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Posts tagged ‘Norman’

Coffee Around the OU Campus

Miss Mae is back for a review of the coffee shops around campus. Since the newest coffee shop on campus, Cup of Jones in the Fred Jones Jr Museum of Art, just opened this week, she hasn’t had a chance to visit. Hope to get an update from her soon.

Campus Coffee Shops

            At the University of Oklahoma, there are a number of coffee shops both on and off campus that offer a morning pick-me-up to the students. No matter where you enter the campus, or where your class or other activity is located, you are never far from a caffeine fix. This is a comprehensive list of every place at and around the University of Oklahoma that sells coffee, whether that be their primary product or part of a larger menu.

            Couch Restaurants: Sooner Sweet Shop – Couch Cafeteria has a number small restaurants within it and one of these is Sooner Sweet Shop, which primarily provides bakery style treats and a small selection of hand scooped ice creams. However, this is also the only place in Couch where you can get a coffee, both drip and espresso. This, like every other coffee option on the campus, is a branch of Starbucks, making it the cheapest Starbucks drink you will ever get, as it comes with the price of admission to the cafeteria. Though they do not offer most of the menu, or even iced drinks, it is a good place to get a mocha or hot chocolate on a snowy day. However, with the brewed coffee, the only creamer option is half and half. If you are not a fan of bitter brewed coffee, I recommend getting it somewhere else, or using one of the hot chocolate packets to sweeten it up.

            Residential Colleges Dining Hall – The Residential Colleges Dining Hall, though it does not have an independent coffee shop within it, does offer drip coffee throughout the day. They often offer two flavors, regular and roasted hazelnut, with the roasted hazelnut having a pleasantly sweet taste. Like Couch, the options for cream and sugar are limited, with those limitations expanding even further due to the crimes of the Coffee Creamer Bandit, whose actions, though irrelevant to this review, caused all liquid creamer to be kept in a secure location and only available upon request. However, just like Couch, it is always an option to pour a hot chocolate packet into the cup if you need something a little sweeter.

            The Hive – The Hive is the newest coffee shop on campus, having opened with the rest of the restaurants in Cross Village just a few years ago. It is a small, unofficial Starbucks with the theme of a beehive. The best thing about this place is its atmosphere. If I was asked to draw a picture of what a coffee shop would look like, this would most likely be my answer, with dim lighting and warm wood covering most of the walls and furniture. The coffee itself is good, as are the pastries and sandwiches that are also offered. It is one of the best managed places in Cross Village, so it is kept clean and the employees are kept orderly. The only thing that interrupts its atmosphere is the chaos of Basic Knead, which shares a building, as it tends to get very busy and very noisy, which makes it difficult to concentrate if you are studying or doing homework.

            Bookmark – Bookmark is a small coffee shop nestled in the basement of the Bizzell Memorial Library. It is incredibly similar to The Hive in terms of its menu, as it is also an unofficial Starbucks, and therefore has many of the same products. It is the best managed restaurant on the entire campus and is kept very clean with very friendly employees. Just like The Hive, the best thing about this shop is the atmosphere, not just in its dining room, but in its entire location. There are seating options throughout the entire basement, with a dining room, an area with study pods and group study rooms, and long couches overlooking the gardens in the library courtyard, where there are regularly blooming flowers and baby ducks in a little pond. It is always a good place to stop and get some homework done before or in between classes. They also offer Cow on the Fly sandwiches, in which there is no bad flavor.

            Starbucks – Despite the many other places that offer Starbucks products throughout campus, there is only one official Starbucks, and that is the one in the student union. At this location, they offer the entire menu, as well as a collection of cups and ground coffee bags, which can also be purchased with student meal points. It is a neat and tidy location, with the same warm atmosphere as The Hive. Although the seating is limited, getting there at the right time of day offers a quiet place to study, as well as having the dining room of The Union Market available for overflow if it gets busy. It is always a good end of the week treat on a Friday morning.

            Einstein Brothers Bagel Company – Einstein Brothers Bagel Company is one of the best coffee shops on campus, the only one not sponsored by Starbucks, and the only one that is regularly open on weekends. Offering an assortment of bagel flavors, as well as cream cheese toppings, sandwich toppings, and wraps, it is always a good place to grab breakfast. Their coffee is good for any season, offering both hot and iced drinks, although their espresso machine is comparable to the ice cream machine at McDonald’s in its inconsistency. However, their chocolate cream cold brew is incredibly good, and is very sweet for cold brew. I would compare it more closely to chocolate milk with a lot of caffeine. I personally always enjoy a six-cheese bagel with onion and chive cream cheese, of which they provide plenty.

