Red Earth Festival, Chuck Wagon Festival, Prix de West head to OKC's National Cowboy Museum

Between its long-running Chuck Wagon Festival and Prix de West exhibition — plus its status as the new home of the award-winning Red Earth Festival — the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is celebrating summer with art, culture, food and fun.

"It's such a great example of the width and breadth of our offerings here, because you have this giant, public-facing Chuck Wagon Festival — two days, a couple of thousand people, a bunch of chuck wagons, family games and activities and just a full museum full of family fun — and then Prix de West, which is the best of the best as far as those who are producing Western art today, being brought here for this fine art exhibition that runs all summer," said Seth Spillman, the National Cowboy Museum's chief marketing officer.

"With the addition of the Red Earth Native American cultural festival, we're proud to be the host for all of it. That's two longstanding traditions coming together that complement each other very well."

As one of Oklahoma City's top tourist attractions, here are the highlights of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum's summer plans:

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OKC museum cooks up Memorial Day weekend tradition with Chuck Wagon Festival

A Memorial Day weekend tradition, the 32nd annual Chuck Wagon Festival is planned for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 27-28 at the National Cowboy Museum.

The festivities will include outdoor cooking, artisan demonstrations, Western reenactors, Native American cooking demos, archery, country and Western dancing, craft stations, a petting zoo, live music by the Rodeo Opry and more.

"It's our biggest family event. We had over 5,000 people come through the museum in that one weekend last year. We're expecting as big or bigger crowds this year," Spillman said.

Chuck Wagon Festival tickets are $20 per person at the door or $15 in advance. Museum members and children 12 and younger are admitted free. Tickets can be purchased in advance at nationalcowboymuseum.org/chuckwagon.

With its new venue, the Red Earth Festival still spotlights Native culture

For the second year, the National Cowboy Museum will be the venue for the Red Earth Festival, a long-running intertribal celebration of Native American visual art, dance and culture.

After trying a July 4 weekend run last year, the 37th Annual Red Earth Festival will be back in its traditional early June dates, with this year's event planned for June 2-3 at the OKC museum.

“The inviting atmosphere at the Cowboy Museum will allow the festival the opportunity to provide enhanced visitor experiences and engaging exhibits and activities for the entire family,” said Vickie Norick, chairman of the board for Red Earth Inc., the nonprofit that organizes the festival, in a statement.

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“The beautiful outdoor venue Liichokoshkomo' provides the perfect backdrop for our dance performances and music.”

Pronounced Lee-cho-kosh-ko-MO and named for a Chickasaw phrase for “Let’s play," the National Cowboy Museum's 100,000-square-foot outdoor attraction features not only a rushing waterfall, interactive covered wagon and replica trading post but also an intertribal Native American village, including a Pawnee earth lodge, Kiowa tipi and Puebloan cliff dwelling.

Inside the museum, the Red Earth Art Market will showcase an array of works by 100 artists representing various tribes across North America. Among the exhibitors will be Yonavea Hawkins, a renowned Caddo beadwork artist who has been named the 2023 Red Earth Honored One, an award annually bestowed at the festival on a Native American master visual artist. 

The 2023 festival will launch with the Red Earth Award Ceremony and Celebration Dinner from 6:30 to 9 p.m. June 1 at the nearby Coles Gardens. (The Red Earth Parade is no longer part of the festival; for the past few years, it has been part of Red Earth FallFest, an Indigenous Peoples Day celebration in downtown OKC.)

Daily general admission wristbands for the Red Earth Festival are $15 per person, while two-day passes are $25. Children younger than 6 are admitted free with a paid adult. Tickets can be purchased in advance at https://redearth.org/pages/upcoming-festival.

Along with Red Earth activities, admission to the festival includes entrance to the National Cowboy Museum's exhibits, including its Native American gallery.

"Our collections ... show the importance of Native American heritage to the overall Western heritage story that we tell here. You don't have to look any further than our newly renovated Native American gallery," Spillman said. "It's an important part of our story ... and this is a nice extension of that."

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OKC museum hosts premier annual Western art show with Prix de West

Also on the first weekend of June, the 51st annual Prix de West Invitational Art Exhibition & Sale will open at the OKC museum, spotlighting nearly 300 works of art by about 100 artists from across the United States, plus a few international artists.

“With Prix de West and the Red Earth Festival converging at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum the same weekend, art collectors can experience and shop the best Native and Western art in the nation,” said Jeff Hargrave, president of the Red Earth Inc. board, in an email.

Since 1973, Western artists and art collectors have flocked to the National Cowboy Museum over the summer for the Prix de West, one of country's premier Western art exhibitions and sales.

"It showcases diverse interpretations of the West by some of the most talented artists in the world,” said National Cowboy Museum President and CEO Pat Fitzgerald in a statement. “Every work of art displayed in the show tells a story, and it’s amazing to see a visual representation of the artists’ experiences and relationship to this very special culture.”

The Prix de West exhibit will be on view to the public June 2-Aug. 6 with museum admission. The art sale weekend, featuring artist seminars, workshops, a cocktail reception, live auction and awards dinner, will be June 9-10.

The sale is the museum's largest annual fundraiser: It raised more than $4 million last year to support future exhibits and programming.

"The great thing about this show is it brings the best of the best right here to Oklahoma City. And it's not just for those who could purchase it, although we certainly appreciate that," Spillman said. "The art is purchased in early June but stays on exhibit for everyone to experience through the entire summer."

Photography comes into focus in summer at National Cowboy Museum

Later in summer, the National Cowboy Museum will unveil a pair of smaller exhibitions that focus on photography.

From July 1 to Oct. 15, "Wide West" will feature panoramic photographs from the museum's vast permanent collection. The exhibit also will provide a behind-the-scenes look at the efforts of the museum's Dickinson Research Center to preserve the photos for future generations.

"American Farmer," a traveling exhibit by celebrated portrait photographer Paul Mobley, will be on view from Aug. 25 to Oct. 18 at the OKC museum.

For more information, go to https://nationalcowboymuseum.org.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC's Cowboy Museum to host Red Earth, Chuck Wagon Fest, Prix de West