History of the Oklahoma City Museum of Art

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History of The Oklahoma City Museum of Art: 1910

A Dream in the Making The Oklahoma City Museum of Art has adhered to the fundamental purpose set forth by its predecessor, the Oklahoma Art League, in 1910: "to foster a love and a taste for art and to establish a permanent museum of art."

For more than two decades, the Art League collected paintings and sponsored art exhibitions, and then in January of 1936, President Roosevelt's Works Project Administration helped open the OAL's first gallery, the WPA Experimental Gallery. Nan Sheets, a well-known local artist and OAL member, was named Technical Advisor of the WPA Gallery and almost immediately began a fund drive to procure more space for the Gallery's growing collections and programs.

History of The Oklahoma City Museum of Art: 1938

Two years later, in January of 1938, the OAL moved the WPA Gallery into five galleries on the fifth floor of the Municipal Building, and Sheets was named Director of the new Municipal Auditorium Federal Arts Center. Sheets maintained the original WPA Gallery's schedule of changing exhibitions and art classes and opened three extension galleries in local public libraries. Over the next few years, the Arts Center flourished while federal funding for the arts disappeared during WWII. In response, Sheets and Eleanor Blake Kirkpatrick, another OAL member, organized the first Beaux Arts Ball to raise funds for the Art Center, and on May 18, 1945, the Oklahoma Art Center was incorporated into perpetual existence.

History of The Oklahoma City Museum of Art: 1940-50

Taking the High Road Throughout the 40s and 50s, the Art Center continued to expand its programs and collections, and Nan Sheets again started looking for a more appropriate space for the Center. In 1958, with funds provided by John and Eleanor Kirkpatrick and land and utilities provided by Oklahoma City, a new facility was built on the State Fair Grounds. With the OAL's vision of a permanent museum realized, Nan Sheets retired in 1965, and her long-time friend, Eleanor Kirkpatrick agreed to chair the Museum's Acquisitions Committee. Then in 1968, the Museum's controversial purchase of the Washington Gallery of Modern Art Collection deepened a rift between Oklahoma's "conservative" and "modern" art communities, and the Museum splintered. A separate Museum of Conservative Art was established at the Red Ridge Estate in N.E. Oklahoma City that later moved to the Buttram Mansion and became the Oklahoma Museum of Art. Throughout the 70s and 80s, the Oklahoma art community struggled to maintain two museums, and in 1989, the Oklahoma Museum of Art and the Oklahoma Art Center merged to become the Oklahoma City Art Museum.

History of The Oklahoma City Museum of Art: 2002

With over 3,000 works in the combined collections, the Museum again outgrew its building and plans were discussed for a new home for the Museum.

A New Facility for the Oklahoma City Museum of Art On March 16, 2002, with the success of a $40 million Legacy Campaign that included a $14.5 million grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art in the Donald W. Reynolds Visual Arts Center opened.

This three-story, 110,000 sq. ft. facility features 15 galleries, 3 education rooms, a library/resource center, a store, a cafe, and the 252-seat Noble Theatre. Since relocating to its new facility, the Museum hosts approximately 100,000 visitors annually and has tripled its membership and increased its staff from 8 people in 1994 to over 60 in 2003.

History of The Oklahoma City Museum of Art: The Museum Today

The Art Museum has been accredited by the American Association of Museums and houses an extensive, permanent collection of European, Asian, and American art, featuring such artists as Pierre Auguste Renoir, Gustave Courbet, Maurice de Vlaminck, Mary Cassatt, Thomas Moran, Robert Henri, Ellsworth Kelly, Alexander Calder, Henry Moore, and Frank Stella.

The Museum also owns the largest, most comprehensive collection of Chihuly glass in the world, including a 55 foot tall Tower, commissioned for the atrium of the new facility in memory of Eleanor Blake Kirkpatrick. Since its small beginning in 1910, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art has worked to fulfill its driving purpose and now, in a new millennium and facility, continues to foster appreciation and enjoyment of the visual arts through exhibition, education, collection, and preservation. (Thanks to http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/4aa/4aa167.htm for this information.)

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Finished with the History of The Oklahoma City Museum of Art? Click here to return to the OKC Art Museum main page. Or treat yourself to some eye candy and enjoy Dale Chihuly and his amazing glass art.