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THE STATE OF OUR ART

by Becky Dixon

What’s the Sooner State’s favorite pastime? Of course, most thoughts immediately turn to football, but Oklahomans also embrace the arts. From ballet to Broadway shows, opera to outdoor theater, our state features a distinctive mix of choices. Perhaps most impressive on Oklahoma’s cultural landscape are our magnificent museums. Though I have yet to visit all of them, here are a few of my personal favorites.

Becky Dixon at Philbrook

Surrounded by beauty: Taping a segment of my TV
show in the gardens at Tulsa's Philbrook Museum of
Art was a joy.

OIL PAINTINGS When Tulsa needed an arts center in the 1920s, oilman Waite Phillips offered his Italian-style villa, Philbrook. Nestled in one of Tulsa’s most beautiful neighborhoods, the Philbrook Museum of Art is best known for its stunning collection of Italian Renaissance paintings. The museum also features the world’s greatest collection of Native American baskets, and earlier this year Philbrook re-opened its newly renovated Italianate gardens. I consider this one of the most picturesque spots in the state and recently chose the gardens as the location for the opening of my Oklahomans television special.

Like Waite Phillips, Thomas Gilcrease used oil money to create his own world-class art collection. Focusing on his Native American heritage and love for the American West, the oil man’s former home is now the renowned Gilcrease Museum. Hosting the world’s largest and most comprehensive collection of western art, Gilcrease showcases works by Remington, Russell, and Moran that bring the rugged Old West alive. Today, Gilcrease Museum and Philbrook Museum of Art are considered Tulsa’s twin treasures and form the foundation of the city’s cultural life.

You can also experience western art at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. Here you’re invited to explore an authentic Old West town and discover the true meaning of cowboy culture. I once interviewed legendary Academy Award winning film star and rodeo cowboy Ben Johnson here. For those of you who ever saw Ben on screen or competing in a rodeo, you know he’s the essence of what this museum represents.

PTERODACTYLS TO TERRA-COTTA Traveling south on I-35 to Norman, you’ll find much more than football on the University of Oklahoma campus. If it’s dinosaurs you’re looking for, the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History is the place to go. For a more cultural experience, the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art hosts the single most important collection of art ever given to an American public university. Featuring French Impressionists such as Monet, Renoir, and Van Gogh, the collection is dazzling. My son is a student at OU, and we often make a museum stop on our visits to the campus.

Of course, small town Oklahoma also has its share of museums. From the Oklahoma Territorial Museum in Guthrie to the Will Rogers Memorial in Claremore, it’s evident that Oklahoma understands the role of arts and culture in achieving vibrant local communities. Perhaps my favorite small town museum is the Jasmine Moran Children’s Museum in Seminole. One of the world’s largest children’s museums, this special place provides kids an environment in which they can explore many careers, all in a pint-size scale. Whether a child wants to be the doctor, the judge, or the firefighter in this imaginary town, the Jasmine Moran affords children the chance to play and learn.

As you can see, Oklahoma museums offer a wide array of choices. And though we might travel to LA to see the Getty or New York to peruse the Met, most Oklahomans know that there are always treasures to be found right here at home. If you have never visited Philbrook, Gilcrease, or our other Oklahoma museums, I urge you to do so at your first opportunity. You will not be disappointed!