Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art today announced the launch of Building Bridges, a new lecture series celebrating the American spirit of meeting in the middle with curiosity, courage, and care. The inaugural program on Monday, December 1, will feature a conversation with President Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States.
Hosted by Crystal Bridges Board Chair Olivia Walton, Building Bridges brings together thought leaders, thinkers, and artists with differing perspectives to model civic dialogue. From Crystal Bridges’ home in Bentonville, Arkansas, the museum invites its neighbors and the nation to gather at its bridge, a place that connects what’s divided and can carry us forward together.
Building Bridges: A Conversation with President Barack Obama on the American Spirit will be held at Heartland Whole Health Institute on the Crystal Bridges Campus on Monday, December 1, at 3:30 p.m. The conversation will center on civic leadership and the shared values that shape our democracy, offering inspiration as the nation prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary.
Tickets for Building Bridges: A Conversation with President Barack Obama on the American Spirit are free but are limited to two tickets per account. Crystal Bridges members will have first access to tickets at 10 a.m. on Friday, November 21. Members receive advance notification and early access to ticketed events, like the Building Bridges series. For more information, visit the Crystal Bridges website.
In addition to the inaugural Building Bridges public conversation, President Obama will meet privately with 450 Arkansas students and teachers for a roundtable conversation in Crystal Bridges’ Great Hall. Three high school seniors from Bentonville, Little Rock, and Springdale will join the president to discuss their own civic engagement and hopes for America’s next 250 years. Students attending the event represent 24 schools from across the state of Arkansas and have been selected by their schools. Attendees include students in grades six through eight.
About President Barack Obama
Barack Obama was the 44th president of the United States, elected in November 2008 and holding office for two terms.
He was born in Hawaiʻi on August 4, 1961, to a mother from Kansas and a father from Kenya, and raised with the help of his grandparents.
Soon after graduating from Columbia University in New York City, Obama moved to the South Side of Chicago, where he became a community organizer, coordinating with churches to improve housing conditions and set up job-training programs in a community hit hard by steel mill closures.
After nearly three years, he attended Harvard Law School, where he attracted national attention as the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review. Returning to Chicago, he became a civil rights attorney and married Michelle Robinson in 1992. Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996, and then to the United States Senate in 2004.
When he was elected president in 2008, he became the first African American to hold the office, and was inaugurated during the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. In office, he oversaw eight years of progress, taking action to rescue the American economy, grow the middle class, pass the Affordable Care Act, wind down two wars, and refocus American diplomatic leadership around the world. He left office having overseen the longest job stretch of American job creation ever and led the creation of the Paris Agreement, the most ambitious global climate agreement in history. In 2009, Obama became the fourth president to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
In his post-presidency, President Obama has dedicated his efforts to supporting the next generation of leaders. The Obama Foundation is bringing that vision to life through programs for emerging leaders across continents, and the Foundation’s mission to inspire, empower, and connect people to change their world. That legacy will carry on through the Obama Presidential Center, currently under construction on Chicago’s South Side.
