Oklahoma City is home to many world-class museums and historical venues. Throughout the year, you can learn about a wide variety of topics through special exhibitions and displays.
This guide will help you find all the exhibits currently on display in museums across the OKC metro. This list is updated frequently, so check back often for new exhibits and other learning opportunities! You can also check out our guide to FREE museums in the metro.
American Banjo Museum
(9 E Sheridan Ave) 405-604-2793; Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; Sunday, noon-5 p.m.
Adults, $8; kids (5-17), $6; kids (under 5), free; families (2 adults, 2 kids), $15
Women of the Banjo
A special exhibit at the American Banjo Museum Women of the Banjo chronicles the contributions of women to the colorful past, vibrant present, and unlimited future of the banjo. From prominent contemporary performers such as Alison Brown and Rhiannon Giddens to pop icons Taylor Swift, Dolly Parton and many others, historic insights, instruments, stage attire, and a glimpse of ever-changing fashion trends all help in the telling of this important aspect of banjo history.
Edmond Fine Arts Institute
(27 E Edwards St, Edmond) 405-340-4481; Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
The Gallery
Features the work of a different local artist each month. The Edmond Fine Arts Gallery is open daily for public viewing Monday-Friday or by appointment.
- October – Shelly Presley
- November – Behnaz Sohrabian
- December – Reian Williams
- January – Scottie Scott
- February – Brad McNeill
Edmond History Museum
(431 S Boulevard, Edmond) 340-0078; Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday, 1-4 p.m.
Admission is free.
Unveiled: Edmond’s Bridal Fashion, 1875-2020
Feb. 7-Dec. 31, 2023
The exhibit features sixteen wedding dresses and accessories of Edmond women, showcasing nearly 150 years of fashion. As American weddings change over the decades, Edmond traditions also follow suit. Dress styles change dramatically, wedding venues expand, and even cake choices vary widely.
Edmond’s African American History: Land Run to Integration
Online Exhibit
The topic of African Americans in Edmond is often questioned, mostly because of its absence. From the 1920s until the 1970s, no African Americans lived in Edmond. The influence of the Jim Crow laws, the Ku Klux Klan, and even Oklahoma City Public Schools integration affected Edmond, which was promoted as “100% white” for many years. This digital exhibit explores the history of African American families in Edmond, segregation and more. This exhibit was originally developed as a companion piece to the traveling exhibit The Power of Children, which EHS&M hosted in the fall of 2017. It has been expanded and adapted slightly in order to function better as a digital exhibit. Topics addressed include: Edmond’s Early African American Community, Separate Schools, Jim Crow Laws, Was Edmond a Sundown Town?, Promotion of Edmond as 100% White, The Ku Klux Klan in Edmond, School Integration, White Flight Fuels the Growth of Edmond, Integrating Edmond, and the End of An All-White Edmond.
Factory Obscura
(25 NW 9th St) Monday & Wednesday-Friday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; Sunday, noon-6 p.m.
Adults, $22; kids (4-12), $15; kids (3 & under), free
Mixed-Tape
Ongoing
Mixed-Tape is a 20th-century take on the classic audio autobiography. The exhibition is a 6,000-square-foot, hand-crafted, immersive art experience.
HOPPIS
Oct. 1-Nov. 5, 2023
Step into the captivating world of Hoppis, where enchantment awaits at every turn. Go on an unforgettable journey through five immersive habitats, where reality and fantasy converge in a spectacle of beauty and magic. During daily admission hours, you’ll catch fleeting glimpses of the creatures who live within these habitats. If you’re feeling even more adventurous, catch the after-hours performances when all the creatures are stirring and their world is fully alive.
Firehouse Art Center
(444 S Flood Ave, Norman) 405-329-4523; Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Waking Up
Sept. 4-Nov. 4, 2023
This exhibition by Maria Cristina Mercado & Qvetzal is an international collaborative exhibition between the Firehouse Art Center and the Universidad de Guadalajara, Centro Universitario De La Costa, Puerto Vallarta, Jal., Mexico.
