Arkansas

The Momentary: A Big City Cultural Hub In Little Bentonville, Arkansas

Published

1 year ago

March 26, 2025

Press Room

The Momentary: A Big City Cultural Hub In Little Bentonville, Arkansas

In Bentonville, Arkansas, The Momentary cultural hub takes up a repurposed cheese making plant.

Credit: The Momentary

It’s always a shame when the nation’s great industrial past gets erased, when an old factory or warehouse that would make great a community space gets erased for gigantic generic condos. Well, Bentonville is doing it right. The Northwest Arkansas town has hit it big in developing an adaptive reuse project dubbed The Momentary, a satellite cultural hub of the city’s already celebrated Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

And fortunately, it smells just fine inside, considering that this is a massive former Kraft Foods cheese plant that operated from the postwar era until as recently as 2013. Having opened literally days before the pandemic broke out, The Momentary is hitting its stride now as a big city venue in a smaller-sized city. Its 63,000 square feet are impressive enough, but it’s all about its huge menu of creative ventures in music, art and food. Eat your heart out Brooklyn.

With it lying just south of the Bentonville historic district in this bike mad city, you can follow—pedal- or biped-style—a section of the Razorback Greenway to get there. The Momentary has good neighbors too: Keep going a bit further and you’ll land up at the brand new Walmart campus with ponds and landscaping that looks like something out of a European urban project; you’re also next door to the 8th Street Market, another former food processing plant turned into a food and drinks center, with culinary arts eduction, books and more.

Terrazzo floors, floor-to-ceiling windows and crafty cocktails make the Tower Bar above The Momentary a top Bentonville draw.

Credit: The Momentary

Libations And Other Liquids Top To Bottom

Let’s start at the top where the glass-enclosed Momentary Tower Bar addition will stop you in your tracks as you get off the elevator. You’d swear you’re in a mid-century space and you’ll drool how the floor-to-ceiling windows would make for the ultimate in penthouse apartments. A popular feature is the glass hole in the roof just above a glass hole on the floor that opens all the way to the factory bottom six floors down. It’s not for the vertically challenged as you sit fire pit-style on the semicircular banquette sipping craft cocktails (do try the Umami Mango with reposado tequila).

Down on the ground floor at a branch of Arkansas’s popular Onyx Coffee Lab, look out for the automated conveyor belt for delivery of your caffeine. As any self respecting hipster attracting venue would have, a Momentary Food Truck is parked outside. Local chefs also cook for the monthly Supper Club dinner series.

Credit for reimagining this Momentary village within a city—and its dramatic six-story curtain wall and glass galore—goes to the Chicago firm of Whealer Kearns Architects.

Art And Music Under Many Roofs

The Momentary’s state of the art indoor Røde House music venue is named for the high end audio maker. Its walk-up Røde Bar gives out to the plaza. Outdoors, a huge white Canopy is the stage venue for Live on the Green concerts (see schedule selections at bottom).

Music concerts inside and outside, as here at a Live on the Green show, make up a big part of The Momentary calendar.

Credit: The Momentary

There’s still time to catch the delightful exhibit Best in Show: Pets in Contemporary Photography that comes from the Fotografiska Museum New York. Celebrated photographer Elliott Erwitt is among 25 artists shown, while William Wegman appears with his famous weimaraners. A series of goofy dogs taking baths was shot by Sophie Gamand, and an amusing row of photos of dogs and owners who look like one another by Gerrard Gething. You can bring your pooch too (through April 13, 2025).

The show was curated in conjunction with the Best Friends Animal Society whose aim is to end shelter kills. The animal welfare organization’s Pet Resource Center (one of five nationwide) opened in Bentonville last year and welcomes everyone for a visit. Of course, this coffee mad town means there’s a coffee shop inside too. You might just leave with a latte and a Labrador.

All across town, Bentonville’s cultural institutions provide bilingual English/Spanish information panels. The respect extends to Indigenous cultures as well, as in The Momentary’s recent Cherokee Nation Film Showcase in the wonderfully named Fermentation Hall.

“Henry and Hope” are seen in photographer Gerrard Gethings’ series of dogs and their owners at The Momentary’s fun “Best in Show” show.