            Haystack Coffee – Haystack Coffee is the only coffee shop on this list that is not on campus and does not accept student meal points or exchanges. It is a shop run by a local church but is so close to campus that it is only a brief ten-minute walk from most dorm buildings. Despite not being a campus specific spot, it is very friendly to students and every experience I have had there has been a good one. Their biggest flaw is an inconsistent menu. My favorite thing there, the cheddar roll, has not been available in a year, and my second favorite thing, the caramel apple pecan scone, has only been available on select days. Their baked goods are minimal, but are always good, especially after being warmed up. I also recommend any of their seasonal drinks.

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Food, Oklahoma, Oklahoma food

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University of Oklahoma Campus Restaurants

With school about to start in Norman at The University of Oklahoma, I have let Miss Mae, a senior at that fine school, take over. She knows this campus pretty well and loves talking about the restaurants. So if you visit the campus or if you have students there, check out this review. Enjoy and Boomer Sooner.

Cafeterias

Couch Cafeteria – Couch Cafeteria is the largest and the oldest of the cafeterias on campus. It features an assortment of small restaurants offering a variety of dining options, including barbecue, Asian, Mexican, American comfort food, Italian, Greek, and the world’s only all-you-can-eat Chick Fil A. There are also two dessert options: Sooner Sweets, which offers bakery-style desserts, and a small ice cream booth. Each restaurant is unique and offers its own standout dishes. I personally enjoy the beef and cheese burritos from the Mexican booth, which also has good beef empanadas. I also enjoy the buffet style American section, which offers a build-your-own hot dog station and mac and cheese that always makes a bad day better. Couch Cafeteria – 9/10

Residential Colleges Dining Hall – The Residential Colleges Dining Hall, as the name implies, is connected to the Residential Colleges, Dunham College and Headington College. Though much smaller than Couch, this cafeteria is able to make use of its small space to give diners plenty of options. These include two made-to-order grills, where burgers and hot dogs can be ordered, a personal pizza station, a pasta bake station, a burrito station, and a panini station. Outside of this is the buffet style section, which includes a menu that rotates daily. I personally recommend the chicken enchiladas and the orange chicken, which are some of my favorites to get on a weekend visit. The atmosphere is flawless, often considered similar to Hogwarts. Residential Colleges Dining Hall – 9.5/10

Cross Village

Credo Kitchen – Credo Kitchen is a restaurant that offers basic American comfort food, with an emphasis on the word “basic”. As a person that once worked there, I can tell you that the kitchens are not the cleanest place in the world, and the food tends to taste like broken dreams and sadness. In the past few years, their menu has dropped to very few things (mostly due to their inability to keep the place staffed), leaving diners with very few options. The burgers taste like cardboard, partially due to the lack of spices kept in the kitchens, and partially due to the unbuttered, grocery store brand toasted buns. The chicken strips and the corn dogs begin their lives in the frozen food aisle before they are dumped in a deep fryer and paired with a side of unsalted fries or a tiny cup of mac and cheese that tastes like undercooked noodles dumped in a pot of melted Kraft singles. I have heard reports of people that enjoy this place but I am unable to understand the appeal. However, as long as the kitchen is not on fire and the ticket printer is actually working, they will be quick with your order. Credo Kitchen – 2/10

Glow Kitchen – Glow Kitchen is Cross’ version of the American health food restaurant, offering salads, wraps, and smoothies. Most of the wraps consist of chicken and lettuce, with varying toppings to give different flavors. However, Glow Kitchen’s biggest wrap flaw is lack of any form of customization. The workers are not allowed to add anything or to substitute anything which, according to the management, is due to the high price of the ingredients. The salads, on the other hand, are fully customizable, only for the smoothies to be subjected to the same policy. If you are planning to grab lunch from Glow Kitchen, make sure you are a fan of lettuce, as there is a very high lettuce ratio in everything but the smoothies. I recommend the chicken bacon ranch wrap. Glow Kitchen – 4/10

Milkflower Gelateria – There is not much to say about Milkflower Gelateria. It is a small gelato place and is immensely popular amongst the student body. Its weakness: it is almost never open. It is often teased at the beginning of the year, remaining open for the camps and trainings that go on before classes start, but once everything stabilizes into the school year, we are lucky if it is open once a week. Whether this is due to supply issues, maintenance issues, lack of profitability, or some other factor, it is an event when it is open. If you catch it at one of these times, I recommend the espresso mocha flavor. Milkflower Gelateria – 7/10

