Oklahoma City Museum of Art

A surprisingly strong art museum for a city this size. The permanent collection runs from European Old Masters through American post-war painting, and there is a particularly good gallery of contemporary photography on the third floor. The Chihuly collection — twenty-two works by the glass artist, including the enormous tower in the rotunda — is the standout, and worth the visit on its own.

The museum is small enough to do thoroughly in two hours. The ground-floor cinema is one of Oklahoma's main venues for independent and foreign films, and the rooftop terrace offers good views over the downtown skyline. Closed Mondays.

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The museum's signature piece is Dale Chihuly's 'Eleanor Blake Kirkpatrick Memorial Tower', a 16-metre column of 2,400 hand-blown glass elements that fills the museum's central atrium. The tower is the largest single Chihuly sculpture in any permanent collection — Chihuly himself said the rotunda was 'made for' it.

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