Tours to art museums and wildlife areas are planned from January through March by the Center of Continuing Education and Community Services at East Central University. All tour prices include transportation, entrance fees and guide. Lunch is not included in the cost.
A Winter Eagle and Snow Geese Tour on Jan. 12 [SATURDAY] will provide an easy opportunity to see both Oklahoma eagles and waterfowl. The cost is $45.
Oklahoma is one of the "top 10" states for seeing wintering bald eagles. Participants will have a private eagle-spotting tour in the morning with a National Park Service interpreter on Lake Arbuckle and travel to the Tishomingo National Wildlife Refuge for an afternoon of watching snow geese.
They should wear layered clothing and bring a sack lunch. Binoculars are recommended, although spotting scopes will be provided at some stops.
During some winters, the Tishomingo refuge hosts up to 40,000 geese, including "blankets" of snow geese, as well as 80,000 ducks of more than 20 species and herds of up to 125 deer.
"From Turner to the Turning Points of American Art" on Feb. 16 will offer a chance to see two museums and art from both sides of the Atlantic. The cost is $70.
The "J.M.W. Turner" is the largest exhibit of Turner oils and watercolors ever to visit the United States. His landscapes inspired both the Impressionists of France and the Romantic era landscape painters of America.
The tour also will visit the new Meadows Museum in Dallas to see "Coming of Age, American Art, 1850s to 1950s" which traces the development of American art from Victorian era realism to the abstract art of post-war New York. Winslow Homer, J.M. Whistler, Georgia O'Keefe and Jackson Pollock are a few of the "giants" of American art represented in the exhibit.
The last trip is scheduled March 1 to what is called one of the most significant and inspiring art exhibits in a generation. "Picturing the Bible" traces the development of Christian illustration from the disguised symbols of a persecuted group to the treasures of a world religion. The cost is $70.
The Kimbell Museum developed and organized the exhibit and is its exclusive venue. Most of the objects have never been seen outside of the British Museum, the Vatican Museums and a few cathedral treasuries. The works range from simple clay lamps to original frescoes and sarcophagi to priceless objects of silver and ivory.
For additional information, call 580-559-5456.
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