Barack Obama talks American spirit at Bentonville event
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Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art board chair Olivia Walton interviews former President Obama in Bentonville. Photo: Worth Sparkman/Axios
Former President Obama discussed what he sees as fundamental American values, the need to invest in young people and the benefit of building community during a talk on Monday in Bentonville.
What he's saying: "I am hopeful as long as young people don't succumb to cynicism or despair," he said near the end of a chat that lasted more than an hour.
Driving the news: Obama's talk marked the first in a lecture series, Building Bridges, launched by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
- Board chair Olivia Walton hosted the conversation at Heartland Whole Health Institute on the Crystal Bridges campus. They covered a range of topics from what music the former president listens to, to the state of democracy.
- Obama toured Crystal Bridges earlier in the day and met with Arkansas students and teachers at the museum.
The intrigue: The Obama Foundation plans to open the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago in mid-2026, which the former president said will have classrooms, a public library and a recording studio in addition to exhibits.
- He wants the space to be a place where the public gathers and is exposed to new ideas, and he noted the foundation has been doing programming for about eight years to train the next generation of leaders.
- "Have you guys heard of Walmart?" he joked at the event in the city where Walmart is headquartered. He noted the company likely spends a substantial amount of money on management development and training, but "we tend to assume civic leadership just happens."
- The focus is on people ages 25-35 who are "already doing amazing things" but don't necessarily have the right support system or enough opportunity to exchange ideas with people in other fields.
The big picture: Obama said democracy is the most unstable it's been in his lifetime, although not in American history.
- "I would not have expected the legitimacy of an election and the peaceful transfer of power to have been challenged … I would not expect the politicization of the Justice Department or our military," he said, adding that such politicization has not happened but has been encouraged.
Zoom in: Walton said patriotism can feel politicized and asked Obama why his pride is unshakeable.
- "What I always understood was that for all our flaws, the idea of America was powerful, and it was the reason why it was a magnet for people from other parts of the world to come here," Obama said.
- "And I think the reason patriotism got politicized is that both the left and the right sometimes got confused in thinking that it was not possible to take an honest look at America's flaws and be critical of it and still love it. And that's a mistake."
What's next: The Building Bridges speaker series will continue through 2026, Alice L. Walton Foundation spokesperson Diane Carroll told Axios. The number of speakers in the series is TBD, and no other names have been announced.
- Tickets for the Obama lecture, which were free and reserved for Crystal Bridges members first, were all reserved within 15 minutes of being available, Carroll said. About 700 tickets were available.