Film Program History

Film Program History

In 1993 the Oklahoma City Art Museum was located on the State Fairgrounds and began a four week thematic summer film series. The Logic of Dreams: Four Films in the Surrealist Tradition was curated by Rea Baldridge. The films were exhibited on 16mm film in one of the galleries. The following summer Harbour Winn curated a four week series called Regional Imprints: The American Experience.

In 1995 philanthropist, Jeanne Hoffman Smith established the Thatcher Hoffman Smith Film Endowment at the Oklahoma City Art Museum in honor of her mother and father, Grace Thatcher and Roy Hoffman Jr., to provide long-term financial support for the nascent film program. That summer Brian Hearn was hired to exhibit the summer film series A Feast for the Eyes: Art and Food and to develop future programming.

From 1996 to 2001 the Oklahoma City Art Museum presented several thematic film series each season on 16mm and video. The Thursday night film series were four to six weeks in length and were exhibited in the Museum’s Open Gallery with seating for 96 people.

Film-centertheater02.jpgIn 2002 the Oklahoma City Museum of Art opened its new location at 415 Couch Drive in downtown Oklahoma City on the site of what was formerly Oklahoma City’s last downtown movie palace, the Centre Theater, built in 1947. With funding from the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation the Museum inaugurated the state-of-the-art Noble Theater on April 12, 2002 with legendary film actress Janet Leigh and the Library of Congress Film Preservation Tour.

Since then the Museum’s film program has offered more than 1,000 screenings of the finest in independent, foreign language and classic films for Oklahoma City audiences. Currently the 250 seat Noble Theater screens every weekend, Thursday through Sunday, year-round, on 35mm, 16mm and high definition digital video.

The mission of the Museum’s film program is to foster appreciation and enjoyment of the moving image arts through exhibition, education and events.

The Noble Theater

What was restored from the old Centre Theatre?

  • Ticket booth
  • Grills on the south façade windows
  • Original concrete of main grand stairway
  • Handrails and acrylic guardrails
  • Lobby ceiling’s scalloped configuration
  • Originally designed mirrored walls in lobby
  • Exterior poster display boxes
  • NEW: Original water fountains installed

What is new?

  • Projection booth with multiple hi-tech projection systems, including 35m, 16m, video and dual slide projectors
  • Surround sound system
  • Addition of a green room on the north side of the stage

What was changed?

  • Expanded motion picture theater to a performance /presentation and motion picture theater
  • Relocated main theater entrance from ground floor to mezzanine
  • Relocated restrooms from basement to ground floor lobby
  • Eliminated balcony but retained ceiling height
  • Decreased seating from 1,600 to 252
  • Narrowed theater width
  • Shortened the length by moving screen wall toward east
  • Increased the angle of seat risers to approximately 30°, improving sight lines
  • Original Centre sign donated to Oklahoma HIstorical Society


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