The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark., won't open for four years — won't even break ground for months. Yet the enterprise already has a firm foundation in the expertise of Bob Workman '78, its project director.
As the museum's first employee, Workman explains that he's "responsible for shepherding the actual organization of the museum." This covers both developing policies and procedures — all the everyday rules of operation — and collaborating with architects on the physical structure. Next up: hiring a chief curator and a director of education, to assist with acquisition and create programs for local schools.
Workman has 30 years of experience in the museum field, starting as a student assistant at WSU's Ulrich Museum of Art.
After graduate school at Boston University, he curated for the Rhode Island School of Design's Museum of Art; he has since worked with the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, N.Y., and spent nine years at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas.
Workman considers himself "very fortunate in that I've been able to work in museums." He credits the support of his wife, Elizabeth (Meeker) '78, a former banker now earning a second master's degree in Spanish, with much of that good fortune.
Fortunate, too, is Crystal Bridges Museum, fortunate to have him involved — from the ground up.
