Redesigned in collaboration with Chihuly Studio, the galleries incorporate a unique design that features a three-dimensional approach to viewing some objects in the collection. The presentation allows visitors to explore the large Float Boat and Ikebana Boat installations from all sides as well as includes viewing slots for the Reeds.
In 2002, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art inaugurated its new home in the Donald W. Reynolds Visual Arts Center with an exhibition of glass and drawings by Dale Chihuly. Bolstered by enormous public support, the Museum purchased the exhibition, which included works from Chihuly’s best-known series and was anchored by the 55-foot Eleanor Blake Kirkpatrick Memorial Tower in the Museum’s atrium.
ABOUT DALE CHIHULY
Dale Chihuly’s well-rounded academic and practical background includes a B.A. in interior design from the University of Washington, an M.S. in sculpture from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an M.F.A in sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design, and honorary doctorates from the University of Puget Sound and the Rhode Island School of Design. He also was awarded a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation grant for work in glass and studied at Italy’s prestigious Venini glass factory on a Fulbright Fellowship.
Chihuly’s work is included in over 200 museum collections, including the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, and he has received world renown for his extensive glass series, international projects, and large architectural installations such as the Museum’s Eleanor Blake Kirkpatrick Memorial Tower. The Museum’s collection represents over three decades of Chihuly’s finest work and heralds this brilliant luminist as the most important artist working in glass since Louis Comfort Tiffany.
ABOUT OKCMOA’S COLLECTION
- One of the largest collections of Chihuly glass in the world
- Originally titled Dale Chihuly: An Inaugural Exhibition (March 16–August 4, 2002), the collection was the inaugural exhibition in the Donald W. Reynolds Visual Arts Center
- The works in the exhibition were reinstalled on the Museum’s third floor, opening April 1, 2004, after 32 days of extensive set building and preparation
- The Chihuly exhibition was purchased in June of 2004 and later re-titled Dale Chihuly: The Collection
- The collection also includes later gifts to the Museum by Dale Chihuly
Credit: © 2019 Chihuly Studio / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
