. mount thoughtful and exciting exhibitions, talks, events, and public installations.
Art Bridges is helping museums reach their potential to become strong community hubs across the country. Created in 2017 by the renowned philanthropist, art collector, and entrepreneur Alice Walton, the Art Bridges Foundation has quickly become an unsung yet unparalleled collaborator in the arts, helping institutions across the U.S. mount thoughtful and exciting exhibitions, talks, events, and public installations.
With a network of more than 250 large, small, and medium-sized museums, Art Bridges loans out American art from its top- notch collection of more than 200 objects to museums free of charge as a way to get artworks out of storage and into communities. It also facilitates loans between museums within the network, provides logistical support, and covers preparation and presentation costs. The goal is to get as many eyes as possible on the best artworks our country has to offer—but it also does so much more.
Much of this important work falls on the shoulders of Art Bridges CEO Anne Kraybill. Since joining the team at the beginning of 2024, Kraybill has turbo-charged Art Bridges’ mission with a slew of new projects, highlighted by the foundation’s inaugural Bridgemaker Prize, which bestowed $50,000 each onto three deserving museum partners. This year’s winners were the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, New York; the Peoria Riverfront Museum in Peoria, Illinois; and the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art in Atlanta, Georgia.
“[Alice Walton] really wanted institutions to work differently with each other,” says Kraybill, “and we wanted to acknowledge institutions we thought had completely changed their operational approach and the dynamism of their exhibition programming or permanent collections, and who, frankly, are taking a risk via their partnership with us.”
Meanwhile, Art Bridges’ Cohort Program, which Kraybill described as “an ecosystem of art-sharing between institutions,” has been an innovative way to get transformative programming into museums across the nation.
The Texas cohort has been so successful that it has participated in three exhibitions over three years. The most recent of those, Home, Love, and Loss, an exhibition exploring the cycles of family life and the universal threads of human connection, ran from February 14–April 27, 2025. This unique partnership was initiated by the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas, and includes the Art Museum of South Texas in Corpus Christi, the Amarillo Museum of Art in Amarillo, and the Ellen Noël Art Museum in Odessa.
“Our primary motivation in participating in the Cohort Program was to expand community engagement and diversify our audience by creating more inclusive and innovative exhibitions,” says Alexis De León, marketing coordinator for the Art Museum of South Texas. Over the three years it has taken part in the cohort program, participation at the museum has skyrocketed, particularly among underrepresented groups. It even seems to have, in De León’s words, “reinforced the museum’s role as a cultural hub in the region.”
Looking to the future, the Art Bridges team will work alongside Walton’s Heartland Whole Health Institute, an organization dedicated to transforming health care across the U.S. Art Bridges has selected six partner museums that will receive support to execute projects that advance community health.
By continuing to build the bridge between art and community, Art Bridges aims to create what Kraybill says are “meaningful experiences with art that nurture both personal and community well-being.”
For more information about Art Bridges and to browse available collections
artbridgesfoundation.org