First Americans Museum
(659 First Americans Blvd) 405-594-2100; Monday, Wednesday, Thursday & Friday 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday & Sunday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
Adults, $15; kids (4-12), $5; kids (3 & under), free
One Place, Many Nations: Acknowledging the 39
May 27, 2023–2025
The installment takes a deep dive into the unique histories, cultures, contributions and resilience of each of the 39 tribes that call Oklahoma home. Hands-on activities, interactive experiences, educational opportunities and rotating objects that share cultural experiences are all features of the exhibition.
Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art
(555 Elm, Norman) 325-4938; Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sunday, 1-5 p.m.
Admission is free.
Yellowstone in Color: Thomas Moran and Louis Prang Print the West
July 6-Nov. 26, 2023
Through prints, painting, photography, and graphics, the exhibition explores Moran’s imagery of the American West and the printing firm that made his views iconic. Visitors will have the opportunity to experience a working print studio as part of the exhibit.
Mabee-Gerrer Museum Art
(1900 W MacArthur, Shawnee) Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sunday, 1-4 p.m.
Adults, $5; kids (6-17), $3; Kids (5 & under), free.
More information coming soon
Myriad Gardens Visitor Center
(301 W Reno Ave) 445-7080; Monday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
Admission is free to see art.
A Dream Waiting to Unfold
Sept. 13-Nov. 2, 2023
Features works of art by MJ Alexander.
Common Threads
Dec. 13, 2023-Jan. 24, 2024
Features works by Sarah Atlee, Vicki Conley, Irmgard Geul, Sarah Sherrod and Lisa Wing.
Moore-Lindsay Historic House Museum
(508 N Peters Ave, Norman) 321-0156; Wednesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
Admission is free.
Halloween
Oct. 4-28, 2023
Features a Halloween-themed micro-exhibit.
National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
(1700 NE 63rd) 478-2250; Monday – Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sunday, noon-5 p.m.
Adults, $15; students, $10; kids, (6-12), $5; kids (5 & under), free
W I D E W E S T
July 1-Oct. 15, 2023
The exhibition offers an opportunity to explore the worlds captured in panoramic photographs, from traveling wild west show caravans and rodeo arenas to graduating classes and growing cities. Additionally, W I D E W E S T gives a look behind-the-scenes at the Museum, showcasing the efforts of the Dickinson Research Center to preserve these special photographs for future generations.
Open for Business
July 28, 2023 – Feb. 18, 2024
This exhibition explores all the work an artist must do outside the studio, whether it be teaching their craft or negotiating a better deal at a gallery.
American Farmer
Aug. 25-Oct. 18, 2023
When photographer Paul Mobley set out to capture the soul of our country’s farm communities, he encountered an enduring rural culture that remains rooted in the principles of tradition, family, integrity, and hard work. Crisscrossing the country, from Alaska to Florida, Mobley and his camera were welcomed time and time again into the homes of hundreds of farm families. The resulting images show farmers with a strong sense of where they belong in the universe, a close connection to the land and their day-to-day work as it affects the rest of the world.
Nations at War! Field Sketches of a Pawnee Warrior
Sept. 1-Dec. 31, 2023
Most people assume Native American ledger art stopped in the 1800s. These artistic drawings served as pictographic narratives recording a person’s life and experiences in combat. However, this tradition continued into the 20th century and into World War 2. Drawn by Pawnee artist Brummett Echohawk, these sketches are one of a kind.
Women in Wyoming: Portraits and Interviews of Women Who Shape the West
Sept. 8, 2023- Jan. 2, 2024
Women in Wyoming uses photography and audio interviews to promote the integrity, civility, diversity, legacy, and spirit of women and girls. Wyoming led the country in the advancement of women as the first state to recognize women’s right to vote.
