We visited the Philbrook Art Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma. This gorgeous museum used to be a private home.
Waite and Genevieve Phillips lived here with their children in the 1920s. Philips was an oilman. He built his oil company up and sold it for $25 million in 1925. Waite and Genevieve Phillips lived in Tulsa for 26 years, and at their house, Philbrook, for 10 of those years. At that point, they gave their house to the city of Tulsa for an art center and moved to a ranch in New Mexico, which they later donated to the Boy Scouts.
Philbrook has beautiful gardens.
Some parts of the gardens are like a park.
There are stunning flowers, and the museum has lots of outdoor events and fun ideas for kids.
Indoors, there’s a grand ballroom. We visited near Christmastime, so you’ll see a Christmas tree in the picture below.
There are many rooms that you would expect to see in a home — a very grand home.
This makes the museum a fun place to visit.
Of course, there are also many works of art. Some are paintings on the walls, as you might expect in an art museum.
Some are statues, like these from the “Trade and Transformation” exhibit.
There are also many examples of decorative arts from different parts of the world.
The Philbrook has many examples of indigenous art.
Some of the exhibits show pieces from different times and places juxtaposed to show how they might influence one another, like these examples of clothing.
Another exhibit of clothing shows modern decorative arts near traditional examples.
Everywhere you look, you see beautiful things!
There are also special spaces for kids. Here’s a reading corner. There are reading areas for adults, too.
There are also art labs. The picture below shows a place where you can dance with ribbons and see the shadow of your dancing on the wall.
There were many interactive art spaces to try out.
Other museum visits
Does your city have an art museum? Check out some of our other museum visits:
