A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas
Tune into Visit Bentonville’s podcast series for a weekly update on all things Bentonville, Arkansas. You’ll hear captivating stories and updates from our city—connecting you with the locals that make this town worth visiting.
A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas
Inside A 20,000 Piece Felt Convenience Store At The Momentary with Lucy Sparrow
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
You’ve walked a thousand grocery aisles, but you’ve never walked one like this. We sit down with artist Lucy Sparrow, creator of The Beginning of Convenience at the Momentary in Bentonville, Arkansas, an immersive felt art installation where every shelf, freezer door, and product is handmade fabric sculpture. It’s a full supermarket world built from softness, color, and obsessive detail, and it hits that rare sweet spot of playful, uncanny, and deeply familiar.
We talk about why consumer products and retail spaces became Lucy’s creative language, rooted in her own years working in shops and supermarkets. Then we zoom out to the bigger story: how “convenience” culture evolved between 1975 and 1995, as households and priorities changed and quick meals became a defining part of daily life. Along the way, we get into the power of nostalgia, why older packaging design still triggers memories, and how felt brings a childlike wonder that you can’t get from a purely realistic replica.
You’ll also hear what it takes to build a museum-scale installation with over 20,000 pieces, from floor plans and color schemes to the spreadsheet-level planning behind each handcrafted item. Lucy shares details from her Walmart archives research, the sensory choices that make the space feel like a real store, and the hidden Easter eggs that keep repeat visits interesting. The exhibit is free to enter and stays up for a year, making it an easy, welcoming stop for locals and visitors alike.
If you enjoy immersive museum exhibits, contemporary textile art, or the weird comfort of retail nostalgia, hit subscribe, share this with a friend who loves Bentonville, and leave us a review with the snack you hope to spot on the shelves.
A New American Town is here to help you plan your trip to Bentonville, Arkansas. From guides, events, and restaurant highlights. Find all this and more at visitbentonville.com and subscribe to our newsletter. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, and LinkedIn.
You can listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, CastBox, Podcast Casts, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, and Podcast Addict.
Welcome And What You’ll See
SPEAKER_01Listeners, thank you for joining us for this special episode of A New American Town, the Visit Bentonville podcast. I am your host, Graham Cobb, and I am joined by Lucy Sparrow, the artist behind the beginning of convenience, the new installation at the Momentary in Bentonville, Arkansas. So, first, uh let's pretend I haven't been, which is easy because I was out of town when it opened. When I walk into the beginning of convenience, Lucy tell me what I'm going to experience as I walk into this.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Well I'm a pa I'm sorry that uh you had massive FOMO from uh last weekend, but you can make up for it. That's all good.
SPEAKER_01I can't wait. Yep. Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_02Um The Beginning of Convenience is my first US museum show. I've done plenty of shows in the US, but this is the the one that I think carries the most amount of weight. Um I'm an artist who specializes in otherworldly installations, so it's all about creating uh imaginary worlds, but everything is made out of fabric. So it it might not always be shops. It could be I did a bank heist a couple of years back, which was a lot of fun. Um, like uh domestic settings, that kind of thing. But it's areas where um people gather. And absolutely everything is made out of felt. So I'm talking the shelves, um, the counters, all the things on the shelves, the fridges, the freezers, um yeah, any kind of like furniture. And it's 20,000 over 20,000 pieces in the
Why Supermarkets Became Her Muse
SPEAKER_02show.
SPEAKER_01Aaron Ross Powell What made you what drew you to consumer products and a supermarket?
SPEAKER_02I always worked in retail. So from when I was about 14, um there used to be a sort of law in England where basically you could work in a little shop and you had used to earn like three pounds an hour. And it was work-I was working in a corner shop, which is your version of a like a tiny convenience store that would be in a village. And then at 16 I started working in like a full-size supermarket. And I found like stacking the shelves, working on the checkouts, like so unbelievably meditative that you know, I I worked there so much that I sort of was dreaming about it after a while. I sort of would be waking up, just realizing, oh my god, everything needs to be like neat and ordered, and it was just very um, very peaceful. And I think I've always had an artistic mind. Um so seeing things and seeing the world so visually, it doesn't matter what the thing is. If if a supermarket is mundane to other people, to me, it seems like incredibly interesting. And I guess my overexposure to supermarkets as I was growing up possibly um led to the career that I'm living now.
