Education at the heart of OSU's art collection

Thursday, February 13, 2014

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The Oklahoma State University Museum of Art is striving to encompass the importance and love of art through its inaugural exhibition Sharing the Journey, on display through May 24. The exhibit, housed in the Postal Plaza Gallery in downtown Stillwater, showcases the university’s permanent art collection.

Louise Siddons, faculty curator of collections and assistant professor of art history, believes the exhibit brings much more than art to the community.

“The pieces allow people to talk to each other about what we love and why we love it,” Siddons said. “It stretches people’s idea of the potential Stillwater has and fulfilling that potential.”

During the Postal Plaza Gallery’s four- year renovation and planning process, art students, under Siddons’ supervision, cataloged

and researched featured pieces in the collection.

The exhibition serves as a community-wide endeavor as well as a teaching tool.

“We are excited for what the museum will bring to OSU and Stillwater and encourage everyone to take the journey,” Siddons said.

Along with the exhibition, a catalog stands as a lasting document to remember the opening exhibit at the Postal Plaza Gallery. It incorporates 10 percent of the collection through photos and descriptions of each piece.

The nine sections of the book take readers through a chronological journey of the collection beginning with the Ancient World and ending with Contemporary Art.

Paintings, sculptures and prints make up the majority of the collection, which began in the 1930s by former art department head Doel Reed. It became a platform for teaching students the value of art.

Reed donated more than 200 prints to the collection and gathered work from other faculty members. The collection now has 3,000 pieces and includes works from ancient Greek and Roman times through the contemporary era. 

While alumni and museum supporter gifts make up 80 percent of the pieces, many of which were given when plans for the OSU Museum of Art began, some pieces have been purchased for the collection.

Story by Kaitlin Loyd