2021 Exhibitions

Are you ready for 2021? Crystal Bridges members get in FREE to our temporary exhibitions:

Crafting America

February 6–May 31, 2021

Crafting America, a new exhibition developed by Crystal Bridges, celebrates craft’s essential role in art from the 1940s to today. From jewelry to furniture to sculptures and more, this dazzling exhibition is full of surprises. Featuring over 100 works in ceramics, fiber, wood, metal, glass, and more unexpected materials, Crafting America presents a diverse and inclusive story of American craft, highlighting the work of artists such as Ruth Asawa, Peter Voulkos, Jeffrey Gibson, Sonya Clark, and more. Crafting America is developed by Jen Padgett, assistant curator, Crystal Bridges, and Glenn Adamson, guest curator and scholar of craft, design history, and contemporary art. Sponsored by Windgate Foundation, Morris Foundation, Inc., and Blakeman’s Fine Jewelry. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. This exhibition has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor.

LEFT: Ruth Asawa, Untitled (S.028, Hanging Four-Lobed Continuous Form within a Form), 1960. RIGHT: Jeffrey Gibson, IN NUMBERS TOO BIG TO IGNORE, 2016

In American Waters

November 6, 2021–January 31, 2022

In American Waters is a new exhibition organized by Crystal Bridges and Peabody Essex Museum (Salem, Mass.) in which the marine painting is revealed to be so much more than ship portraits. Visitors will be transported across time and water on the wave of a diverse range of modern and historical artists including Georgia O’Keeffe, Amy Sherald, Kay WalkingStick, Norman Rockwell, Paul Cadmus, Thomas Hart Benton, Jacob Lawrence, Valerie Hegarty, Stuart Davis, Kerry James Marshall, and many more. In this exhibition, visitors will also discover the sea as an expansive way to reflect on American culture and environment, learn how coastal and maritime symbols moved inland across the United States, and consider what it means to be “in American waters.”

Sponsored by Jeff and Sarah Teague | Citizens Bank.

Crystal Bridges: The First Decade

(working title)

July 10–September 27, 2021

2021 marks a decade since Crystal Bridges opened on 11/11/11, and the museum is recognizing this milestone with a new exhibition celebrating its collection and community. Crystal Bridges: The First Decade will highlight 40+ works from the museum’s art collection and engage artists and the community in unexpected ways. Step into Maxfield Parrish’s The Lantern Bearers with an immersive tableau vivant. See self-portraits by local students presented side-by-side with artist self-portraits from the collection. Watch an artist create a new artwork in the galleries and so much more. In a spectacular celebration of art brought to life from voices both within and beyond the museum, Crystal Bridges: The First Decade will revel in Crystal Bridges’ first 10 years and set the stage for the decade to come.

TOP: Maxfield Parrish, The Lantern Bearers, 1908. BOTTOM: Fitz Henry Lane, Ship Southern Cross in Boston Harbor, 1851.