King Ranch: A Legacy in Art, Paintings by Noe Perez
Sept. 22, 2023- Jan. 2, 2024
The exhibition reveals the lifeways and traditions of King Ranch and its place in the artistic heritage of the American West. Perez’s landscapes, genre scenes, wildlife, and livestock paintings serve as a reminder of the beautiful, vast and rugged place that is King Ranch.
Black Cowboys: An American Story
Sept. 22, 2023- Jan. 2, 2024
Black Cowboys: An American Story explores the lives and work of the numerous Black men, women and children – enslaved and free – who labored on the ranches of Texas and participated on cattle drives before the Civil War through the turn of the twentieth century. This powerful exhibition features artifacts, photographs and documents depicting the work and skills of Black cowboys. Central to the exhibition is a film about Hector Bazy, portrayed by distinguished actor and playwright Eugene Lee. Born enslaved on a plantation in Grimes County, Texas in 1851, Bazy wrote an autobiography in 1910 describing the exhilarating and dangerous work of cowboy life.
Traditional Cowboy Arts Exhibition & Sale
Oct. 6, 2023-Jan. 2, 2024
The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum has partnered with the TCAA to host its annual exhibition and sale since 1999 and showcases one-of-a-kind, handcrafted works exemplifying the finest skill in saddle making, bit and spur making, silversmithing and rawhide braiding. Thirteen artists will exhibit more than 50 pieces of original work.
Italy’s Legendary Cowboys of the Maremma, Photographs by Gabrielle Saveri
Dec. 8, 2023-May 7, 2024
The butteri, or Italian “cowboys” — hailing from the lands spanning from the plains of northern Lazio up through the coastal Italian region of Maremma into southern Tuscany — have a long-standing connection to Buffalo Bill and the history of America’s Wild West. Their culture, however, is currently under threat. With Italy’s severe economic downturn, combined with low wages and the intensive physicality of the job, increased grain prices due to the war in Ukraine, and the coronavirus pandemic, the number of authentic, working butteri is on the decline. It is believed there are fewer than 30 full-time butteri across Maremma, and the numbers grow smaller each year.
Oklahoma City Museum of Art
(415 Couch Dr) 236-3100; Wednesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m.; Sunday, noon-5 p.m.
Adults, $14.95; kids (17 & under), free – Complimentary admission is offered twice a year during the Museum’s SONIC Free Family Days.
Chihuly Then and Now: The Collection at Twenty
June 18, 2022-June 23, 2024
The exhibition features new works on loan from Chihuly Studio in Seattle, as well as visitor favorites from OKCMOA’s permanent collection, telling a comprehensive story of Chihuly’s groundbreaking career.
Cynthia Daignault: Oklahoma
March 23-Dec. 31, 2023
Daignault first created a work based on the bombing to represent the year 1995 in her series What Happened from 2018, which chronicles the last one hundred years of American culture. She revisited it in 2021 to create Oklahoma. In collaboration with the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum, each institution will honor a $2 discount on general admission when museum-goers show their same-day ticket at the other museum.
True Nature: Rodin and the Age of Impressionism
June 17-Oct. 22, 2023
The exhibition seeks to reframe French artist Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) and his sculpture and is drawn from LACMA’s permanent collection – the largest museum in the western United States. Approximately 100 objects will be on view, including rarely seen 19th-century European sculptures and paintings created by Impressionist painters and sculptors with whom Rodin worked and exhibited throughout his career. Notable artists such as Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, and Paul Cézanne are featured in this exhibition.
Paul Reed: Works on Paper
June 17, 2023-Jan. 31, 2024
In 2017 and 2018, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art was gifted 125 paintings, sculptures and works on paper by the Paul and Esther Reed Trust, establishing the Museum as the definitive home of Paul Reed’s work. Paul Reed, a native of D.C. and one of the original six Washington Color Painters, earned national notoriety for his complex series of colorful stained and shaped-canvas paintings. In 1972, Reed began working from a smaller home studio, leading him to create more intimately scaled works on paper such as prints, photographic collages, and oil pastels. A true poet of color and form, Reed’s dedication to artistic exploration spanned a career of more than sixty years, during which he created a prolific body of work distinguished for its quality and originality.