Credit: Gerrard Gethings, The Momentary

Public Art Abounds

The Momentary publicly acknowledges that it lies on the site of Osage hunting grounds. A member of the Osage Nation, artist Addie Roanhorse contributed Sway, an arrow pattern design on the Tower glass and elsewhere.

Neon lives on here with Bahamian conceptual artist Tavares Strachan’s huge red Youbelonghere sculptural signage draped across the Momentary exterior. It’s a gorgeous piece in its calligraphic elegance.

Mounted outdoors, artist Leo Villareal’s homage to Buckminster Fuller, Buckyball, is made up of LED bulbs that change colors around aluminum tubing that sort of soccer ball-like make up one geodesic sphere inside another.

As part of the city’s outdoor OZ Art NWA program, the celebrated Yinka Shonibare’s fiberglass and steel Wind Sculpture (SG) VIII (2022) is a vibrant piece of African cloth that, while in fact static, seems to be caught in the wind. The Nigerian British artist’s work evokes African heritage over centuries of colonization.

With so much going on at The Momentary, you’re gonna wanna take your time.

A selection of upcoming art and music events at The Momentary includes:

-The Prison Concerts: Folsom and San Quentin feature Johnny Cash images by photographer Jim Marshall in the exhibition galleries, May 24–Oct 12.

-Live on the Green: GloRilla, June 13; Alabama Shakes, July 22; Ziggy Marley & Burning Spear, October 3.

RØDE House: The Main Squeeze, March 28; Shemekia Copeland, July 26.

FreshGrass|Bentonville: Billed as “an all-ages American and global roots music festival” will include Béla Fleck and Rosanne Cash with John Leventhal, May 16-17.

Read also this story on the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

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Arkansas

Baseball notebook: Kansas and Arkansas to play in winner’s bracket

Published

10 hours ago

May 30, 2026

Press Room

Baseball notebook: Kansas and Arkansas to play in winner’s bracket

Last year Kansas and Arkansas were in the Fayetteville Regional but never got a chance to play. That will change tonight at 5 p.m. when the top two seeds face off in the winner’s bracket of the Lawrence Regional.

Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn watched the Jayhawks last year and believes they are a better team than last year.

“They are a very good team,” Van Horn said. “They were in our regional last year. We didn’t face them, but you could see from the stands or our offices when we watched them play that they’re physical.

He continued:

“They added to it, got a couple key guys back, and they can hit the ball over your head with the best of them. Really good here (at home). They had one rough weekend here against West Virginia. Other than that, they’ve been great.”

Kansas will face a talented pitcher in Dietz

The Jayhawks are set to face one of the best pitchers they have seen this season. Hunter Dietz is expected to start for the Razorbacks and should be healthy.

In the SEC tournament against Texas, he took a line drive off his leg that sidelined him. He threw a bullpen earlier in the week and looked good according to Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn.

“That’s the plan, is to pitch him,” Van Horn said. “Unless something crazy goes on with his leg or whatever. But yeah, he seems to be feeling good. He seems to be moving around good and no complaints. I feel like he’s ready to go, so that’s who we’ll go with.”

[Jayhawks open with a win over Northeastern]

Dietz is projected to go in the first round and some draft analysts say he might be the best left-handed pitcher in the country. The 6-foot-6 lefty’s fastball is consistently in the 93-96 mph range and he mixes in a cutter and slider.

This year he has eye-opening numbers with 121 strikeouts and only 29 walks.

Containing the running game from Northeastern

A lot of the talk going into the first round against Northeastern was their speed on the bases. They led the nation in stolen bases by a wide margin but did not get one against Kansas.

“It was the emphasis going in,” said head coach Dan Fitzgerald. “Now, the Big 12 prepares us for that. You think of the teams that we play against, you’ve heard me refer to the Big 12 as the take-what-they-give-you league.”

Fitzgerald gave credit to his coaching staff working with the pitchers on their delivery and holding runners on.

“It took a lot of game planning,” Fitzgerald said. “I thought that Coach Scott and Coach Holland did a tremendous job today. I thought the scout was amazing, but that was a big deal to hold them down.”

