Alice Walton, daughter of Wal-Mart founder, Sam Walton, is best known for her contributions to art in the Midwest. The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas is probably known as one of her most grand initiatives. While the museum lives on and continues to grow, it can be easy to forget some of Alice’s more influential contributions in the Midwest. Despite the fact that she now lives in Texas, her work in Arkansas is unforgotten and still thriving.

According to Forbes’ latest tally, Alice Walton is the 16th richest person in the world with a net worth of $20.6 billion. Walton has used her wealth and influence by enriching Arkansas, not only with American art, but with the creation of the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport at Highfill. The airport opened for business in 1998 with President Bill Clinton performing the dedicating honors.

Scott Van Laningham, the executive director and CEO of the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport Authority, has described Walton’s role in the development of the airport as “critical”. She was the first chairman of the Northwest Arkansas Council. It was this particular group that went to cities and counties throughout Arkansas encouraging them to create an Airport Authority as a separate entity in charge of surveying and searching for a site where the airport could live.

In 1990, when the airport work began, Walton family members came together to raise money to start building the airport. Llama Co. of Fayetteville, an investment firm headed by Alice Walton, underwrote an almost $80 million bond to finance the airport’s construction. The bonds were sold prior to the airport even having a contract with an airline, a car rental company, or food vendors.

In 1999, Alice Walton was honored when the Airport Authority named the terminal building after her. In 2001, Walton was inducted into the Arkansas Aviation Hall of Fame.

Thanks to a fellowship from the Crystal Bridges Museum of America Art , developed by Alice Walton, daughter of the late Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, Minnesota-based architect and author Dale Mulfinger will develop his next book at the Writer’s Colony at Dairy Hollow in Eureka Springs, Ark.

Mulfinger, who has designed cabins throughout North America, will be the first Architecture and Design Fellow at the Writer’s Colony. He will begin his work on Nov. 12 through Dec. 9.

“Supporting designers and writers in significant fields of inquiry is precisely what this fellowship is designed to do,” said Lynn Berkowitz, director of learning experiences at Crystal Bridges. “We are thrilled to bring Dale Mulfinger to Arkansas.”

Located in Bentonville, Ark, Alice Walton developed Crystal Bridges to be a premier venue for a national art institution dedicated to American art and artists, and a place of learning and community. It houses art galleries, lecture and concert venues, meeting places, educational spaces and library resources.

The Crystal Bridges Museum of Art Architecture and Design Writing Fellowship offers qualified professionals a four-week residency to pursue writing projects with an emphasis on the fields of American architecture, landscape architecture, crafts and furnishings.