Exploring Oklahoma Murals Where Public Art Is More Than Paint

December 11, 2020 Payton Hayes

Hi readers and writerly friends!

Suzanne Thomas’ Fall 2019 Special Topics In Art: Mural Students paint the finishing touches on the first Humanities hallway mural. Photo by Ken Beachler at Rose State College.

This week in Artsy Things, I wanted to republish an article I wrote for the 6420 Magazine. They’ve redone their website again so I figured I’d try and post all my writing here! This article was supposed to be first in a three part series, but was condensed, so the full versions will be here.

In Suzanne Thomas’ Fall 2019 Special Topics In Art: Mural class, students learned all the ins and outs of getting a mural up in public space when they met with the Randy Marks from the Oklahoma City Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs. The same day, they met with Pablo Barrera, Oklahoma Contemporary’s inaugural Curatorial fellow and the Division heads of the Fine Studio Arts at Oklahoma City University. After learning about the public art process and different opportunities for art in Oklahoma, the students began preparing for the mural they’d be painting in the upstairs, back hallway of the Rose State College Humanities building.

OKC Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs

When the mural class met with Randy Marks from the OKC Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, they learned that the process for getting not only murals, but other forms of public art installed is a much more extensive process than slapping paint up on a wall. First, one must go through the Oklahoma City Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs to get their artwork approved, if it’s going to be on public property or on the external surface of a building (Indoor murals are at the discretion of the shopkeeper).

The mural artist must build a presentation which includes the stages of execution, mockups, expected start and finish date, location, and a budget for the project if it will require public funding from the city. The presentation must be formally presented in front of the Oklahoma City Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs Committee and approved. Once approved, the artist will begin preparing for the mural process; this includes gathering materials, preparing the workspace, and getting the necessary paperwork and waivers in order.

It’s important that muralists get a VARA Rights Waiver. Anyone who commissions a mural or other work on the interior or exterior of a building, they should ask the artist to sign a waiver of VARA rights before the work has begun and have this reviewed by an attorney and ensure that the waiver is transferrable to future owners of the property.

When the mural class met with the Oklahoma City Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, they learned the importance of VARA waivers because on January 23, 2017, Bob Palmer’s 2-year old mural, on 46th and Western (along the crown heights area) was painted over by Alotta Action Advertising, a new company who had just moved into the building. This mural was a legacy piece by one of Oklahoma’s most acclaimed artists, and the idea that it has been covered up has a lot of artists upset at the lack of respect for the internationally renowned artist.

The mural class also learned about Kent Twitchell, the Los Angeles artist who settled his lawsuit against the U.S. government and 11 other defendants, for $1.1 million, for painting over his six-story mural—“Ed Ruscha Monument,” that was painted on the side of a federal government-owned downtown building.

Once all of this has been done and the artist gets the green light, work can commence on the project—and that’s when the paint finally goes up on the wall.

Making Space with OKC Contemporary

After their meeting with Oklahoma City Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, the class stopped by the newly constructed Oklahoma Contemporary building to check out the building-in-progress the murals adoring the fences around the construction site, and to chat with Pablo Barrera, the Director of Oklahoma Contemporary. He told them Oklahoma Contemporary’s new building would be open in March 2020 (the opening has since been postponed due to the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic), that the building’s exterior was made to reflect Oklahoma’s picturesque sunsets and sunrises. He also showed us the murals that they’ve set up along the construction site, called Making Space.

Fine Studio Art Division at OCU

When the students finished their visit with Oklahoma Contemporary, they visited briefly with some of the art Bryan Cardinale-Powell, Associate Professor and Chair of Visual Art and Film, and Jeff Price, Professor of Game Design and Animation at Oklahoma City University. They learned about their extensive art programs, saw their high-tech graphic design studio, and some of their projects for upcoming courses—notably their motion capture room which was under construction during the visit. It was neat to see a full-blown art studio with every tool one could imagine for bringing artwork to life. Beyond that, students saw they even had their own little art museum and exhibit hall. The area was bigger than Rose State College’s fine studio arts area but smaller than the Fred Jones Museum at the OU campus in Norman.

New Humanities Mural at RSC Coming in Spring 2020

After the class met with the different local art communities, they decided to get to work on their own mural. You can read more about their process and experience in part 2 of this series, “Breathing new life into Humanities at Rose State College” which will be featured in the Spring issue of the 6420 Magazine from the 15th Street News, at Rose State College, as well as here. The next part in this series, also covers Dean of Humanities, Toni Castillo’s vision for breathing new life into the RSC Humanities building by covering all the hallways in murals.

Payton Hayes Writing & Editing Services

Exploring Oklahoma Murals Where Public Art Is More Than Paint

Further reading

— Payton