“Roman Art from the Louvre” surpasses 70,000 visitors for Oklahoma City Museum of Art
”Portrait of Lucilla” from the “Roman Art from the Louvre” exhibit, which closed Sunday at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. (Photo by Jim Beckel/The Oklahoman)
From Wednesday’s The Oklahoman.
Roman exhibit’s fall helps museum’s rise
The Roman Empire proved a mighty draw for the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.
Attendance for the special exhibition “Roman Art from the Louvre” surpassed 70,000 visitors, breaking museum records and exceeding expectations, said Executive Director Carolyn Hill.
“It was phenomenal,” she said. “It’s very clearly a record.”
The special exhibit, the largest and most esteemed in the museum’s history, opened in mid-June. The museum’s goal was 50,000 visitors, but 57,000 turned out by the end of September.
More than 2,400 people attended Sunday, the exhibit’s final day, when the museum is only open four hours.
“That would be comparable to the day we were closing out the Chihuly exhibit, when we had lines down the block. We had those lines (Sunday), ran out of parking and had lines down the block,” Hill said.
“Dale Chihuly: An Inaugural Exhibition,” which opened the museum’s new downtown building in 2002, drew nearly 70,000 visitors, including an estimated 3,000 on its final day.
While the museum eventually bought the Chihuly exhibit for its permanent collection, curators from the Louvre, representatives from the American Federation of Arts in New York and riggers from Chicago arrived Monday to help museum staff take down “Roman Art from the Louvre.”
Oklahoma City was the third and final U.S. stop for the exhibit, which now returns to France.
“I think we helped establish that midsize museums … can in fact demonstrate the desire for the highest quality exhibitions and can accommodate them. I think there’s no question that we have traversed from one standard to another, one level of excellence to another,” Hill said.
Visitors came from all 77 Oklahoma counties, all 50 states and about 40 different countries to see the 184 sculptures, sarcophagi, jewelry and other works.
Turnout was especially high the last four days of the exhibit, with daily attendance reaching 2,200 on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, leading up to the big final day.
On Saturday afternoon, people of all ages waited in line at the museum’s front desk and then crowded into the second-floor and ground-floor galleries housing the sprawling exhibit.
Sheri Blaylock and her children, Ben, 12, and Megan, 9, were among the many visitors who made the trip Saturday from Tulsa. Her daughter’s gifted class at Sapulpa’s Woodlawn Elementary had visited the exhibit on a field trip, but the girl wanted to see it again.
“I think it’s amazing. I’ve only seen pictures and the pictures don’t do it justice. You can see the flowing in the robes … and it looks like it’s going to move. And the details in the fingers and the toes and the hair, it’s absolutely beautiful,” Blaylock said.
Megan admired a finely engraved silver hand mirror, while Ben was impressed with a mosaic of rams’ heads.
“We felt like this was a once-in-a-lifetime,” their mom said. “We might never, ever see this again.”
For Oklahoma City resident Peggy Ross, who came with her daughter and granddaughter, the prestigious exhibit sparked community pride.
“I think it’s excellent. It’s so moving. It’s inspiring. We’ll never get a chance to see this again probably,” said the first-time visitor to the museum. “I am glad I got to see it before it leaves.”
-BAM
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