03 Sep 2025 Arkansas PBS to livestream Crystal Bridges’ conversation with soccer icon Mia Hamm Sept. 11

CONWAY — As part of its Arkansas Live initiative, Arkansas PBS will livestream Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art’s sold out exhibition opening lecture, “Get in the Game Featuring Mia Hamm,” Thursday, Sept. 11, 6 p.m., at myarpbs.org/arkansaslive.

This conversation, hosted in the Heartland Whole Health Institute building on the Crystal Bridges Campus will kick off Crystal Bridges’ newest exhibition “Get in the Game: Sports, Art, Culture” and will feature soccer icon Mia Hamm. The evening opens with an introduction by Austen Barron Bailly, Crystal Bridges and the Momentary chief curator, and Katy Knox, president of Bank of America Private Bank. The event is moderated by Steve Nelson, co-founder, founding CEO, and former chairman of Carbon, Inc. 

Mia Hamm is widely recognized as the world’s best all-around women’s soccer player. In Atlanta at the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games, she proved it by leading her team to Team Gold in front of 80,000 screaming fans in Athens, Georgia. Never in history had so many spectators come out to watch a women’s sporting event. The Games highlighted female athletes like no other time in modern history and Mia emerged as one of the Game’s true examples for people of all ages who have a dream and go for it. The 1999 Women’s World Cup, where the USA took home the championship in front of 40 million viewers in this country alone, sold over 650,000 tickets, including sellouts at Giants Stadium and the Rose Bowl. 

Mia played collegiately at UNC and led her team to four consecutive NCAA championships. Her awards and accomplishments only tell part of the story of this remarkable athlete; she gives much of her precious free time to charitable causes and strives, in anything she does, to promote women’s athletics, the sport of soccer, and a feeling of confidence and sense of purpose in young people.

In the years since her dominant run on the global stage as a player, Mia has continued to serve as an inspiration to young girls looking to rise to the pinnacle of the sporting world. Indeed, she has maintained an active presence within the soccer community and has served as an outspoken advocate for Title IX and gender equality across sporting lines, all the while cementing her status as the face of not merely a sport but rather of an entire generation of female athletes through her Foundation. Mia is also a part owner of the MLS’ Los Angeles Football Club and the expansion franchise, Angel FC of the NWSL.

Learn more about ‘Get in the Game: Sports, Art, Culture’ exhibition and event here.