Winter Lights Moves Into the Ozark Discovery Canopy on a Shorter, Cheaper Clock

For three falls, the after-dark show at Crystal Bridges meant a long walk through North Forest. This year it's a stop at a brand-new playground beside the parking plaza. Starting Nov. 19, Crystal Bridges will run Winter Lights & Market inside the Ozark Discovery Canopy, a playscape that opened Oct. 12. The lights now run for about six weeks instead of four months, a family ticket costs the same $25 one adult paid last year, and the space is open free every day from dawn to dusk. You can walk the route in daylight before you ever buy a ticket.

Three seasons in North Forest, then a move

The light show used to treat North Forest as one big outdoor gallery. In 2023, Listening Forest finished its third and final season with eight participatory light installations spread along a lit path from the parking area. It ran Aug. 30 through Dec. 31, 2023. Next came Time Loop by Klip Collective, six light-and-sound installations in the same forest, open Wednesday through Sunday from Sept. 4, 2024, to Jan. 5, 2025. It came back for a second season from Sept. 3, 2025, to Jan. 4, 2026, at the same prices, and added optional North Forest Winter Cottages starting Oct. 15 at $89 plus tax per person, with VIP Time Loop access included.

Set the last full season next to this one and the change is easy to see:

Here's the math for a household of two adults and two teenagers. At nonmember prices in the 2025 season, they paid $80 for Time Loop. This year the same four people get into Winter Lights for $25.

The calendar shrank too. The 2025 season opened in early September and ran five nights a week through the fall. This year's starts the Thursday before Thanksgiving week. On the Thursday-through-Saturday schedule from the event page, that's at most 21 nights before the "select holiday closures" Crystal Bridges mentions. Thanksgiving falls on Thursday, Nov. 26, and Christmas Eve is also a Thursday. Check the ticket calendar for those weeks before you plan around them.

The two museum pages don't agree on Sundays. The event page lists Thursday through Saturday, 5 to 9 p.m. The Oct. 21 announcement says Thursdays through Sundays. If you want a Sunday, see whether the ticket calendar actually offers one.

The venue you can scout in daylight

North Forest was free to walk in daylight too, but the installations were scattered along the trail. Winter Lights sits in one compact space built for kids, and that space has its own daytime life. The Canopy is open seven days a week from dawn to dusk. KUAF's opening-day report noted that visitors can use it free of charge.

Here's what's in it. Studio Bryan Hanes designed the playscape with input from the Scott Family Amazeum. It includes a flowing creek and water feature, a large rotating boulder, oversized hanging benches, a wide family-sized slide, and high and low climbing nets. There's also a set of hands-on STEM stations: a fog room, a ball run, whispering dishes, and forest amplifiers. Two artworks sit inside it, Tom Otterness's Large Bear and Wendell Castle's Wandering Mountain.

It sits between the Campus Parking Plaza and the museum, along the trail system near North Forest. It links Crystal Bridges, the parking plaza and the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine. KNWA covered the Oct. 12 ribbon cutting with the same details on location and hours.

That's why a daytime visit is useful. If you have small children, an afternoon on the nets and the slide tells you how long they'll last at night and which part they'll head for first. The museum says the lights will change the space "after dark" with immersive light and sound installations. The announcement calls it a "cosmic light installation" inspired by the Ozarks in winter and by the Canopy's mix of art, nature and STEM learning.

The market comes first

The other big change is the order of the evening. Crystal Bridges' announcement describes a Winter Market in the Campus Parking Plaza with rotating vendors selling handcrafted goods, jewelry, holiday items and custom accessories. Guests can buy food from the Winter Market menu and then go down into the Canopy for the lights. The event page lists the market location as "Campus Plaza" and puts seasonal food and drinks in the Plaza Café.

The market is free and doesn't run as long as the lights. It ends Dec. 19, two weeks before the lights wrap up on Jan. 2. If browsing local makers is part of your plan, go during the first five weekends.

Director of Business Operations Stuart Longwell explained the thinking in the museum's announcement:

"Winter Lights & Market is about creating a place where people can come together and celebrate the season. The Market aspect of Winter Lights & Market provides an opportunity for families and visitors to gather together, enjoy festive food and drinks and experience local, unique vendors from the community."

A free market, a $25 family ticket and a short walk from the parking plaza add up to an evening you can plan on a regular Thursday. The Willard & Pat Walker Charitable Foundation and The Coca-Cola Company sponsor the event. Tickets are sold on the museum's website or through Guest Experience at (479) 657-2335.

How it fits around the rest of Bentonville's season

The six-week run overlaps with a busy stretch of holiday events. Here are the dates from the opening night on:

1. Thursday, Nov. 19, 5 to 9 p.m. Winter Lights opens at the Ozark Discovery Canopy, and the Winter Market opens with it.
2. Saturday, Nov. 21, 5 to 7 p.m. The City of Bentonville's Lighting of the Square brings lights, community festivities and live entertainment downtown, according to the CACHE event listing. Winter Lights runs 5 to 9 p.m. that night, so you could see the Square first and drive to the Canopy afterward.
3. Saturday, Nov. 28, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Momentary's free Winter Holiday Art Market at RØDE House features more than 20 local and regional merchants. It closes an hour before Winter Lights opens that evening.
4. Tuesday, Dec. 1, 6 to 8 p.m. The Momentary's Pastry Week starts with an Orange Roll Workshop led by Bentonville baker Annie Clapper. Tickets are $64, or $50 for members. Workshops, a Food and Film screening of Matilda, and a baker's market run through Dec. 6.
5. Saturday, Dec. 19. Last day of the free Winter Market at Crystal Bridges.
6. Saturday, Jan. 2, 2027. Last night of Winter Lights.

Pastry Week overlaps with the lights on Thursday, Dec. 3, when The Momentary has a Cookbook Writing Workshop with Stacey Mei Yan Fong from 5 to 6:30 p.m. and a S'mores Meet Up from 6:30 to 8 p.m. If you want to do both, the lights are also open that Friday and Saturday. The Square lighting and the Momentary market are both on Saturdays when Winter Lights is open, and the hours line up well enough to fit both into the same day.

If family is flying in for Thanksgiving or the week between Christmas and New Year's, Winter Lights is open during both stretches, apart from the select holiday closures Crystal Bridges mentions. The Canopy is free in daylight on any day of the visit, whether or not the lights are running.

Holiday visits are often when out-of-town relatives first get to know Bentonville, and sometimes that's what starts a bigger conversation. If the playscape walk ends with someone asking what living closer would look like, Roe Team is glad to help plan that next visit around what matters to them, from the Crystal Bridges trails to the streets around the Square. And when you're ready to see what your own home is worth this winter, ask us for a free home valuation.