The Museum’s roots trace to early statehood efforts of the Oklahoma Art League and Art Renaissance Club, organizations concerned with art education for a young city.  Over time, more formal efforts began with a Works Progress Administration (WPA) Experimental Gallery, which was open to the public. The Museum transitioned from a federally funded gallery to a private institution when it was incorporated on May 18, 1945.

The Museum today is the synthesis of two predecessors, the Oklahoma Art Center, itself an outgrowth of the WPA Experimental Gallery, and the Oklahoma Museum of Art.  The Oklahoma ArtCenter, a gift of founders John and Eleanor Kirkpatrick, opened in 1958 at State Fair Park. Following a brief tenure at the Red Ridge Estate in northeast Oklahoma City, the Oklahoma Museum of Art moved to the Buttram Mansion, formerly a private residence on Nichols Road in Oklahoma City, which was donated by the S.T. Fee and James H. Milligan families in 1977.  In the same year,Arts Place, a branch of the Oklahoma Art Center, opened as an extension gallery in downtown Oklahoma City.  Although both institutions were committed to collecting, programs, and exhibitions, a depressed economy following the downturn in the energy industry during the 1980s challenged the city’s ability to support two institutions and led to a merger of the two museums in 1989.  Museum leaders seized the opportunity to bring the Oklahoma City Museum of Art to maturation as a single, financially secure entity, committed entirely to the service of its community. The Buttram Mansion was sold in 1993, and the trustees established the Fee-Milligan Endowment with the proceeds of the sale.  Heavily damaged by the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing, Arts Place was closed in 1995. Led by a $14.5 million capital grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation and by an extraordinary outpouring of support from more than 500 foundations, corporations, and individual donors, the $40 million goal was reached to build and endow the new museum, entirely with private funds.  In March of 2002, the DonaldW. Reynolds Visual Arts Center opened.

Positive accomplishments have ensued, including major collections’ gifts, the establishment of new endowments and clean audits.  Led by elevated quality in international special exhibitions, new Museum School programs, a film program of independent, foreign, and classic films, and numerous activities for visitors of all ages, the program has flourished.  Today the Oklahoma City Museum of Art is a major cultural asset for Oklahoma City and the entire region attracting visitors from around the globe with exceptional exhibition, education and film programs coupled with fine dining, facility rentals and special events.  The community and hundreds of thousands of visitors are the beneficiaries, as befitting the Museum’s mission.

 

TIMELINE: Milestones in OKCMOA History

1909
Art Renaissance Club members, Mrs. E.L. Dunn and Mrs. John Shartel, meet Oklahoma resident artist Nellie Shepard on a trip to Paris and discuss the need for a permanent center for art in Oklahoma.

 

Nov. 1910
The Oklahoma Art League is formed, with Mrs. John Shartel as president, and holds its first exhibition, Local Treasures of the Oklahoma Art League, at the Chamber of Commerce in the Colcord Building with The League’s fundamental purpose in mind: to foster a love and a taste for art and to establish a permanent museum of art.

 

1911-1935
The Oklahoma Art League spends more than two decades collecting paintings and sponsoring art exhibitions before their dream of a permanent gallery is accelerated with President Roosevelt’s Works Project Administration (WPA).

 

Jan. 1936
The WPA Experimental Gallery opens to the public in the Commerce Exchange Building in downtown Oklahoma City at 8A S. Robinson. Nan Sheets, local artist and member of the OAL, is named Technical Advisor of the Gallery.

 

1936-1937
The WPA Gallery is extremely successful with changing exhibits every two weeks, free art classes for children and adults, and a print shop. The Gallery quickly outgrows its space, and Nan Sheets begins a fund drive to procure a larger space.

 

Jan. 1938
The WPA Gallery moves into the recently completed Municipal Auditorium and becomes the Municipal Auditorium Federal Art Center, opening five galleries to the public. One gallery features the OAL’s collection of 38 paintings. Nan Sheets is named Director of the Center and resumes a schedule of changing exhibits, art classes, and three extension galleries in local public libraries.

