In January 2005 the newly expanded Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art opened its doors and welcomed the public back into a space that has not only grown larger, but has broadened the museum's capabilities to educate, enrich, and enthrall museum visitors.

Designed by Washington, D.C., architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen, the new Fred Jones is a fusion of remarkable collections and superb architecture, which would be at home in New York or Los Angeles, but instead is located almost midway between the cities in the heart of Oklahoma.

The spectacular new Mary & Howard Lester Wing is a matrix of ten light filled pavilions, which showcase the works Degas, Monet, Renoir, and others in intimate domestic-scale galleries. A tenth pavilion, located at the far west end of the structure, serves as the museum's new main entrance on Elm Avenue. Known as an architect of supreme elegance, Jacobsen has said that the magic of the building is the light, which emanates from the glass pyramids at the apex of each roofline and from the glass corridors that connect the galleries.

In addition to French Impressionism, the new wing hosts dozens of works by American artists including Edward Hopper, Stuart Davis, Georgia O'Keeffe, Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Moran, and John Singleton Copley.   A rich variety of Asian sculpture and Persian miniatures are also part of the permanent collection, as are notable modern and contemporary works by artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Robert Smithson, Dieter Roth, Barbara Hepworth, and Kiki Smith.

A freshly renovated and expanded East Building of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art provides a home for the outstanding collections of American Indian and Southwestern art, and for remarkable holdings of 19th and 20th century photography and 16th through 19th century Greek and Russian icons.

"There is no question that this museum has one of the best university collections, public or private, in the United States," says Eric M. Lee, Director of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art.

The ground floor of the new wing features galleries dedicated to the Weitzenhoffer Collection, American art, Asian art, and a select number of works of African sculpture. Also on the ground floor are an orientation room and the museum store. The lower level houses an open, loft like gallery (which is especially suitable for larger-scale contemporary art), an auditorium and classrooms.