Image: Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art will open ‘Grandma Moses: A Good Day’s Work’ on September 12, 2026, presenting Anna Mary Robertson “Grandma” Moses as a multidimensional figure in American art. The exhibition will remain on view in the Temporary Exhibition Gallery in Bentonville, Arkansas, through March 29, 2027.
The exhibition will bring together approximately 80 paintings alongside embroideries, objects of ephemera and photographic reproductions. Its premise is to examine how Moses combined creativity, labor and memories drawn from a century-long life, while considering the continuing legacy of her work in the context of America today.
Born in 1860, Moses spent most of her life in rural New York and Virginia, where she worked as a housekeeper, farmer and mother. The museum’s account of the artist describes painting and embroidery as activities she pursued in her spare time before she entered the public eye late in life. At 80, in 1940, she stepped tentatively into the limelight with her first solo exhibition.
The press-created name “Grandma Moses” became central to her public persona, and the artist went on to become a media sensation and celebrity in the post-World War II cultural imagination. Crystal Bridges’ presentation focuses on the relationship between that popular identity and the woman behind it, framing her painted recollections of rural life through questions of work, authorship and cultural influence.
Among the works identified for the exhibition are Moses’s ‘Out for Christmas Trees’ (1946), an oil-and-glitter work on high-density fiberboard from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and ‘Bringing in the Maple Sugar’ (1940 or earlier), also from the Smithsonian. ‘Halloween’ (1955) is listed among the Smithsonian loans as well. The exhibition materials also highlight ‘It Snows, Oh It Snows’ (1951), an oil on pressed wood held by Crystal Bridges. The museum acquired that work as a gift from the Kallir Family in Honor of Otto Kallir in 2024.
Opening-weekend programming begins with a lecture on September 11 from 6 to 7 p.m. in the museum’s Great Hall. Curators from Crystal Bridges and the Smithsonian American Art Museum will join collector and dealer Jane Kallir for a discussion of Moses’s life, work and legacy, including the way her identity became intertwined with the “Grandma Moses” persona. Tickets are $20, or $15 for members. On September 12, the opening celebration will take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the South Exhibition Gallery. The free, unticketed event will include hands-on artmaking, storytelling, music, farm animals and line dancing. Exhibition admission is listed at $15 for adults and free for members, SNAP participants, veterans and visitors aged 25 and under.