Preston Singletary: Raven and the Box of Daylight
Nov. 11, 2023-April 28, 2024
The multi-sensory experience combines glass, video, and audio to tell the story of Raven, a creator figure in Northwest Coast Native American culture, who was the giver of the stars, moon, and sun. Raven takes visitors on a transformative journey through darkness into light. In addition to Singletary’s striking glass pieces, the exhibition features storytelling paired with original music, coastal Pacific Northwest soundscapes, and video.
Singletary’s work fuses time-honored glassblowing traditions with Pacific Northwest Indigenous art to honor his ancestral Tlingit heritage, a tribe in southern Alaska.
Edith Head: The Golden Age of Hollywood Costume Design
June 22- Sept. 29, 2024
This exciting retrospective of award-winning costume designer Edith Head will feature over 70 costumes that span the six decades of Head’s career and were worn by stars such as Ginger Rogers, Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck, Shirley MacLaine, Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn and Kim Novak.
Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum
(620 N Harvey Ave) 405-235-3313; Monday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sunday, noon-5 p.m.
Adults, $15; kids (6-17), $12; kids (5 & under), free.
Remembering Through Art
The new exhibit is a project commissioned by a Broken Arrow High School art teacher to connect students to the loss experienced on April 19, 1995. Each art student chose one person from the 168 who were killed, researched that person and created a work of art in their honor. These works of art illustrate empathy and compassion and celebrate 168 uniquely different lives.
More Than Two Decades of Building. Together.
The new exhibit reveals how Oklahoma City came together to rebuild and remember. Starting with a mission statement and sacred ground to memorialize, family members, survivors, first responders, designers and the community created a Memorial and Museum to tell the story of the senselessness of violence and share lessons learned.
Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center
(11 NW 11th St) 405-951-0000; Wednesday-Monday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; Thursday, until 9 p.m.
Admission is free.
Patterns of Knowing
May 18-Oct. 10, 2023
Patterns of Knowing features works by three artists — Jordan Ann Craig, Benjamin Harjo Jr. and Jeri Redcorn — exploring how patterns sourced from Indigenous cultures embody a lineage of ideas. Through ceramics, paintings, prints and drawings, Patterns of Knowing highlights artworks in which rhythmic, repeated arrangements of shapes, colors and symbols carry knowledge across generations. The exhibition explores how Indigenous artistic principles continue to move and evolve between media, connecting ideas from past to present.
ArtNow: The Soul is a Wanderer
June 22, 2023-Jan. 15, 2024
The Soul Is a Wanderer is the latest iteration of Oklahoma Contemporary’s biennial ArtNow, highlighting new and recent art from a selection of artists active in the state. Thirteen cross-generational artists come together in this exhibition organized by Tulsa-based guest curator Lindsay Aveilhé. Taking its title and inspiration from a line in the poem A Map to the Next World (2000), by former United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo, the exhibition explores past, present and future moments of passage, reckoning, and renewal.
Descendants of the Black 1000: Flight from Oklahoma Black Towns to Canada
Nov. 9-April 1, 2024
Features the work of Canadian artists Donna Paris and David Ofori Zapparoli, whose collaborative project foregrounds untold stories that trace the historical movement of Black communities over time. Through photographs, interviews and archival materials, Descendants of the Black 1000 creates a fuller picture of how Black history in Oklahoma had an international reach, going beyond the state and connecting communities across the continent.
Home1947: Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
Feb. 22-July 2024
Home1947: Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy explores the lives and stories of the millions displaced in 1947 during the creation of two new independent nation-states, India and Pakistan. The installation crafts visual memories through a series of short documentary and narrative films, virtual reality, photographs and oral histories, objects and archival documents, and sound installations–recreating the long-lost sights, sounds, and smells of what millions once called home.