Basic Knead – Basic Knead is, in the opinion of this exhausted college student, the best place to eat on the entire campus. It is a restaurant offering personal pizzas, pasta bakes, calzones, and wings, with the pasta bakes taking the crown as the best food available at the school and, quite possibly, the best food available at any school all around the country. What makes these dishes so wonderful is the layer of cheese that is baked over the top, as well as full customization options. You can pick your pasta, sauce, and three toppings, and every dish comes with a healthy serving of that wonderful mozzarella. Basic Knead – 1000/10

Student Union

Quiznos – Offers full Quiznos menu. Quick Service. Quiznos – 10/10

Chick Fil A – Offers limited Chick Fil A menu. Quick Service. Chick Fil A – 10/10

Baja Fresh – Offers full Baja Fresh menu. Quick Service – Baja Fresh – 10/10

Crossroads – Crossroads is a burger restaurant and one of the oldest surviving food locations on campus. Offering a full range of food from burgers to steak fingers, Philly cheese steaks to grilled cheeses, Crossroads is a quick and easy place to get a good lunch in-between classes. I have many go-to meals here, with my personal favorite being the mushroom Swiss burger. There are so many mushrooms on this burger that it is almost impossible to see the meat beneath them. My other favorite meal from here is the steak finger basket. It comes with five juicy steak fingers, a pile of curly fries (the restaurant’s staple), and a choice of sauce. I usually choose the barbecue sauce, but I have been told that the honey mustard is also very good. Most meals here come with a drink, but a substitution for a milkshake is also very good. Crossroads – 11/10

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Food, Oklahoma

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Food Friday: The Ice Creamatory

Not going to lie to my readers, I am actually kind of a morbid, dark person. I absolutely love Halloween. Not too big on “horror” movies though, most are actually funny to me. So imagine how excited I was to find out there was a horror-Halloween themed ice cream shop in Norman, Oklahoma.

Located not far from campus, The Ice Creamatory has excellent ice cream even if you aren’t into spooky. The soft serve ice cream is blended with whatever you want in it, with a drizzle and a topping. They have a make your own option or try one of the mixes off the menu. On my visit, I tried the Stutsman Scare- Oreos and cookie dough, topped with brownie bites, sprinkles, and chocolate drizzle, all in chocolate ice cream. I felt like I fell into a chocolate heaven. It was so good. Because of how well they mix the ice cream and the add-ins, every bite has an interesting mix of flavors. Sometimes you get more Oreo, or cookie dough, and the toppings also helped bring out the chocolatiness of every bite.

Now this was my first visit and I hope to stop by more often. The decor is horror themed, they do have a 12 foot skeleton in the corner, skull lights, and horror movie posters all over the restaurant. The seating is all informal, more of a place to meet and have dessert with friends or family. It’s actually not far from where I lived as a student at OU in the early 1990’s, wish it had been there then, I would have walked over there every day. It’s a bit hard to find, their only signage is on the windows of the building. After you turn onto SE 12th, go past the CVS on the corner to the big business/apartment complex. It’s near the end of the complex. So get over any fears you may have of horror and check this place out. I give them 5 strips of bacon served in a coffin.

Address: 1200 SE 12th Ave., Norman.

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Oklahoma

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Food Friday: The Brown Bag

I love nothing more than discovering small, locally owned restaurants. Norman has a lot but I don’t always get down there (even with a daughter at OU), so I have made it a mission to try these new places in Norman. The Brown Bag just opened a few months ago on Robinson and it is a must try if you visit Norman.

Located in a strip mall on the west side of Brookhaven Village, it sits close to Robinson so you can’t miss it. We visited on a Sunday afternoon and they were pretty busy, cars lined up at the window and plenty of people inside. Even with the large crowd, we got our orders quickly. I tried the bacon cheese burger with a side of onion rings. Big K got the Boomer burger and tried the fries. My burger was good, loved the melted cheddar cheese and crisp veggies. Their choice of bacon really complimented the burger, had a smoky flavor to it. I really enjoyed the onion rings; big, hand battered in a light flour. They were crisp and flavorful. I also loved the crinkle cut fries, thick-cut with a seasoning covering them, so crisp but soft inside. Big K really liked his Boomer burger, said the sauce was unique, a mix of barbeque sauce with a touch of tomato added to it.

