At the University of Oklahoma’s Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, thoughtful, behind-the-scenes changes are building a sustainable future to preserve a world-class collection while deepening community connections.

Since fall 2024, the museum has shifted toward a more civic-style financial model, combining university support with earned revenue and private philanthropy. Reinstating admission fees, while carefully calibrated for visitor accessibility, has helped boost memberships.

“We increased our membership by about 20% since we started charging admission fees in October,” says the museum’s Wylodean and Bill Saxon Director, Thomas Brent Smith.

The museum has also reopened its beloved shop as a coffee-forward gathering space called Cup of Jones, offering merchandise and refreshments that draw in students, faculty and community members.

“The new shop has worked really well on several levels—for revenue, but also engagement,” Smith says. “There are students here all the time.”

Equally important are subtle improvements to the visitor experience, including a redesigned welcome desk and gallery hosts trained to engage guests. “We’re putting a lot of effort into making this a very welcoming place,” he says.

These efforts support a broader fundraising drive now in development to bolster the museum’s operations. 

Smith and his team are preparing to launch a new endowment campaign focused on sustaining the museum’s work long-term. “People have given very generously in the form of extraordinary collections and the bricks and mortar to hold them. What we’re working toward next is the funding to sustain them.

“The Fred Jones has among the very best collections of any art museum in a public university in the country,” says Smith. “The depth of the collection is extraordinary.”

From the acclaimed Weitzenhoffer Collection of French Impressionism to more than 6,000 works by Native American artists, the museum’s holdings are vast, varied and nationally significant, he says.

And yet, many Oklahomans are still surprised by the excellence of OU’s collections. “I jokingly tell people we’re like the OU softball of art museums,” Smith adds.

“I want us to become an indispensable museum, so people in Norman wouldn’t comprehend the idea of not having the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art in their community.”

Sara Morrell Cowan is assistant editor of  Sooner Magazine.

To comment on this story, click here.