Campbell Art Park (11th & Broadway)
Eva Schlegel: Multiple Voices
Aug. 31, 2023-Jan. 13, 2025
Multiple Voices is the first public artwork in the United States by Eva Schlegel, the Austria-born and -based artist known for engineering steel and mirrors into spectacular, architectonic sculptures. The pivotal text elements in Multiple Voices refer to America and specifically Oklahoma.
Jose Dávila (in the Sculpture Garden)
Sept. 22, 2022-Aug. 2024
Guadalajara-based artist Jose Dávila’s sculpture is part of the exhibition La casa que nos inventamos: Contemporary Art From Guadalajara, a collaboration between Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center and guest curator Viviana Kuri, director and chief curator of the Museo de Arte de Zapopan (MAZ) in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Eduardo Sarabia: Green Vines (The Showroom)
Sept. 23, 2022-August 2024
Eduardo Sarabia collaborated with Oklahoma City mural artist TANK to transform the surfaces of this building using his signature vine imagery. The vines come from Sarabia’s memory of his childhood neighborhood in Los Angeles, where community members decorated the facades of their houses with floral motifs.
Oklahoma Hall of Fame
(1400 Classen Dr.) 235-4458; Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m.-2 p.m.
Adults, $7; kids (6-17), $5; kids (5 & under), free – Complimentary admission is offered on the second Saturday of each month and Thursdays between Memorial & Labor Day.
Green Country: From Lenapah to Prague
May 2, 2023-May 2, 2024
Green Country is a diverse area of lush, wooded hills, tallgrass prairies, small towns and big cities. Oklahoma Hall of Fame inductees from the 18-county region in northeast Oklahoma have contributed greatly to the state and beyond. This exhibit features the lives of eighteen individuals, inducted between 1930 – 2020, whose accomplishments are celebrated in a variety of fields. They are everyday Oklahomans, some from the smallest of Oklahoma towns, who pushed boundaries, made history, and continue to inspire generations.
Quitting is Not an Option: The Remarkable Life of Wayman Lawrence Tisdale
Aug. 22, 2023-Aug. 30, 2024
This virtual exhibit presents a timeline of the life of Wayman Tisdale, an Oklahoman who embodied perseverance and optimism and whose story continues to inspire others to do the same.
(800 Nazih Zuhdi) 522-0765; Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Adults, $12.50; students, $9; kids (4 & under), free; families (up to 6 people), $35
Watch Out for Flying Chairs: Professional Wrestling in Oklahoma
The exhibit examines professional wrestling in Oklahoma from its emergence in traveling carnivals to today. Oklahoma has been at the forefront of professional wrestling through its continued popularity across communities and the contributions of Oklahomans in and out of the squared circle. Over the last 80 years, traditional wrestling has brought Oklahoma more national and international wrestling medals, trophies, titles, and championships than any other state. Since 1932, 12 Oklahomans have stood on the top step to receive Olympic gold medals.
Taking Flight: Oklahomans Explore the Skies
The exhibit features the first steps toward air travel, as well as the remarkable ways that Oklahomans contributed to all aspects of aviation. It will include large-scale graphics and custom cases for artifacts, including airplane nose art, uniforms worn by pilots and more.
In Citizen’s Garb: Native Americans on the Southern Plains, 1889–1891
The exhibit features a selection of modern gelatin silver prints made from glass plate negatives from the photography studio of Lenny and Sawyers. The Lenny and Sawyers Studio was in operation for a short period of time from 1889 to 1891. Many of the photographs taken by William Lenny and William Sawyers in that period depicted Indigenous people in the Lawton and Fort Sill area. The tribal nations represented in the collection include the Comanche, Kiowa, Apache, Wichita, Delaware, and Caddo
Becoming Fearless
The exhibit will explore 70 years of firefighting in Oklahoma and is comprised of 25 black-and-white images, giving a unique look into the evolution of this profession. “Becoming Fearless” will trace firefighting from the early days of acrobatics, antics and volunteerism in the 1900s to the sophisticated fire safety systems in place today. Feats of agility along with a bit of humor color the early days of firefighters.