Overall, I really liked The Brown Bag. The prices weren’t outrageous and the food was good. They also serve tacos and chicken strips, I’ll have to try those the next time. I’ll give it 5 strips of bacon.

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Food, Norman, Oklahoma, Oklahoma food

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Food Friday: The Mont

As a little girl growing up in Norman, we would pass the newly opened restaurant called The Mont all the time.  I could see the glow of lights coming through the stained glass windows and wanted to go inside.  My mother would tell me, decent people don’t go there, so my hopes of visiting were dashed.  Later as a student at OU in the early 1990’s, I still wanted to go but it seemed like a party place.  Even though it had that reputation, I also knew members of the Norman police department gathered there every Saturday to drink.  I really then just forgot about it until recently with my own daughter a student at OU.  Finally, back in December we stopped, it was so good I wish I had gone earlier.

The architecture of the building is what gets your attention first, a low Spanish style building with lots of stained-glass windows.  A patio out front gives diners a chance to enjoy the nice weather, or you can enter through a medieval looking wooden door to the main dining room.  Their menu ranges from burgers and sandwiches to Tex-Mex.  We ordered a couple of things to start with, the fried cheese and fried mushrooms. They were both good. I got the Mont burger with bacon and cheese. Not a bad burger, had a great taste with lots of fresh veggies. Mae got a French dip with a side of mac and cheese (of course). She loved the sandwich but the baked mac and cheese really won her over. A melty cheese top with creamy cheese inside, I had a bite and it was really good. Big K had the green Chile burrito that comes with beans, rice and chips. He really loved the burrito, lots of queso over it. He said the beans and rice were good. I had a couple of the chips, they were light and crispy. Now it was the afternoon, so I didn’t try the famous Sooner Swirl but I will.

The Mont has been a staple in Norman since it opened on Halloween of 1976. The building is much older, of course. The first business I found mentioned is the Monterrey Restaurant. This operated from 1943- 1969. A German restaurant called Volkstube occupied the building for a short time then Hacienda Hernandez took over in 1972. This restaurant survived for a couple of years before turning into Joe’s Bar & Grill which only lasted a year. After all these years the Mont is the place to see and be seen. I’ve heard all the drunk stories from friends who had a few too many while enjoying the atmosphere. I’m sure it does still get crazy on game days but it was quiet while we were there. I would like to go again now that the weather is nice, just to enjoy the good food outdoors. So if you are in Norman, give this legendary restaurant a try. I give them 5 strips of bacon.

Address: 1300 Classen Blvd., Norman.

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Food, Norman, Oklahoma, Oklahoma food, University of Oklahoma

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Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History

If you want to learn about Oklahoma’s history way before it became a state, take a trip to the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. Here you can see dinosaurs, get an idea of current animals native to the state, and learn about the history of the natives who lived here before us.

Opened on May 1, 2000, this museum is popular with schools and any parents who have dinosaur loving children. There is so much to learn here as well. Upstairs is the Hall of the People of Oklahoma exhibit, here you can learn about the residents in Oklahoma over the past 36,000 years. There are clovis tools on display along with a map showing where these items were found. Spiro Mounds is also featured prominently in this exhibit, with several items that were unearthed from the mounds in the late 1930’s. There are reproductions of Native homes and transportation as well as artifacts from those who lived here many thousands of years ago.

Another part of the museum is the Hall of Natural Wonders which has taxidermy of animals that are native to Oklahoma. It’s a nice way for kids to get up close to an animal. They have been placed in settings that are natural to their habitat.

Of course, the big draw to the museum are the dinosaurs. The Hall of Ancient Life where you can trace the history of the Earth from formation. You can see the different time periods that dinosaurs roamed the lands. They do have the largest skull on record for the Pentaceratops. You can also get in the elevator and see the Apatosaurus looking at you. Several of the smaller dinosaurs were unearthed in the Tillman County area of southwest Oklahoma. I like to make the joke that some of them were pets that my dad had.

The long history of the museum goes back to 1899 when the territorial legislature created the Department of Geology and Natural History. The first curator of the museum was Dr. Albert Heald Van Fleet, who spent much of his time collecting artifacts. There were 2 fires, the first in 1903, the second in 1918, that damaged much of the collection. But professors at the University of Oklahoma kept collecting and displaying artifacts in buildings around campus. After many attempts to fund a proper museum, this museum found a home in 1947. Housed in former military buildings on Asp Avenue, south of the main campus, it became the Stovall Museum of Science and History. Named after Dr. J Willis Stovall who came to the university in 1930 and helped fight for funding to house the collection. While the collection grew, there was a danger of the artifacts being destroyed by fire or water, so in 1991 the city of Norman passed a bond that helped the state fund the new building. The new building is named after Samuel Noble, an oilman from Ardmore.