Kansas will have a rested bullpen

One good thing going into the Arkansas game is a rested bullpen. Dominic Voegele threw seven innings on 102 pitches and was followed by Boede Rahe who threw 32 over two innings of work.

Fitzgerald said after the game it was a key factor to get through game one with two pitchers.

“It was huge, and they were both fantastic,” he said. “Boede has told me daily the entire season that he’s good to go, so he’ll be able to bounce back. Dom was so efficient, and again, it’s so hard to be efficient against a lineup like that.”

Rahe leads the team in saves and he has appeared in back-to-back games this season. If he is needed in a close game tonight don’t be surprised to see him available for a limited pitch count.

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Arkansas

No. 5 Arkansas Razorbacks’ Historic Season Comes to an End at WCWS

Published

20 hours ago

May 30, 2026

Press Room

No. 5 Arkansas Razorbacks’ Historic Season Comes to an End at WCWS

Hunter Corneliusen
May 30, 2026

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – No. 5 National Seed Arkansas Razorbacks’ historic season came to an end on Friday night with an 11-0 (5 inn.) loss to UCLA at the Women’s College World Series inside Devon Park.

With the loss, Arkansas finished its season with a 47-13 record that culminated in the program’s first Women’s College World Series berth. The Hogs’ 47 wins were the second-most in program history, trailing only the 2022 team’s 48-11 overall record.

Tianna Bell, Atalyia Rijo, and Kailey Wyckoff all recorded base hits for Arkansas in the loss. Wyckoff and Karlie Davison both drew walks. Payton Burnham (14-4) took the loss for Arkansas after allowing four runs on three hits in 1.1 innings of work.

Taylor Tinsley (33-7) took the win for UCLA, pitching five shutout innings while striking out two and allowing three hits and two walks.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Payton Burnham made her 19th start of the season for Arkansas, while UCLA went with senior Taylor Tinsley.

In the top of the first inning, Atalyia Rijo had a hand in all three outs of a 1-2-3 frame that featured a pair of groundouts and a popout. Tinsley responded with a 1-2-3 inning herself, courtesy of a strikeout, flyout, and lineout in the home half of the first inning.

Aleena Garcia gave UCLA a 1-0 lead with a lead-off solo home run to dead center field in the top of the second inning. Kaniya Bragg got hit by a pitch, and Alexis Ramirez singled before Soo-Jin Berry made it a 4-0 game with a three-run home run to left field. Following Ramirez’s homer, Saylor Timmerman entered in relief for Arkansas. Megan Grant later extended the Bruins’ lead to 7-0 by way of a three-run home run to center field, her 42nd of the season. Senior LHP Robyn Herron entered with two runners on and two outs in the inning. UCLA extended its lead to 9-0 courtesy of a two-RBI double off the top of the wall in right field by Bragg.

In the bottom of the second inning, Karlie Davison became the first baserunner of the game for Arkansas after reaching on a two-out walk. She later advanced to second base on a single from Atalyia Rijo. Kailey Wyckoff later walked to load the bases, but UCLA would escape with a flyout to get out of the inning.

In the top of the third inning, Herron registered a pair of strikeouts while UCLA made it 10-0 by scoring a run by way of a wild pitch. Tinsley retired the Hogs in order in the bottom of the third inning.

Herron retired UCLA in order in the top of the fourth inning while picking up a pair of strikeouts. Tianna Bell singled down the third-base line to lead off the bottom of the fourth.

In the top of the fifth inning, the Bruins’ Jolyna Lamar increased the UCLA lead to 11-0 with a solo home run to right field.

Kailey Wyckoff singled down the third-base line to lead off the bottom of the fifth inning before UCLA retired three consecutive batters to end the game.

NOTABLES

Arkansas finished the season with a 47-13 overall record. The Razorbacks’ 47 wins were the second-most in program history, trailing only the 2022 team’s 48-11 overall record.

Up Next

The Razorbacks will be back in action in the spring of 2027.

For schedule updates and other news, go to ArkansasRazorbacks.com, or follow @RazorbackSB on X, Instagram and Facebook.

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