Launch to Landing: Oklahomans and Space
This exhibit focuses on the many Oklahomans who played a part in the US air and space program, as well as early Oklahoma pioneers of aviation. The centerpiece of the exhibit is the Skylab 4 Apollo Command Module (CM-118). This spacecraft carried the final Skylab crew of astronauts—Gerald Carr (commander), Edward Gibson (science pilot), and William Pogue (pilot)—into space to live and work in the Skylab Orbiting Laboratory or Space Station. Launch to Landing will also feature a number of personal items utilized by astronauts and items that are generally associated with Oklahoma aviators and the U.S. air and space program, such as Oklahoma flags flown in space, a NASA Mission Control console, space shuttle heat shield tiles and lunar samples—also known as “moon rocks.”
Red Earth Art Center
(100 N Broadway Ave, Ste 2750) 405-427-5228; Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Upcoming exhibits
- Artist: Carolyn Bernard Young – Sept. 12-Nov. 3
- TreeFest – Nov. 15-Dec. 30
Sam Noble Museum
(2401 Chautauqua, Norman) 405-325-4712; Tuesday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sunday, 1-5 p.m.
Adults, $10; kids (4 – 17), $6; kids (3 & under) free
Nature’s Blueprint: Biomimicry in Art and Design
June 17-Oct. 23, 2023
The forms, patterns and processes found in the natural world often inspire creators in every field, from fashion design to engineering. This approach to innovation is called biomimicry, and as the world faces a mounting number of challenges, nature has more to teach us than ever before. Nature’s Blueprints: Biomimicry in Art and Design brings together art and design with environmental science using artifacts, artwork and photography, as well as interactive learning stations.
Flight Lines: The Art of Natural History
July 15-Nov. 19, 2023
Flight Lines: The Art of Natural History features works of art and scientific illustrations meaningful to ornithology, the study of birds. Before the age of photography, scientists and naturalists had to illustrate their discoveries to share them with the world. Today, scientific illustration might not be as necessary, but plenty of artists and researchers choose to keep the tradition alive and capture the essence of nature in works of art. The exhibit features the work of professionals, scientists and OU students.
Science Museum Oklahoma
(2020 Remington Pl) 405-602-6664; Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. – Complimentary admission offered during the Museum’s Tinkerfest event.
Adults, $20.95; kids (3-12), $15.95
Currents: Turning the Tide on Ocean Conservation
Sept. 2, 2023 to April 2024
The “Currents” exhibit is a love letter to the ocean, honoring its importance and illustrated by the eloquence and action of artists. Just as tides, winds and the rotation of the earth influence the path of ocean currents, people’s individual actions can impact the challenges presently facing the world’s oceans. This exhibit explores how five renowned artists are addressing ocean conservation with their artwork.
Elemental Worlds
In this multimedia interactive art installation, you’ll use digital drawing tools to decorate and color one of 12 animals that will come to life in the 220-degree simulated digital forest — escape into creativity and relax with binaural frequencies, dynamic lighting, atmospheric effects, and the sounds of nature. The world resets every 15 minutes.
SKELETONS: Museum of Osteology
(10301 S Sunnylane Rd) 405-814-0006; Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sunday, noon-5 p.m.
Adults, $11; kids (3-12), $9
Ongoing
From comparative anatomy to classification to adaptation and locomotion, SKELETONS has been designed with learning in mind! Currently displaying over 300 skeletons from all corners of the world, visitors have a unique opportunity to compare and contrast many rare species normally not seen in museum exhibits. In addition, The museum features a variety of North American specimens ranging from tiny mice and shrew skeletons to a 40-foot humpback whale.
Their newest exhibit features Sloths, Anteaters, Rodents, and Armadillos!
