Oklahoma City’s art community is active all year, meaning you’ll find choices in visual and performing arts on any given day. The majority of the city’s arts choices are in or around downtown, making it extremely simple to visit more than one on a day trip.
Here are a few of the best art and culture destinations in the city.
#1 Plaza Walls
Plaza Walls is a controlled, rotating mural project organized and created by The Oklahoma Mural Syndicate in Oklahoma City’s Plaza District (OMS). Dylan Bradway and Kristopher Kanaly began the project in September 2015, receiving permission from the Oklahoma City Arts Commission and Urban Design Commission.
#2 Film Row
Sheridan Avenue was a popular location for theater owners seeking to show and lease films for their theaters in the 1930s. It was known as “Film Row” since it was home to major filmmakers such as Paramount Pictures, MGM, Universal, Fox, and Warner Brothers.
Recent streetscape enhancements honoring the district’s cinematic history have changed the neighborhood, which is now home to a number of film- and design-related companies.
#3 OKC Ballet
Oklahoma City Ballet has been the city’s professional ballet group since its inception in 1972, attracting outstanding dancers from all around the globe. As the Civic Center Music Hall’s resident dance company, the group presents four main-stage performances in Oklahoma City each season, in addition to traveling across Oklahoma and neighboring states.
Oklahoma City Ballet also provides dance courses for children of all ages and ability levels via The Oklahoma City Ballet Yvonne Chouteau School, as well as a variety of community involvement initiatives to promote artistry and athleticism in kids throughout the state.
#4 Individual Artists of Oklahoma
In 1979, the IAO was founded as a grassroots group. The aim of three poets who founded the organization was to assist a group of artists who went against the norm. Since then, IAO has evolved into a haven for Oklahoma’s artistic community, with a facility that supports programs for poets, visual artists, filmmakers, musicians, dancers, and others.
#5 Paseo Arts District
Oklahoman G.A. Nichols established the Paseo as the first retail area north of downtown in 1929. The Paseo has long been a place for the arts. The Elms, a resident art gallery and studio on 27th and Walker, was constructed in 1920. It was Oklahoma City’s first artist studio and gallery. The Paseo was home to modest shops, student parties, and jazz clubs in the 1950s. With its inventiveness and free spirit, the 1960s gave birth to the counterculture.
The Paseo’s development as an artists’ area did not begin until the 1970s. The Paseo Arts Association was established in 1981 to further organize and invigorate Oklahoma’s first arts area, and the first annual Paseo Arts Festival was held over Memorial Day Weekend in 1977.
#6 The Oklahoma City Repertory Theater (CityRep)
OKC Rep is committed to the growth and support of the next generation of theatrical artists.
In addition to collaborations with other nonprofit service organizations, OKC Rep has consistently collaborated with Oklahoma’s top universities and colleges, providing professional opportunities, mentoring, and training through co-productions, access to the Equity Membership Candidacy Program, and master classes.
#7 Lyric Theatre
The Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma is a nationally acclaimed, Broadway-caliber production. To say it started from modest origins, though, would be an understatement. On November 7, 1962, fourteen notable Oklahomans met at the Beacon Club to explore the formation of a professional theater company. The names of individuals who were there are still well-known today.
#8 Oklahoma Contemporary
The new Oklahoma City Cultural Center, designed by Rand Elliott and constructed by Smith & Pickel Construction, is a magnificent new cultural resource for the city. It serves as a “creative commons,” a space for the community to congregate, create, and experience art, in addition to offering a world-class venue for exhibits, performance, and education and a beautiful addition to the OKC skyline.
Through courses and camps in a variety of disciplines, the arts education programs enable children and adults to discover their own creativity and acquire new skills. Oklahoma Contemporary, which incorporates programming from community partners, serves as a center for creative experiences of all sorts and provides the city with an event venue unlike any other.
#9 Oklahoma City Museum of Art
The Oklahoma City Museum of Art is one of the region’s major arts institutions. The Museum offers a diverse variety of exhibits curated from renowned institutions and collections across the globe. The Museum’s broad collection includes highlights from North America, Europe, and Asia, with a focus on American art and postwar abstraction.
The permanent collection also includes one of the world’s biggest public collections of Dale Chihuly glass, a significant collection of Brett Weston photography, and the authoritative museum collection of works by Washington Color painter Paul Reed.
The American Alliance of Museums has accredited the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, and it is a member of the Association of Art Museum Directors. Every year, approximately 125,000 people from all fifty states and thirty international nations visit the Museum.
#10 Oklahoma City Philharmonic
The Oklahoma City Philharmonic was established in 1988, and it is now celebrating 30 years of wonderful music in OKC. The orchestra, led by Alexander Mickelthwate, presents Classics, orchestral Pops, and Discovery Family programs, as well as a variety of community engagements.
Their vision is to enrich the lives of those they touch, to improve the cultural life of the community, to educate future generations about the value of music, to entertain audiences, to elevate the quality of every performance, and to serve as a leader for positive community growth through the performance of excellent symphonic music, as well as to collaborate with other arts agencies for the betterment of the community.