SPEAKER_01Aaron Ross Powell Well, um I love that you see it as a gathering space. I could go to the supermarket, and I do probably four times a week just to get one or two things, because it is kind of where you interact with others. Um but this is focused, or at least in in name, on convenience.
SPEAKER_02Aaron Ross Powell Yes.
SPEAKER_01And talk to us about how that what does that mean within this?
SPEAKER_02Aaron Ross Powell The premise of the show is that um it's focused on a period of time between 1975 and 1995. And it's the change of circumstances that led to what started off as like a one-person working household and the usually the woman would stay at home preparing the meals and doing all the domestic chores. It's when you went to a dual income household and the kids were maybe uh you know, people were a lot more reliant on meals that took a short amount of time. Right. Um, speedy, quick, convenient. Our priorities changed as humans as to we're not slaves to the kitchen or slave to domestic chores. We want to concentrate more on having fun. So I think that was sort more around like starting 1975 and then right up to 95 to get there.
SPEAKER_01Aaron Ross Powell Well, uh you're preaching to the choir. I was born in 1975. So yeah. I mean, I th this this is what I lived. Um beyond recognizing products from my childhood, uh how else is this going to make me feel?
SPEAKER_02It's
Nostalgia And The Felt Effect
SPEAKER_02gonna make you feel a really good level of nostalgia. And I think that is such an overlooked feeling, but one that a lot of artists now are really leaning to. Um because I think the world is very complicated. There's you are constantly bombarded with either like politics, um, sort of like so many opinions. And I think back in the day it was like much more of a simpler time where all you necessarily had to worry about was you know, maybe having a job, starting a family, you know, there was so much less going on.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And I think some people yearn for that simpler way of life. So that's how you're gonna feel as you as you go in there. There's gonna be a lot of um memories brought up. So if you're seeing the products that you have strong relationships with or you might have forgotten about, it's gonna trigger memories that you you know you hadn't thought about for a really long period of time. Food that you had as a kid, um food that you had as a teenager, um, products that you remember but that maybe are still about, but the packaging's different.
SPEAKER_01Aaron Ross Powell Does the fact that this is made out of fabric create its own feeling?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, definitely. Uh it adds a layer of um like childlike wonder.
SPEAKER_01Oh wow. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Because I don't know, like I remember being at school and um we'd make things out of felt. It was like a uh an activity. You had like fuzzy felt, you'd you'd play with that. It's such a simple fabric that's very uh childlike in its nature. So add that with the the nature of what what I'm making out of felt. Um and it's like this wave of uh technicolor uh relaxation.
20,000 Objects And A Yearlong Show
SPEAKER_01Oh wow. That's dirty. Uh so you said this already, 20,000 pieces. Yes. This is a massive scale.
SPEAKER_02It really is. It's the biggest show that I've ever done. You know, possibly I've done larger numbers than that, but not at this complicated level and also not at this um, you know, square footage. And the because the show is up for a year, uh, previous shows that I've done, I've stocked the shelves and the show has only been on for a month because I'm selling straight from the show. It's a museum. It has to stay there for a year. I can't move to America for a year and keep restocking it. I'd never be able to keep up with the demand of you know, running a supermarket full-time. So um I needed to find a way to have the show be static, but also to have things in the gift shop because that's the demand is there that people want to buy my work, but I can't take from the exhibition. So it's a little different.
SPEAKER_01Trevor Burrus, Jr.: So timeout. I can go in there and buy in the gift shop items that I've seen on the shelves. Yeah. Like legit items on the shelves.
SPEAKER_02Aaron Ross Powell, Jr. Yes. As if you would in any normal store, it's obviously a little bit more expensive because it's not an actual food item. It's uh it's a handmade sculpture. Good disclaimer. Good disclaimer. I've chosen 50 lines from the show that I think that people will most appreciate. So things like uh cornflakes, hubba babba gum, skittles, um great value orange juice, uh cartons of milk, that kind of thing to really appeal to this area. Um and obviously all the packaging is is from either 10 or 20, uh 20 or 30 years ago.
