Nineteen works of art that lived through the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building are headed back to where it all happened.
This week, the pieces were carefully taken down from the University of Central Oklahoma’s Chambers Library and transported to the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum. For now, they are not going straight onto the walls. Instead, they are going into dark storage while conservators assess and stabilize them, a kind of quiet rehab for some very battered survivors.
The University of Central Oklahoma says the transfer took place June 24–26 and that the artworks will spend at least a year in controlled dark storage to preserve fragile textiles and mixed-media pieces, according to the University of Central Oklahoma. UCO’s announcement notes the Murrah Collection, which includes tapestries, quilts, ceramics, metalwork and photographs, has been on display at the Chambers Library for more than two decades and has doubled as a teaching resource for students.
New Foreword Lobby Brings Survivor Art Back Home
The museum plans to feature the pieces in a new lobby called Foreword and has already started moving the works back to the property where the Murrah building once stood, as reported by KOSU. Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum director Kari Watkins told KOSU, "We wanted to think about bringing that artwork back all together," framing the move as a long-awaited reunion on the site itself.
Lupita Gonzales of UCO’s archives called the surviving pieces "really inspiring" for what they reveal about resilience. KOSU’s coverage highlights items such as Terrie Mangat’s "Oklahoma Quilt," Joyce Pardington’s "Canyon Wall #2" and other fiber hangings. Specialized art-moving crews handled the transfer, and staff expect the museum to exhibit roughly half the collection in Foreword once conservation work is complete.
From Federal Commission To Carefully Guarded Collection
The Murrah Collection remains part of the General Services Administration’s Fine Arts holdings and was originally commissioned through GSA’s Art in Architecture program in the 1970s, according to GSA. GSA records describe how dozens of works were recovered after the April 19, 1995 attack that killed 168 people and how the agency later stabilized and loaned many of the surviving pieces to the Chambers Library as part of long-term preservation efforts.
Museum Stays Open While Foreword Takes Shape
The Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum says construction on Foreword is underway, but the museum remains open to visitors while crews work on subsurface and structural elements. Stem walls were poured in late June, the museum’s project page notes, which means progress is happening even if most of it is still out of public view.
The Memorial & Museum is asking visitors for patience during occasional noisy work and says it will keep posting updates as installation and conservation move forward. So for now, the art is back where it began, quietly resting in the dark, waiting for its next chapter in the public eye.