 

1942
The Museum receives a collection of 28 WPA paintings from the New Deal era.

 

1945
With the disappearance of federal funding during WWII, Eleanor Blake Kirkpatrick, a member of the OAL, and Nan Sheets organize the first Beaux Arts Ball to raise funds for the Art Center.

 

May 18, 1945
The Oklahoma Art Center is incorporated into perpetual existence.

 

1946-1957
The Art Center continues to expand its programs and collections; Nan Sheets starts looking for a more appropriate place for the Art Center.

 

1958
John and Eleanor Kirkpatrick design and donate funds to construct a new facility, five times the size of the Municipal Auditorium, on the State Fair Grounds in Oklahoma City for the Oklahoma Art Center. The City provides the land and utilities.

 

1965
Nan Sheets retires, and Eleanor Kirkpatrick agrees to chair the Acquisitions Committee for the Museum. The Museum acquires its first pieces of the Beaux Arts Collection, a collection that includes a broad range of American artists, ranging from Jack Levine to George Innes.

 

1968
Eleanor Kirkpatrick initiates the purchase of the 154-piece Washington Gallery of Modern Art Collection for $110,000, prompting the Museum to split. The Museum of Conservative Art is established at the Red Ridge Estate in northeast Oklahoma City, focusing on representational art.

 

1977
The Museum of Conservative Art moves to the Buttram Mansion, located at 7316 Nichols Road in Oklahoma City, which was donated by the S. T.  Fee and James H. Milligan families. “Conservative” is dropped from its name.

 

Oct. 21, 1977
Artsplace, a branch of the Oklahoma Art Center, opens downtown at 115 Park Avenue. The Artsplace is an extension gallery, providing paintings and sculptures for rental or sale.

 

1980s
The Oklahoma art community struggles to maintain two art museums with the Oil Bust and the depressed economy.

 

1989
The Museum of Art and the Oklahoma Art Center merge and become the Oklahoma City Art Museum. With over 3,000 works of art in the combined collections, the Museum threatens to outgrow its building.

 

1994
Carolyn Hill is appointed director of the Museum, and the Museum experiences its first debt-free fiscal year. The Thatcher Hoffman Smith Film Endowment is established.

 

1995
The Buttram Mansion sells as a private residence, and the proceeds establish the Fee-Milligan Endowment. The Artsplace closes, following the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing.

 

Nov. 1998
The Museum launches its $40 million Legacy Campaign for capital and endowment toward a new facility, expanding programs, and staff increases.

 

1999
The Museum receives a $14.5 million capital grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation to help construct a new facility on the site of the historic Centre Theater in downtown Oklahoma City, just north of the Municipal Building where the Art Center began. Dale Chihuly is commissioned to create a signature sculpture for the new building.

 

April 11, 2000
Museum affiliates, among them long-time museum philanthropist John Kirkpatrick, break ground for the Oklahoma City Art Museum on the site of downtown Oklahoma City’s 1947 Centre Theater. The Theaters lavish staircases, railings, lobby, and some of its fixtures are preserved during the construction process.

 

2001
The late Mr. and Mrs. R. A. Young bequeath the Museum seventeen paintings, including Mary Cassatt’s Portrait of Katherine Cassatt and Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Buste de Femme.

Nov. 1, 2001
The Museum unveils a new logo and name change: Oklahoma City Museum of Art.

 

Nov. 2002
The Museum completes its $40 million Legacy Campaign with grants and gifts from 544 donors including the $14.5 million grant from the Reynolds Foundation.

 

March 14, 2002
The Eleanor Blake Kirkpatrick Memorial Tower is dedicated, a 55-foot glass sculpture comprised of 2,100 hand-blown pieces created by renowned artist, Dale Chihuly.

 

March 15, 2002
The Samuel Roberts Noble Theater is dedicated and opens.

 

March 16, 2002
The $22.5 million Oklahoma City Museum of Art in the Donald W. Reynolds Visual Arts Center opens to nearly 10,000 visitors its first weekend. The Museum’s new three-story, 110,000 sq. ft. facility features 15 galleries, 3 education rooms, a library, a store, a cafe, and the 252-seat Noble Theatre.