SPEAKER_01Aaron Ross Powell, God, that's so cool. I cannot I cannot wait for this. Uh 20,000 pieces, two years to complete. I would I feel like I would be paralyzed by not even knowing where to start. How
How The Build Really Happens
SPEAKER_01what does the process look like? How do you decide what to do first?
SPEAKER_02The first thing I start off with is a concept. So I knew that um when I got invited by the momentarity to do a show um in Bentonville, I knew that I needed to come up with a strong concept. I knew that immediately was gonna be something Walmart themed, but with um yeah, a vintage feel to it because it's like the birthplace of retail. So the concept, then I go for a floor plan, then I go for a colour scheme, and then I start with my mega spreadsheet, and that's listing every single thing that's gonna be in there. And that that sometimes doesn't end until maybe six months before the show when the final items get chosen. I always kind of like I see something new, and I'm like, oh my god, I can't believe I forgot that. That's gotta go in.
SPEAKER_01So can you talk can you walk us through what it looks like to create hubba?
SPEAKER_02Okay. Uh so starting off with like a strawberry flavour hubbaubber. It's pink felt. Um, it's got six sides to it. It's made out of light pink fabric. Um and then I work out what details need to be sewn on and then what details need to be painted on, because there's a limit to how much detail that you can get just with the felt. And so I have to go in with paint to usually the lettering, basically. So anything the logos are usually painted on.
SPEAKER_01Uh was there is there anything that jumps to mind about being like particularly difficult in this? Any products?
SPEAKER_02Um apart from the furniture, like the fridges with the, you know, you have to have actual doors opening. Um what is that?
SPEAKER_01How do you how do you fasten a hinge?
SPEAKER_02Aaron Ross Powell I usually um there's a wooden frame underneath it. So it's built like a felt fridge, but every single part of it has to be covered in felt so that it it's still a moving item. Uh and then but the whole felt pieces, I would say probably the household items like the spray bottles, anything that is a very complicated shape that you have to make from a 2D material and into a 3D object, like making clothes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And you did Walmart specific research on that?
SPEAKER_02I did.
Walmart Research And Bentonville’s Retail Soul
SPEAKER_02I didn't want it to be like so prescriptive Walmart, because um I wanted to research quite a few like it I've I took everything from like mom and pop stores to just generic products and things like that. But because of the area, I chose um Walmart colours from 19 well, period of 1987, basically, in which is the um dark red, dark orange, and turquoise stripes because I thought it looked the most retro.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um I went to the Walmart archives, I managed to find all the old uniforms, photos from the opening of stores all over the US. I mean, I was in my element. I I love that kind of stuff. That is awesome. Any packaging museum I I can spend hours in. Um and I mixed that with my own view of what a supermarket I think should look like from a long time ago, and merged the two together and made it as brightly coloured as possible.
SPEAKER_01Were there things that you learned maybe about Bittenville, but certainly about the culture of retail through that research?
SPEAKER_02I learned I mean, on the opening day, I had so many people coming up to me and saying that, you know, not only they worked for Walmart, it was generations of their family. They were like, I am from a Walmart family. I was like, you know, we have supermarkets in the UK that obviously are massive, but it's not to the point that it's multi-generational and such like um a huge presence in people's lives. And that I don't think that's something that I can overly relate to. Um certainly not like on a large career scale. Um so that surprised me. Um I found people to be overly, overly and like wonderfully friendly here and to be welcomed probably more so than than I have in any place in the United States. And that's saying something because I've always been really well um received.
SPEAKER_01I have a I kind of have a take on that. Okay. So my background is in Chamber of Commerce work. So um this intersection of community and economic forces. Strongly believe that every city, every region kind of reflects culturally um something about the business. The businesses that help people put food on the table. That makes sense. If you're banking and finance, then it's you know blue bloods and suits and whatnot. Well, in Bentonville, it's retail. And in retail, it's like everybody has to use it. So if you're not buying from me, you're buying from my competitor. So I better figure out a way to authentically give a dang about you. Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01You know, and and I feel like you know, years and years and years after Sam Walton started this, we still kind of feel that way here.