I always enjoyed the Stovall Museum and now enjoy this new museum as well. I encourage all to visit if they are in Norman. It is a fun way to learn about the early history of Oklahoma.

Address: 2401 Chautauqua Ave., Norman.

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Norman, Oklahoma, University of Oklahoma

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Food Friday: The Hive

So I mentioned in my review of The Bookmark Cafe that my daughter, Mae, worked here on her first semester at OU. The Hive is a small cafe in a larger complex called Cross Village. In this same building is Acre Provisions, a grocery store just for college kids, and Basic Knead, a walk-up restaurant that serves pizza and pasta. All 3 spaces run together on the ground floor with apartment-like dorm rooms above.

The Hive is set up the same way The Bookmark Cafe is- they serve different coffee drinks along with light snacks. There is plenty of space to sit, not only indoors but in the outdoors area as well. They are also in Starbucks “We Proudly Serve” program, so you will get drinks like you find at Starbucks. You will also find students working here as well. All of the times we stopped by in the fall of 2021, we had great service and the drinks were always good. I will also give them 5 strips of bacon. They are located south of Lindsay Street on Asp in the Cross Village complex (southeast of the towers). Can’t really see it from the road, if you find Acre Provisions, it’s around the corner.

Now a bit of the history behind The Hive- Cross Village was opened in the fall of 2018. It was a new concept at OU, the dorm apartments were on the top floors while the ground level was just for restaurants, shops, and other businesses. This was originally to cater to upper-class students at OU. Cross Village is further south of the well-known dorm buildings Walker, Adams, and Couch, so the older students weren’t as close to the younger freshmen. Cross Village took the place of the original Cross Center, “The Men’s Quadrangle” dormitory built in 1952. Cross Center had fallen into disrepair and was mostly used as storage, so then a plan was developed in 2016 to replace the older buildings. Cross Village was supposed to be a public-private collaboration but by the end of the first full school year there were clear problems. Cross Village never filled to full occupancy with only 30 percent of the units rented out to students. With a legal dispute now on the horizon, all restaurants and shops were closed on July 30, 2019. Over the next two school years, there was plenty of legal wrangling and by May 2021 a new entity stepped up to help the university run Cross Village. To get the occupancy up, freshmen were now allowed to move into the new complex. After a two-year absence, all restaurants and shops were able to reopen. The Hive has stayed busy throughout this time, catering to students who live on campus. (If you want a full run down on all the legal and financial information, just Google it. I could write a book with all that went down in the building of Cross Village.)

Category:

Food, Norman, Oklahoma, Oklahoma food, University of Oklahoma

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Food Friday: The Bookmark Cafe

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you would know that my contributing writer Mae has been absent. Well, she had to get through a rigorous high school schedule and now that she has graduated (PC Pirate class of ’21) she is studying at the great University of Oklahoma (proud 3rd generation Sooner). To help pay for this new adventure in education, she is working for food services as a barista. Her first semester she spent at The Hive, a coffee shop on south campus (more on it in another post) but now she is at The Bookmark Cafe in the first lower level of Bizzell Memorial Library.

This is just a small coffee shop, very similar to the ones you see in bookstores, where they have coffee, lattes, frappuccinos, along with light sandwiches and pastries. Last Sunday was my first visit and I was impressed, the space that had once been where the newspapers and magazines were kept was transformed into a study lounge with separate rooms for groups. Bookmark Cafe has a large area with tables and booths for group or individual study. They are part of Starbucks “We Proudly Serve” program, where they do serve up the same drinks that you can find at a Starbucks. Many of the pastries are cooked on site with the salads and sandwiches coming from Cow On the Fly. I didn’t get a chance to try any of the food yet, because of the snowstorm the previous week, the food delivery hadn’t come in yet. The double chocolate chip frappuccino that I had was awesome though. The staff is all students, they were all friendly and happy to be at Bookmark.

