Bradbury Art Museum

Bradbury Art Museum (BAM) occupies a 5,200-square-foot exhibition space within the Fowler Center at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro (Craighead County), completed in 2001 during the presidency of Dr. James Leslie (Les) Wyatt. Serving as president from 1995 to June 2010, Wyatt transformed the university campus and elevated the role of the arts at the university.

When Wyatt arrived, North Caraway Road ran through the campus center. He envisioned something different: a pedestrian-oriented campus that would better serve students and welcome the broader community. As part of this plan, he initiated building a new visual and performing arts center along the campus edge, providing convenient public access, ample parking, and a regional cultural destination.

The university began planning the Fowler Center in 1999 and selected Brackett-Krennerich Architects of Jonesboro to design the building. President Wyatt collaborated with Dean of the College of Fine Arts Dan Reeves, Art Department Chair Curtis Steele, and other faculty and staff throughout the planning process to create a functional and visitor-centered facility. The planning team visited the Arkansas Arts Center (now the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts) in Little Rock (Pulaski County) to study museum operations, collections care, and the preservation of works on paper.

At the same time, Wyatt recognized the importance of several artistic resources already housed at the university. These included master engraver Evan Lindquist’s work; the Delta National Small Prints Exhibition (DNSPE), founded by Lindquist in 1996 to introduce students and the public to contemporary printmaking; and the 1978 Stephens Inc. Collection that included artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Marisol, and Arman. These collections remained in departmental spaces without professional storage or exhibition conditions. Wyatt therefore incorporated a dedicated art gallery into the Fowler Center to preserve, interpret, and expand these important holdings.

When the Fowler Center opened in 2001, the gallery was inaugurated with the dual exhibition Next Direction, featuring paintings by Dan Howard, a former professor of painting (having joined the faculty in 1958), and Evan Lindquist, printmaking faculty since 1963, accompanied by a catalog featuring an essay by Reeves. Charlotte Bornhoft (Chucki) Bradbury, who served two terms on the university’s board of trustees, and her husband, Curt Bradbury, chief operating officer of Stephens Inc., toured the new facility. Inspired by the university’s vision and the gallery’s potential to serve the region, Curt Bradbury provided a naming gift, establishing the Bradbury Art Gallery.

In 2001, Reeves appointed Les Christensen as the gallery’s first director. Christensen built a strong exhibition program despite limited financial resources, beginning with faculty exhibitions, graduating student shows, and collaborations with artists from Memphis and the Mid-South. In 1994, The museum received an important gift of works by Arkansas artist Carroll Cloar through the efforts of professor and preservationist Ruth Hawkins, director of the university’s Heritage Sites Program.

In 2015, the institution became Bradbury Art Museum following a major endowment from the Bradbury family. Renovations included improvements in gallery floors and walls, climate control, and security systems while supporting the museum’s expanding collecting mission. By 2026, BAM preserved nearly 2,000 works of art, the majority of them prints acquired through the DNSPE. The museum continues to connect northeastern Arkansas with contemporary art through exhibitions, collections, research, and object-based learning, serving as a cultural gateway to the wider world.

For additional information:
Bradbury Art Museum. https://bradburyartmuseum.org/ (accessed October 29, 2026).

Julia Wintner
Bradbury Art Museum, Arkansas State University