The Philbrook Museum of Art is one Tulsa’s great treasures. It not only has fine art inside the building but very nice gardens with a wide variety of sculpture outside.
They have recently added something that now makes the museum perfect. They have their own geocache. Geocaching is fully described here. Basically, you try and find a hidden container given its coordinates. The Philbrook geocache is named “muse” and its geocache page is here. It is a mystery cache which means that the coordinates given are not the actual coordinates. To get the actual coordinates you have to solve a series of puzzles which involve collecting clues from the various sculptures in the gardens at the museum. It is fun.
So I used my lunch hour to go find it one pretty day last week. What a treat.
“Prayer” by Alan Houser, a native American artist. You know, four months I had never heard of him, now I see his work all over the place, including our Oklahoma license plates.
The Tempietto on the grounds. I like that word. I hope to use it playing Scrabble one day. That would be worth a lot of points.
They had two satyrs, this one and a male. I like the female satyrs best for some reason.
This was my most startling find. I came up on it and I thought, “The leaves are huge, and they haven’t fallen.” It’s actually a sculpture. There are four “trees” in all in the piece, you can see two more up the hill to the right. You can barely see the fourth at the top of the hill.” The leaves are glass attached to the steel “tree.” I loved this. It is titled “Oklahoma Autumn” by Eric Baker.
This piece is called “Negative Tree” by Menashe Kadishman.
Other various images from that noon hour.
Did I find the cache?
Of course I did, but the fun was in the looking, the finding was just a bonus.
My wonderful MIL, Nana, got me a one year membership to the museum for Christmas. I’ll be spending a lot of time there. Outside with my camera when the weather is nice.
For other views of our world please check out “That’s My World“
Thanks for an excellent post from one of my favorite Tulsa places. Philbrook has so much to see, even Geocaches!
What a fascinating place! Love all your photos! Really intriguing! The trees with the leaf like attachments — amazing! And, of course, I’m glad you found the Geocache!! Love the reflections of The Tempietto! And yes, that would be a great Scrabble word! Have a great week, Yogi!
Sylvia
This is definitely a treasure. Each of the shots of this museum are simply superb.
These are wonderful sculptures. Treasures upon treasures here.
Interesting place! I think the Tulsa Gentleman mentioned it once but I don’t remember the statue. I like the art!
What’s the art on the license plate you mentioned? Don’t think I have ever seen one from Oklahoma.
You found the geocache and all the treasures of the museum! That’s a successful day! Loved all your photos.
Well that’s just great, we spent a wonderful day there a couple of years ago and it’s a fab museum.
Shots to be treasured for sure.
Great photos!
This has been a fantastic tour.
Sydney – City and Suburbs
That first statue is stunning!
Amazing photos!!!
What a wonderful place to have in your World. Love the sculptures, especially those autumn trees. Glad you found the cache!
Excellent photos of truly one of Tulsa’s crown jewels. Well done.
I LOVE this post. I really need to stop in Tulsa one of these days. I wonder if there is a letterbox there… or if I should put one there. That gazebo needs to be carved into a stamp!
Interesting place … nice pictures! Thanks for visiting!
Philbrook is definitely a huge gift to Tulsa. I just wanted to let your readers know that if they would like more info on artist Eric Baker (the creator of the Oklahoma Autumn sculpture set), they can visit his site at http://www.ArtistEricBaker.com
Thanks !
Hey Marshall, thanks for the link. I’ve added it as hypertext to Eric Baker’s name in the post.