Now for some history- there was nothing like this when I was a student at OU in the early 1990’s (BA in Journalism, ’94). The coffee shop craze hadn’t hit Oklahoma yet. I guess there were some around but to me, coffee was just something that my grandparents drank. I had never heard of a frappuchino, latte, or macchiato. Bizzell Memorial Library was built in 1928 for the growing university and expanded, first in 1958, then again in 1982. Lower level 1 is part of the 1982 addition. Like I mentioned earlier, it held the periodicals. I used to sit at the microfilm readers and journey through the past with their newspaper collection. The Bookmark Cafe officially opened for the spring semester 1998 to give students a quiet place to study. The official grand opening was held on February 11, 1998 (I didn’t know this information until Wednesday of this week as I was researching, so the fact I’m publishing this on the same date 24 years later is just a coincidence). In August of 2013 construction began to transform the space into the study area it is now, Bookmark Cafe was temporarily moved but returned to its now larger location in September 2014 with a ceremony held on November 7, 2014, to mark the reopening of the lower level. In March 2020, it closed, not to reopen until January 2022.

Overall I will give them 5 strips of bacon, just for the fact that my child works there, but I would like to try more of their menu items. Project for the rest of the semester. So if you find yourself in Norman and near campus, stop into the historic library and grab a treat.

Advertisement in the OU Daily February 11, 1998.

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Food, National Register of Historic Places, Norman, Oklahoma, Oklahoma food, Oklahoma history, University of Oklahoma

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Taking 2 Pre-Teens to the Fred Jones Jr. Art Museum

A few weeks ago I decided to do something crazy, I took my daughter, Mae, and her best friend, Bubbles, to the Fred Jones Jr. Art Museum in Norman.  If you don’t know Norman, the museum is located on the campus of the University of Oklahoma, it sits on the southeast corner of Boyd Street and Elm Avenue.  Now my daughter had been there before, a few years ago they had a temporary exhibit of Disney animation but this was Bubbles first visit.

The museum has an interesting mix of art work, from African statues, to Japanese woodblock prints, to American Indian pottery, to the masters like Van Gogh, Renoir and Monet.  On this trip they were also having a limited time showing of the works of Oscar B. Jacobson (more on him later).  The girls at least stopped and looked at most of the exhibits, there were some they liked more than others.  The contemporary art on the lower floor was really what they liked the most, especially the interactive exhibits like the one that you blow into and the art changes.  I was able to have some fun at their expense when I went into the gallery that apparently had a sign saying that the material might not be suitable for younger people.  I didn’t see the sign and was halfway down the gallery when a painting with male parts was right in front of me.  Now the girls had been behind me and one of them let out a gasp, before I knew it they were both running out of the gallery.  I tried and tried to get them to come back (all while laughing at them) but they both had red cheeks from embarrassment.

The best part to me was the glass displays on the main floor as well as the exhibit of Oscar B. Jacobson.  I had heard about him but never had the chance to see his work until this visit.  Why would I have heard of him, I’m no art expert but I am a history lover and I knew he was the first director of the School of Art at the University of Oklahoma.  He took over that position in 1916 and held it until 1954.   He also founded the University of Oklahoma Museum of Art in 1936 in what is now called Jacobson Hall on the North Oval of the campus.  He was a painter who specialized in southwestern landscapes.  I’m no art critic and can only draw stick people on a good day, but his work really stood out to me for his use of brighter colors to showcase the scenery of Oklahoma, Colorado, and New Mexico.  I’m not big on landscapes but these were really nice.

Fred Jones art museum at OU 2

I know that some of you might want to know, why the name changed?  It became the Fred Jones Jr. Memorial Art center in 1971 after Mr. and Mrs. Fred Jones (yeah, the Ford people here in OKC) donated the money for the museum.  It officially became the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art in 1992.  In 2005 a new addition, the Lester Wing, named for Howard and Mary Lester, was added and in 2011, the Stuart Wing was opened as well.  So who was Fred Jones Jr.?  He was the son of the aforementioned Jones’s.  He had been killed in a plane crash in Arkansas around Christmas 1950.  He was a senior at OU after serving in World War II.

So what is my recommendation any kid who is interested in art will like this museum, no matter the age.  But I think even then waiting until they are maybe around 8 would be good.  Anything younger than that and they might get bored real quick.  It was a nice, quiet visit.  The staff was very friendly and more than happy to talk about the artwork on display.  Best part of the whole trip was- it’s Free.  That’s right, free.  Thanks to a gift from the OU Athletics Department, it is free for everyone.

 

Address: 555 Elm Avenue, Norman, OK

 

Category:

Art museum, Oklahoma, University of Oklahoma

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