smART Space

An unforgettable art experience at Science Museum Oklahoma!

Art and science each provide a way for exploring and deepening our understanding of the world around us. Innovative and creative, artists and scientists have inspired each other for millennia. Explore that interaction through smART Space!

smART Space is located on the museum's second floor and overlooks the atrium. The gallery is committed to bringing Oklahomans a combination of art and science that isn't found anywhere else. Take an extra look — you never know what you might find.

Current and Upcoming Exhibitions

Tom Shannon "Atom Compass Array" at Science Museum Oklahoma

Tom Shannon: Universe in the Mind | Mind in the Universe

For more than 50 years, artist and inventor Tom Shannon has been exploring the intersections of art, science and technology in unexpected, mind-bending ways. Science Museum Oklahoma guests have the chance to experience his science-inspired art in a new exhibition now open in the museum’s smART Space galleries: “Tom Shannon: Universe in the Mind | Mind in the Universe.”

Shannon’s internationally-renowned work features sculpture that explores scientific themes and natural forces like magnetic fields, large-scale installations, paintings and numerous patented inventions like his synchronous world clock, a version of which is in the Smithsonian Institution’s collection. The smART Space exhibition is his first in Oklahoma and is open through Oct. 25, 2020.

Cosmic Culture at Science Museum Oklahoma

Cosmic Culture: Intersections of Art and Outer Space

Revolving around Jacob Hashimoto’s “The Other Sun,” a Minecraft-inspired installation made from 2,000 bamboo-and-paper kites, "Cosmic Culture: Intersections of Art and Outer Space" explores how space exploration and visual art have influenced each other. Circle the gallery and see 1940s and ‘50s prints from science fiction artist Chesley Bonestell — an inspiration to astronomer and astrophysicist Carl Sagan — alongside NASA images taken years later, historic star charts from around the world, planetary landscapes, the life cycle of stars, a mixed media installation from reclaimed materials, a feed of NASA images of the sun, and much more.

Featured contemporary artists include Carrie Dickason, Tulsa, Oklahoma; Cassandra Hanks, Los Angeles; Jacob Hashimoto, New York; Kysa Johnson, Los Angeles; and Darci Lenker, Norman, Oklahoma. Cosmic Culture is open through March 29, 2020.

Elemental Worlds

Step inside Elemental Worlds to explore your creative side! In this multimedia interactive art installation you'll use digital drawing tools to decorate and color one of 12 animals that will come to life in the 220-degree simulated digital forest — escape into creativity and relax with binaural frequencies, dynamic lighting, atmospheric effects, and the sounds of nature. The world resets every 15 minutes, but you can jump in at any time.

smART Space is an art gallery that focuses on the wonder that occurs when the fields of art and science collide.

The mission of the gallery is to help make science more accessible to everyone through science-related visual arts exhibitions.

The intrinsic relationship between art and science can expand upon what we know, and can act as a medium for exploring and forming new information and ideas.