SPEAKER_02Aaron Ross Powell Yeah, and I that makes sense. And I think add in um some good old Southern hospitality and it's so different from doing shows in like LA, they get very excited. Uh New York is um excited but um you know quite fast-paced and maybe a little cynical. Here it's just like open arms and uh like customer service. And I mean I love I love that because that's what I feel about in my art practice. I'm there most of the time, sort of like meeting, greeting, all of that kind of stuff. And I think that is as much part of the job. I'm not one of those artists who sort of makes it and then leaves and goes away and and I'm not seen. Um I want people to have the full experience. Like I usually work in my shows, but as I said, I can't stay here all the time, even though I want to.
Free Entry, Team Felt, Future Visits
SPEAKER_01Are you gonna be able to come back throughout the year?
SPEAKER_02Yes. So I will be coming back in December, hopefully to do some more sewing workshops, maybe some more meet and greets, some tours, that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_01Oh wonderful.
SPEAKER_02Um and then I will probably be back another six months later to wrap up the show. Um but yeah, my my journey here isn't over, so I'm And this is uh This is free to go to, and it's here for a year. Absolutely, and that is so important. In all my shows, um, I think bar one that I did in China, it's um always been free to enter. Um there's you know, you can buy stuff, but there's no um expectation to. It's all about art for all ages, art for all kind of financial backgrounds, come and see it and just enjoy it.
SPEAKER_01I love it. Access, it is accessible.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and I think that chimes so well with like Crystal Bridges and Momentary Um ethos. And as soon as like those two, me and and and the the two museums met, it was such like a like um meeting of minds.
SPEAKER_01What is your team what does your team look like? And how how who helps you with all of this?
SPEAKER_02So I have five full-time employees that collectively we are team felt.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I love it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um they're incredible. I well I started off with one assistant um 11 years ago who was my best friend at the time. And uh she's gone on to do other things because um I think she was just like, I love the felt, but I need to move on. Um and we just worked together in my studio in Suffolk in England. Uh we're all very similar. Um, they're incredibly talented and hardworking. Um top of that, I have my agent Claire who uh does so much more than agenting. She's literally there last weekend sewing up the photo booth. So, you know, everybody's behind this.
SPEAKER_01Oh man, I love it. Is there um did you discover when you're doing back to the research, I keep popping in my head. Were there
Store Sounds, Layout Science, Hidden Details
SPEAKER_01things that you discovered that were new? Like I haven't heard of this product.
SPEAKER_02Oh my god, so many. I mean, I've been doing shows in the US for nine years now, and I've heard of most things, but before that, obviously I hadn't heard of anything because we don't have there's a little crossover, but it's very, like maybe five percent.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02And it's only really well-known brands. Um yeah, there were some that were completely that I had never heard of because either they've been discontinued, they don't exist anymore. There's some crazy candies that I've never heard of. Um there was a marathon bar, and obviously that was England's old word for a Snickers bar, but it's something completely different. Oh wow. Yeah, so I kind of you know, you end up being kind of like a candy historian or any kind of food historian. Um Yeah, so it was a real journey. There's been some really interesting freezer products that I'm like. I can see why that might not have worked.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that I can see why they discontinued that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but most things I'm just like the packaging designs are great. I think there's um it was much more eye-catching back in um back in the day. Here it's maybe a little bit more emphasis on health and less about uh just fun.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And uh as folks are preparing to go, like they're in for a full sensory experience. We talked about working hinges on refrigerators, but there's checkout sounds, right? And store announcements, which I like if you've been to Bentonville or shopped at Walmart's, at least in Bentonville, much, there's a soundtrack to you, day there. How does some of that help like help visitors understand real supermarkets or the work that goes into all of that? Have you thought about how this kind of helps us understand our Yeah, I mean, uh the layout of supermarkets is so important.
SPEAKER_02Trevor Burrus It is mind-blowing. The science that must go into that. I've done um yeah, all the research in knowing that usually it's the fruit and vegetables first. So the first thing you you when when you walk into my show is there's the lovely produce uh aisle. Uh then you kind of go into like breakfast cereals, uh, then right towards the back of the store we have the photo center and the snack bar from uh Walmart of Age. Yeah. Um yeah, that it's all those things that you don't think you know, as an artist, I shouldn't necessarily have that in my wheelhouse, but by default, I have now. I d I know these things.
