Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa (must see)

The Philbrook Museum of Art is an art museum housed in part in a 1920’s villa, situated on 23 acres of formal and informal gardens. The original structure is the former home of Oklahoma oil pioneer Waite Phillips and his wife Genevieve (Elliott) Phillips. The museum opened in 1939.

Philbrook Museum of Art houses exhibitions from around the world. The permanent collection encompasses European, American, Native American, Modern and Contemporary Art and Design, African, Asian and Antiquities. The museum serves an average of 149,000 visitors annually.

The museum's permanent art collection began with a few works of art from the Tulsa Art Association and Villa Philbrook. 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. 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.