A New Home for Contemporary Arts

Last night, I got to help make history.

Living Arts announced that it will open in its new space, Living Arts Contemporary Space, at 307 E. Brady, on August 15. George Kaiser Family Foundation owns the building and is leasing the first floor to Living Arts for what I’m guessing is a nominal fee.

The second floor will house 13 apartments, occupied by recent college grads who will be infiltrating Tulsa Public Schools’ most underserved schools as members of the service corps Teach for America. Since the teachers have to be in place in the fall, the whole building is set to open Aug. 15. Architecture firm Kinslow, Keith and Todd will handle the design and build of the outside walls, as well as those that connect the two floors, and the stairway, elevator and lobby.

The remaining portion of Living Arts will be built as funds are available by architects and builders of the organization’s choosing, which is why, last night, a group of architects, artists and designers gathered at the space to flesh out ideas.

The building, with 12,000 square feet of usable space (twice what LA is working with now) will be totally dedicated to contemporary arts. There will be two galleries, one for visual arts and one for performance arts, as well as three education spaces, a lounge, bar and kitchen and office space.

As we toured the facility and began thinking about how we wanted to design and build walls, windows, entrances, signage, lights, sound, etc., etc., we were encouraged to think creatively about solutions, and to think of every solution as a temporary one, so that LA can continue to grow, change and develop.

We were divided into committees, each one (hopefully) comprised of a blend of professionals: architects, designers, artists and “other” (me, for example).

I joined Linda Clark, LA’s new administrative director, on the bathroom committee, along with Chris Ganong. Because I’m not an artist or designer, and because I have virtually no technical skill – but I want to be a part of designing the new space – I chose a small project, where virtually all of the technical work (plumbing, etc.) will be handled by KKT, and I can think about paint, art… you know, the fun stuff.

But, Linda and I really need the help of artists! We want to tear out the existing stalls and have artists design new ones out of material of their choosing – the more unlikely, the better. In my mind, I’d love for it to be some kind of found or reclaimed material, but I’ll by no means limit an artist to that. We will probably limit them in budget, though, but I don’t know yet what that will be. I’m guessing it will be small, though, so we need artists who will either donate their talent or be willing to work with us on a fee.

We’re also thinking about incorporating sculptures and other art into the bathrooms, but we need artists’ help! I know it sounds like an unusual project, and it is, but it’s also an exciting one, and I hope that some local, and even student, artists will want to participate. We’re meeting at Living Arts (current address: 308 S. Kenosha) at 5:30 on Tuesday, May 19. I encourage anyone who wants to participate to please, please come! I’ll have photos of the bathroom so you can get an idea of what we’re working with, and maybe we can even take a field trip to the site.

And stay tuned for more updates on Living Arts’ progress. After an itinerant 40 years, in which the gallery had 10 different homes, it’ll finally have a permanent residency. It’s an exciting time for art and downtown Tulsa, and I encourage you to be a part of it.

Oklahoma arts receive national recognition (and a good amount of money)

The Tulsa Performing Arts Center Trust announced today that it has received a $40,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the largest single grant ever awarded by the NEA to an Oklahoma organization.

The grant falls under the category “American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius” in the discipline “Presenting” to acquaint Americans with the best of the nation’s cultural and artistic heritage.

The PAC Trust will share the $40,000 with Gilcrease Museum and the Oklahoma Center for Poets and Writers for a collaborative project called “Oklahoma Landscapes: A Plains State of Mind.”

The PAC Trust, in partnership with the George Kaiser Family Foundation, will use the grant to present an eight-performance run of Oklahoma native Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play August: Osage County, from Jan 26-31, 2020. GKFF will underwrite the presentation up to $250,000 and assist with marketing, said Stanton Doyle, GKFF senior officer for arts and culture.

The title of the entire program, “Oklahoma Landscapes: A Plains State of Mind” is borrowed from a line in Letts’ play and speaks to Oklahoma’s unique geographic location.

Billie Letts, award-winning Oklahoma author and mother to Tracy Letts, described her son’s play, saying it “reveals old secrets and opens old wounds.”

“He asked me if it bothered me that he more or less told all of my family’s secrets,” Billie Letts said. “I told him it bothered me a little bit, but he’s still in the family will.”

Gilcrease Museum will present an exhibition of and lecture featuring works “strongly connected to Oklahoma,” evocative of the “uniqueness of our state’s landscape and heritage.”

The exact content of the exhibit and lecture is yet to be determined, but it will likely be presented November of this year to March 2010.

The OCPW will use its portion of the funds to present “Oklahoma Landscapes: A Literary Tableau” on January 21, 2010 at 7pm in the Oklahoma State University-Tulsa auditorium. The event will feature readings by some of Oklahoma’s most noted authors, including N. Scott Momaday, Joyce Carol Thomas, Billie Letts, Michael Wallis and Rilla Askew.

In addition, the Center will kick off a reading campaign, marketed specifically to Oklahoma English teachers.

“Writers play an important role in Oklahoma landscapes,” said Teresa Miller, OCPW executive director.

She said John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath continues to be the literary definition of Oklahoma, but contemporary Oklahoma authors are rewriting that definition.

PAC Trust Program Director Shirley Elliott said the NEA grant will have at least a $5 million economic impact on the city and through the attendance of its programs, will reach roughly 600,000 people.

Susan Neal, director of community development and education initiatives for the City of Tulsa, said the hallmark of a community is its arts endeavor, and that Tulsa’s recognition through this grant signals to the rest of the country its major contributions to the arts world.