When the Oklahoma State University Museum of Art opened its doors to the public in 2014, it had a newly renovated building, a growing collection, a handful of staff and a lot of promise. “Art is often made out to be exclusive, but we wanted to change that,” said OSUMA interim director Carla Shelton, who was hired in 2012 to plan and oversee the museum’s permanent collection. “Over the past 10 years, we’ve hosted amazing artists and shows that are accessible to audiences of all levels. It’s about exposure and bringing people together so they can have a conversation.” The concept for the museum began in earnest after former OSU president Burns Hargis and his wife, Ann, secured the help of two key alumni: Universal Limited Art Editions owner Bill Goldston and philanthropist Malinda Berry Fischer. Through their art world connections and expertise, the museum started to take shape with an advisory council and donated artworks. “The motivation was to enhance the reputation of OSU as a comprehensive research university and to educate our students in art appreciation and encourage their creativity,” President Hargis said. “As a land-grant university, one of OSU’s missions is to share the expertise and discoveries on campus. An art museum would serve the citizens of Stillwater and the state, as well as the OSU community.” A significant step in establishing the museum came in 2010 with OSU’s acquisition of the Postal Plaza Building in downtown Stillwater. Built in 1933 as a federal post office, the building had been used as business and church office spaces since the late ’70s. “I will not easily forget the hours spent working with campus facilities to manage the climate systems and the challenges inherent in having a basement in Oklahoma,” said Vicky Berry, the museum’s first director, who retired this spring. “Revitalizing an old post office provided many challenges ... and yet we were able to marry the building’s character with its new purpose.” Once renovations were completed in 2013 — OSU grad and architect Rand Elliot designed and supervised the project — the museum team moved hundreds of artworks into the climate-controlled vault. The OSUMA permanent collection has since grown to more than 5,000 gifted pieces. “We like to describe our collection as having breadth rather than depth,” Shelton said. “When it started, we received things from a lot of different people and a lot of different cultures. ... Now the collection process is more formalized, with a leaning toward modern contemporary. “It’s important to understand that our collection is a teaching collection. The most exposure it gets is through vault visits and faculty bringing students behind the scenes. It changes the way people interact with objects when they’re not behind glass — the art is right there in front of them within arm’s reach.” The museum and its collection act as a “physical support to the holistic education OSU offers our students,” according to OSUMA marketing and communications coordinator Casey Ihde. “You can’t have thinkers of the next century without the creative fields,” said Ihde, who has been involved with the museum since 2011, first as an intern and then a full-time employee. “Simply being here allows people to engage with art a little bit more, to become interested and accepting of it. Students and the community are hungry for it now.” Although the museum has a permanent collection, it doesn’t have a permanent exhibition like many larger museums. This allows its 10 full-time staff to create six to eight distinct shows every year, so there’s always something new for visitors to discover. Some shows feature pieces from the museum’s collection, while others are traveling exhibitions on loan from artists and galleries nationwide. Carla Shelton OSUMA Interim Director “Over the past 10 years, we’ve hosted amazing artists and shows that are accessible to audiences of all levels. It’s about exposure and bringing people together so they can have a conversation.” OSU COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES 3
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