The Junior League of Tulsa (JLT) is fortunate to be able to serve our community in many capacities, often extending opportunities to those who may not otherwise have them. The work of JLT’s Philbrook MyMuseum Mobile Committee is an example of this. Now in its third year, the committee was started to create a working relationship between Philbrook Museum of Art, The Children’s Hospital at Saint Francis, and JLT to extend art education to young patients in the hospital.

The Philbrook MyMuseum Mobile Committee partners with the museum and hospital to bring Philbrook’s Second Saturday children’s program to patients ages 4 to 12 at Saint Francis. Philbrook’s Second Saturday program offers free art kits to child visitors at the museum. It is the work of the MyMuseum Mobile Committee to assemble and deliver these kits to patients at the children’s hospital.

The committee’s work allows Philbrook to reach children who cannot participate in the program onsite, allowing the kids to benefit from and enjoy the art kits and be both educated and inspired by works of art at the museum.

The MyMuseum mobile committee meets once a month at Philbrook. This is when they assemble the patients’ art kits. Jennifer Wyckoff, chair of the Philbrook MyMuseum Mobile Committee, says the staff at Philbrook has been extremely generous to open their space to allow the committee to meet and assemble the kits there each month. Philbrook also provides all the educational materials, art supplies, and free museum passes for each art kit. Committee members later visit patients’ rooms to personally deliver the art kits to those who do not have contagious illnesses.

This year, the committee’s 16 members reached out to 200 patients and will clock an estimated 182 volunteer hours for the 2015–2016 Junior League year.

Wyckoff says the reason JLT members often choose to serve on this committee is to interact with both child patients at Saint Francis and their families. She says, “You can always find interesting conversations and stories with the people you meet, while providing each of them access to Philbrook Museum they may have never had before.”