| Philbrook Museum of Art | |
|---|---|
| Established | 1939 |
| Location | Tulsa, Oklahoma |
| Type | Art museum |
| Director | Randall Suffolk [1] |
| Website | www.philbrook.org |
The Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma is an art museum and former home of Oklahoma oil pioneer Waite Phillips and his wife Genevieve (Elliott) Phillips. As of 2007[update], the museum has a staff of 60 and an operating budget of nearly $6 million.[1]
The museum opened in 1939.[2] The collection housed at the Philbrook Museum of Art includes works from Piero di Cosimo, Gentile da Fabriano, Biagio d'Antonio da Firenze, Tanzio da Varallo, Bernardo Strozzi, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, Thomas Moran, William Merritt Chase, and Levi Wells Prentice. The museum is well known for its Native American and African art collection.
The museum serves an average of 123,000 visitors annually.[3]
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An Italian Renaissance villa, the Philbrook was designed in 1926 by Kansas City architect Edward Buehler Delk. Construction on the mansion was begun the same year by the John Long Company of Kansas City and completed in 1927. Originally called Villa Philbrook, the home featured 72 rooms on 23 acres (93,000 m²) of grounds. The expansive grounds contain elaborate gardens inspired by Villa Lante, an Italian country estate north of Rome designed by Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola in 1566. In 1938, Waite Phillips donated the Villa Philbrook and surrounding gardens to the city of Tulsa, in hopes that the estate would be used for art and cultural purposes.[2] The immense house, with its spacious rooms, wide corridors and great halls, was a natural home for a museum and, due to its steel and concrete framework, minimal remodeling was required to transform the Villa into an art museum. In 1939, Villa Philbrook was opened to the public as The Philbrook Museum of Art and Eugene Kingman was its first director.[2]
The museum initiated studio art classes in 1940 and added a Children's Museum in 1949.[2] A new museum wing was built in 1969 in response to an increased demand for studio art classes, but enrollment declined in the 1990s and the use of the space changed.[2]
The art museum underwent difficult financial times in the 1980s and a renaissance in the 1990s.[2] The name changed from the Philbrook Art Center to The Philbrook Museum of Art in 1987.[2]
In 2009, after a rigorous two-year process, Philbrook achieved reaccreditation from the American Association of Museums (AAM). Of the nation's estimated 17,500 museums, 775 are currently accredited and less than one half (286) are art museums. Philbrook has maintained this national recognition since 1987, demonstrating adherence to the highest professional standards in preservation, exhibitions, education, and community programs.
The Philbrook Museum houses exhibitions from around the world, including one of the finest permanent collections of Renaissance and Baroque art and sculpture in the United States. It features work from such masters as Piero di Cosimo, Gentile da Fabriano, Biagio d'Antonio da Firenze, Tanzio da Varallo, and Bernardo Strozzi. The Philbrook also features 19th century European artists, William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, American artists Thomas Moran, William Merritt Chase, and Levi Wells Prentice. The museum is widely recognized for its outstanding Native American and African art collection, which includes a collection of works by Jerome Tiger.
The museum's permanent art collection began with a few works of art from the Tulsa Art Association and Villa Philbrook.[2] They grew steadily with gifts of American Indian pottery and basketry from Clark Field beginning in 1942 and the Roberta Campbell Lawson collection in 1947.[2] The American and European collection received a boost from Laura A. Club who donated paintings in 1947 and from Italian Renaissance paintings and sculptures from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation in 1961.[2]
The museum shares a new Adkins Collection of Native American painting, pottery and jewelry with the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art.[4]
The La Villa Restaurant at Philbrook offers lunch Tuesday through Saturday and also a Sunday brunch. The museum also has a gift shop, The Museum Shop at Philbrook, open Tuesday through Sunday.[5] The restaurant seats up to 100 people.[6]
The museum also offers walking tours of the gardens and a free audio tour of the history of Villa Philbrook.[7] The gardens feature native Oklahoma plants and a refurbished creek.[7]
The museum also offers event spaces. The Williams Conference Center seats 75 to 80 people and the Patti Johnson Wilson Hall, an auditorium performance hall, seats up to 236 people.[6]
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