An OKC museum is starting monthly free admission days for all: What you need to know

The Oklahoma City Museum of Art is launching a planned three-year series of free monthly admission days on Jan. 14.

Funded through support from the Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program, visitors of all ages will receive access to the downtown OKC museum’s galleries at no cost on the second Sunday of each month for the next three years.

The Oklahoma City Museum of Art is open from noon to 5 p.m. Sundays.

When are the OKC Museum of Art’s upcoming free days?

Children 17 and younger always receive free admission to the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, but the new Access for All program will provide college students, seniors and other adults a chance to get free admission once a month, too.

The museum is currently showing the innovative traveling exhibit "Preston Singletary: Raven and the Box of Daylight,” spotlighting the Tlingit artist's glass sculptures amid immersive projections, video and sound; “First Look: New to the Museum,” including works by OKC artists like Ed Ruscha, Nan Sheets and Alexandra Alaupovic; and “Chihuly Then and Now: The Collection at Twenty,” featuring one of the museum’s signature collections.

The museum’s free admission day schedule for the first half of 2024 is:

• Jan. 14

• Feb. 11

• March 10

• April 28

• May 12

• June 9

In April, museum staffers will shift the free day to the last Sunday of the month in conjunction with the closing of the Singletary exhibit as well as the downtown Festival of the Arts.

How can people get advance tickets to the OKC museum’s free days?

Visitors can reserve tickets for the monthly free admission days ahead of time in person, over the phone at 405-236-3100 or online at www.okcmoa.com/buytickets and entering discount code AFAJAN24.

For more information, go to www.okcmoa.com/visit/events/access-for-all.

The museum also will celebrate during its first Access for All free day the opening of its new family space, situated between the admissions counter and the theater lobby in the area originally occupied by the Museum Store.

One side of the space will focus on art activities created by museum educators, while the other will offer a free play space for the museum’s youngest visitors — including those crawling and newly walking — and their grownups.

How else is the OKC Museum of Art making its art more accessible?

Last fall, museum leaders announced that the downtown OKC landmark had received $600,000 to be awarded over three years from the Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program. The OKC Museum of Art was one of 64 museums nationwide and the only Oklahoma institution to receive funding from the Art Bridges Foundation, a national arts nonprofit founded by philanthropist Alice Walton.

The initiative aims to increase access to museums across the nation and foster engagement with local communities.

Along with allowing the OKC museum to offer free admission for all visitors on a monthly basis, the grant is to support Spanish translation labels, new touchable artworks in the museum’s permanent collection and other accessibility efforts.

The OKC Museum of Art also received last autumn a $7,500 grant from Oklahoma Humanities to be used to assist in funding student-centered tour experiences, allowing the museum to provide virtual and in-person field trips to a wider population of pupils.

The Oklahoma Humanities grant is helping to fund teacher materials, translation services for Spanish-language materials and distance learning software.

The museum also offers access to its art through its Yellow Bus Brigade program. Launched in 2007, the program provides free admission for teachers and chaperones on tours. The Oklahoma Humanities grant is helping support the program’s key offering of transportation and substitute teacher reimbursement, designed to reduce financial barriers for schools.

For more information, go to okcmoa.com/learn.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: An OKC museum is launching free admission days: How to reserve tickets