It is not every day that a major art museum is built in America. And Arkansas hasn't been noted as a cultural center. That is about to change. Alice Walton, daughter of Walmart founder, Sam Walton, is building a major museum of American Art in Bentonville which is a town about 50 miles west of Eureka Springs and is the headquarters of Walmart, the world's largest retail store.

Crystal Bridges is still a few years away from completion. That's a good thing. Walnut takes a while to air dry. If you were to drive around the back of the Clear Spring Woodshop, you would find a tall stack of walnut boards, 18 to 24" wide, stickered and drying for later use.

I met Ms. Walton one year ago at an the Bentonville Art Walk and she asked, "Can you help me with my logs?" She was concerned that the logs harvested from clearing the Crystal Bridges site should be put to some kind of environmentally responsible use. I suggested that having children make benches for the museum would be a good use. The benches would serve the museum and connect children to it through work crafted by their own hands. I was asked to be a consultant on the milling and use of the wood, and in about a year and a half, we will begin making a bench or benches for Crystal Bridges Museum from the walnut lumber shown in the photo above.

It will be found tragic in the coming years that so few children are making things. Those who know little or nothing of their own potential for hands-on creativity will know nothing of the value of the wonderful work displayed in our nation's museums.

But the students of Clear Spring School will be able to visit Crystal Bridges Museum and find the markings of their own careful attention. That would be a wish I would hold for every child in America... that each could visit a museum late in life and see the lasting legacy of their own hands. Perhaps in our very small way, with two walnut logs, we are making a start.