Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art - Norman, OK
Posted by: 
gparkes
N 35° 12.656 W 097° 26.867
14S E 641283 N 3897538
Fred Jone Jr. Museum of Art is named after a student, who on his senior year was involved in a fatal aircraft accident. His parents made the large donation to start this museum.
Waymark Code: WM8AR6
Location: Oklahoma, United States
Date Posted: 03/02/2010
Views: 16
A marker on site has the following narrative:
Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art
This building honors the memory of Fred Jones, Jr., a University of Oklahoma student who died tragically in 1950. Jones was a Business Administration Senior in the Class of 1951. It was his love for flying that led to his untimely death when the small plane he was piloting crashed on a trip to the Sugar Bowl.
Jones was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Jones, pioneer Oklahoma City business and civic leaders. In order to enhance the cultural life of the campus and to give students and opportunity to view outstanding works of art, Mr. and Mrs. Jones decided to honor their son by contributing funds to build the art museum and the new School of Art building. The University of Oklahoma Museum of art was originally established in 1936 in what is now Jacobson Hall which honored the museum’s founding director Oscar B. Jacobson. The new museum opened in 1971 as the Fred Jones Jr. Memorial Art Center. Over a long period, Mrs. Fred Jones, Sr. played a leading role in expanding the museum’s collections.
The museum’s permanent collection contains extensive examples of American, Native American, European, and African art, as well as photography from the Sandor collection, sculpture, and ceramics. It also contains the Fleishaker, Thams and Tate collections of works by Taos artists. The Weitzenhoffer collection of French Impressionist art was given to the museum as a gift of OU alumnus Max Weitzenhoffer. At the time of the gift, in the year 2000, it was the single most important gift of art ever given to a U.S. public university.
In early 2005, the new Mary and Howard Lester Wing of the museum was opened. It was made possible by generous gifts from friends and aluni including a lead gift of $2.5 million by Mary and Howard Lester. Durant, Oklahoma native and former OU student, Howard Lester is a nationally known philanthropist and business leader and was the founder of the Williams-Sonoma and Pottery Barn companies.
The museum is recognized as one of the most important university based art museums in the nation.
Six major types of collections are housed in the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art: American Art, Native American Art, Asian Art, Contemporary Art, European Art, and Photography.