A synergy of image, color and sound greets the viewer to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art’s special exhibition, “Napoleon: Power and Splendor.” Replicating the ruler’s so-called “Imperial Household” are flooring designs recreated from authentic carpets. Walking from gallery to gallery, against backdrops of rich teal blue, burnished burgundy and forest green you encounter dozens of paintings, sketches, mosaics, architectural drawings and panoramas by Napoleon’s court painters.

Bruce Hartman, an accomplished local museum director and collector, is helping Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, expand the canon of American art history. Hartman’s recent loans of exceptional, if little known, 20th-century Native American works from his personal collection have given Crystal Bridges’ Modern permanent collection galleries a refreshed look while showing the way forward for a more inclusive, nuanced picture of American Modernism.