Delay for the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

At first I thought this story from the Arkansas Democrat Gazette was going to be just another tale of the money running dry on a museum construction project. Not so. No, the delay for opening the new pet project of Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton instead has to do with flood plains, FEMA, approval of construction plans, change orders and building permits. Oh dear oh dear. The opening has already been pushed back once, from 2008 to 2009 and now it's looking like 2010.

I met one of the staff members for the new Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art on a bus to an event at the 2008 American Association of Museums annual conference, held that year in Denver. The project sounded really interesting and like a lot of fun. The collection is impressive (and they are still collecting) and the plans for the building sound amazing. But perhaps they need to start attending the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museum's annual Building Museums Symposium...