SPEAKER_01I love it. The what about the announcements? Where did you where did you find it?
SPEAKER_02Um I just made them up.
SPEAKER_01And do you do them?
SPEAKER_02I do them, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Oh lovely.
SPEAKER_02So as part of the exhibition, I made three um I made three adverts. And that's um as part of the show, you can go and put headphones on and you can see adverts that um uh me and team felt filmed. So we have an ego advert, uh craft mac and cheese, and a tide. And it's us doing American accents. And when it came to the announcements, I didn't feel quite as confident in doing all of them. So they are in the British accent, so just my normal accent. And the store soundtrack is just musac. So it's just generic sounds with some beeps mixed in, some like bing bongs, all that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_01Aaron Ross Powell Well, I I hope you're ready to get graded because you have to understand all the kids in Bentonville fully understand the retail story experience. My um My son is studying retail business at age 16 and got his first job at a different supermarket. Um but they literally had him take a test. Like, how do you what product do you face versus rotate and how do you know how? Like and all these things. And they knew the answers to it. And he knew the this is where you put packaged goods versus this is where the produce goes.
SPEAKER_02Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Ambient, refrigerated freezer. I mean we call it ambient in the UK. So it's basically any dry goods is ambient.
SPEAKER_01Trevor Burrus, Jr. Yeah. It's a so it's uh you're you have you've it's a bold move to build that. I mean, I'd be halfway silly, but it's also we we kind of know our retail stuff.
SPEAKER_02I'm sure there's some things in my exhibition that people are going to be like, that wouldn't be there. I love that good.
SPEAKER_01That's its own little Easter egg.
SPEAKER_02Trevor Burrus, Jr. Exactly.
Hardest Items, Retail Inside Jokes, Goodbye
SPEAKER_02And there's there's a lot of things in there. Um uh in the customer service department, uh I have little photos of all the staff working there, but it's not staff. It's um it's everybody working at the momentary, the kind of people that I've have helped bring this show alive, uh, which involves also Hamish the cat, the famous cat from Crystal Bridges. He's going to be head of pest control. Oh, well done. Well done. So there's you know, you can go back multiple times and you can be seeing new stuff all the time, which is really important because, you know, it's a free exhibition. Pop in whenever you like, come and hang out.
SPEAKER_01Aaron Ross Powell Well, we hope you'll come back and hang out. Are there things that did you find an item that you say if I never sew that again, it will be too soon?
SPEAKER_02Um I would say what was an absolute nightmare to paint. Probably Sour Patch Kids. Sorry, Sour Patch Kids.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Everything just has a black outline around it, just to make it, I don't know, it was just part of the packaging of that time. And I think a hundred of them, because I've made a hundred for the retail element. I think they took me about twelve hours, and by the end I was like, never, never again. But then I'll probably make more.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, right. If they sell out, there's a thing called on time and full. Have you heard of this? ODIF?
SPEAKER_02Aaron Ross Powell Is that things are delivered on time and in full amount. I I'm not sure if I would succeed at that because I think as an artist, that's probably my hardest thing to stick to because I'm not fantastic at time management, but I am trying to get better.
SPEAKER_01Well, you have a team to help you get there.
SPEAKER_02I do, exactly.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, thank you so much for joining us. I know that uh our listeners are gonna be excited about this. I cannot wait to go. Um it truly sounds like it it I this sounds silly, but it's fun for all ages, but legitimately, like everybody has experienced the actual version of this, the non-felt version of it. So we're gonna everybody's gonna relate to this in some way. Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_02It's multi-generational fun, and it like you you really can take all the generations of your family, you will have a great day out.
SPEAKER_01Awesome. Well, Lucy, thank you so much.
SPEAKER_02Thank you very much for having me.
SPEAKER_01Can't wait to get over to Momentary.
unknownYay.
Visit Bentonville Outro And Links
SPEAKER_01Whether you're a visitor or you call Bittenville home, visit Bittenville is here to keep you connected to the people, the places, and the experiences in our new American town. Check the show notes for links to our website, social channels, and our newsletter.