“Ingredients in Living a Fulfilling Life.” How Alice Walton’s Philanthropy Is Evolving and Expanding

Alice walton

Alice Walton, the only daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton, established Crystal Bridges Museum of Art in 2005, with the mission to “welcome all to celebrate the American spirit in a setting that unites the power of art with the beauty of nature.”

The museum opened its doors in 2011, and in the intervening decade, the world’s richest woman has emerged as one of America’s most important arts philanthropists in areas like arts education, boosting Americans’ exposure to world-class art, and building a pipeline for diverse leaders in the field. She’s also expanded her footprint in the health and wellness space in recent years by promoting a holistic approach to care and removing barriers to access.

Last November, Crystal Bridges announced that Olivia Walton, who is married to Alice’s nephew Tom, would replace Alice as the museum’s chair and that she would transition into the position of board member. Explaining her decision, Walton said, “Over the past several years, I’ve founded new organizations focused on the arts as well as health and wellbeing, and I’d like to focus more fully on my board chair roles at these entities.”

That doesn’t mean Walton’s philanthropy is slowing down. In May, Crystal Bridges announced a $10 million gift from the Alice Walton Foundation to create an endowment dedicated to developing the next generation of arts leadership in the museum field, suggesting that Walton’s continuing to focus on the museum she founded and cultivating diverse talent. Throw in the fact that a spate of new organizations and partnerships are just ramping up, and it appears that the 72-year-old Walton, whose net worth is just south of $60 billion, is only beginning to scratch the surface of her philanthropic ambitions. And they’re all united by a similar impulse, as she recently told me via email.

“Education, arts and culture, health and wellbeing, community are all important ingredients in living a fulfilling life,” Walton said. “The organizations I’ve established are focused on providing access to these elements, especially to communities that lack access. If the work we’re doing helps people feel connected, that they belong, that they’re valued and cared for as a whole person, then we’re achieving our goal.”

Increasing diversity at America’s museums

Philanthropists are frequently influenced by other philanthropists, which is one way funders on the leading edge of certain issues can have an outsize impact. Walton, for example, traced her interest in supporting diversity in museums to the Mellon Foundation’s extensive work on the topic, saying that when she read the funder’s studies, “I felt that I could play a role in helping address diversity in the field at large through the arts organizations I’ve founded.”

Crystal Bridges launched a college internship program working with universities across the country, including several historically black colleges and universities like Fisk and Spelman College. The museum also rolled out a high school internship program with students from the Arkansas Delta, a region that struggles to offer a wide range of career opportunities. 

“With both programs, our goal is to help students explore and experience a variety of museum roles, so they can see if a career in this field might be a good fit for them,” Walton said. Both programs have also proven to be successful, so the next logical step, which came in the form of her foundation’s $10 million commitment, was to “ensure growth and long-term sustainability.”

Similarly, the Art Bridges Foundation, which Walton founded in 2017 to expand access to American art across the country, offers the Arts Bridges Fellows Program, which allows participants from historically underrepresented groups to partake in a three-year fellowship with the foundation’s museum partners.

Through her foundation, Walton has also been partnering with the Ford Foundation and other organizations to address diversity in museum leadership and provide funding on the national level. “Ultimately, the future of museums depends on their ability to stay relevant and serve their communities,” Walton said. “That won’t happen if museum staff and leadership don’t reflect the diversity of our country.”

“You need to pay attention to your community”

One of the big takeaways from IP’s white paper on the state of giving in the visual arts field was funders’ interest in supporting community engagement. It’s one of those areas that’s difficult to pin down with absolute precision because “engagement” is a somewhat relative term.

Since its opening, Crystal Bridges has welcomed 5.6 million visitors and nearly doubled its art collection to include over 3,500 objects with a specific focus on works by historically underrepresented artists. Crystal Bridges has presented more than 80 exhibitions, several of which have toured across the country, and hosted over 300,000 schoolchildren on field trips through the Walker School Tour Program, which is completely free for all schools.

In other words, Walton has clearly been thinking about engagement for a long time, so I was curious to hear her thoughts on the topic.

Crystal Bridges was founded with a mission to welcome all to experience the arts,” she said. “To accomplish that mission, people need to feel that they belong, that this is a place for them, and then to want to come back again.” For Walton, creating this “sense of belonging” requires that the museum’s leadership is attuned to the communities they serve. It means curating innovative exhibitions to appeal to art lovers from all over the world, providing activities for families who live nearby, and giving visitors the opportunity to walk on a nearby trail or take in a musical performance.

“I could go on and on with the communities we’ve identified and the programs we’ve developed to welcome them — from day camps for neurodiverse youth to creative connections for individuals living with Alzheimer’s or dementia,” Walton said. “The big takeaway of what we’ve learned is that you need to pay attention to your community, who you serve and who you want to serve, and what you’re offering to meet their needs.”

Last April, Crystal Bridges announced a 100,000-square-foot expansion that will increase the size of the current building by 50%. “In these new spaces, we’ll have galleries to further showcase Native American art and American crafts,” Walton said, “plus more room to accommodate school field trips, educational and outreach initiatives, cultural programming and community events.”

Providing “support and encouragement”

Walton is exporting these engagement lessons nationwide through the Art Bridges Foundation, which provides museums with strategic support and funding so leaders better connect with their communities. “It’s been so rewarding to see the innovative programs they’ve created,” she said.

Walton noted that one partner institution, the Missoula Art Museum in Montana, has developed personal relationships with tribal communities across the state and increased access to work by contemporary Indigenous artists. Another, the Allentown Art Museum in Pennsylvania, complemented an exhibition on American art and design with a quilting and oral history project, hosting a series of on-site and virtual quilting circles taught by artists. “Most museums have a desire to engage with communities more deeply, and many just need some support and encouragement to do so,” Walton said.

An increased focus on health and wellness

Walton formed the Alice L. Walton Foundation in 2017 to focus on increasing access to the arts, improving education outcomes, enhancing health and wellbeing, and advancing economic opportunity. Recent work in the education space has centered on increasing the pipeline of high-quality, diverse educators, as well as supporting the development of arts education and arts integration programming.

Walton’s interest in improving health outcomes grew over the past few years as the pandemic starkly underscored the deeply entrenched inequities across the larger healthcare system. She is especially drawn to what she calls a “whole-person approach to healthcare, focused on physical, mental, emotional and social wellbeing.” Three years ago, she founded the Whole Health Institute to advance this concept by working with health systems, employers and communities to build and expand holistic approaches to care.

In addition, the foundation established the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine, a four-year medical-degree-granting program that integrates conventional medicine with holistic principles. In late June, the foundation announced the design and its location, adjacent to Crystal Bridges’ campus, in an effort to ensure that “art and nature are woven into whole-person care,” Walton said. The school plans to welcome its inaugural class in 2025.

The foundation has also partnered with Cleveland Clinic and the Washington Regional Medical System in Northwest Arkansas to support the growth of healthcare services in its region. “As with most of our work, this partnership is all about access,” Walton said. “In this case, we’re ensuring that residents of our region have access to world-class healthcare services, with an increased focus on whole health principles.”