Local Family Fun Murals & Masterpieces on the Move Uncover OKC’s colorful, creative public art in unexpected places ARTICLE BY TAYLOR BOLLINGER . PHOTOS BY IAN CUOMO & PROVIDED.
EXPERIENCE THE VIBRANT MURALS IN THE PLAZA DISTRICT, LIKE THIS ONE BY LOCAL ARTIST TONY THUNDER.
T o anyone who questions Oklahoma City’s cool factor, I say: the writing’s on the wall. Literally. Take a walk through the Plaza District, Paseo Arts District or downtown, and you’ll be greeted by larger-than-life murals, playful installations and bursts of unexpected creativity. The best part for budgeting families? It’s all free, all public and all perfect to explore with kids.
Art-filled adventures in OKC On our adventure, my three kids and I set out to discover some of OKC’s most vibrant art scenes. It started with a lazy afternoon and zero agenda — just some good walking shoes and curiosity. But we quickly found ourselves drawn in to the colors, the stories and the scale of what we were seeing: art that wasn’t behind velvet ropes but wrapped around buildings, painted across alleyways and hiding in plain sight. We quickly found ourselves to be huge fans of art in unexpected places. In the Plaza District , we picked favorites among the murals that line the walls between galleries, shops and cafés. It felt like stepping into a dream, or at the very least, a really cool indie movie set. We admired the brushwork and technique in pieces where faces looked so lifelike you felt they might blink. The kids called out their favorites: the one with the bear, the one with the bright red sun, the one with the geometric feathers. We oohed and aahed, just like we would at a fireworks show. And between the art stops, we wandered into local spots. Bad Granny’s Bazaar had the exact level of kitschy chaos my kids live for, and Pie Junkie gave us the fuel to keep exploring. (Their key lime pie might be a masterpiece in its own right.) Over at OAK OKC , a newly developed destination for shopping and dining, we didn’t step inside the restaurants that day (we were sweaty, loud and all of us needed a nap), but we made the most of the open- air turf. The kids ran circles under the giant mirrored cloud sculpture,
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14 METROFAMILYMAGAZINE.COM / SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2025
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