Gilcrease Builds on Success of Community Art Program for 2024

Last year, Gilcrease in Your Neighborhood installed reproductions of artwork from Gilcrease Museum’s collection at 31 sites across the metro area. The pop-up installations were in sites such as Gathering Place, Tulsa Dream Center, Mother Road Market and LaFortune Park. Displaying one work in three-month cycles, Gilcrease staff created community activities around each piece, expanding the reach of Gilcrease in Your Neighborhood beyond the partner sites to venues such as The Center for Individuals With Physical Challenges, DVIS and public schools.

“We wanted to provide programming for all ages,” said Alison Rossi, the Anne and Henry Zarrow director of learning and community engagement at Gilcrease. “We have to do our best to have Gilcrease serve everyone. We ended up doing 92 programs, and over 4,000 people participated. It’s exciting the way people responded in unexpected ways.”

Using behavioral observations at various sites, Rossi estimates that Gilcrease in Your Neighborhood reached approximately 350,000 people in 2023.

Learning from last year’s ambitious program, Rossi says Gilcrease in Your Neighborhood 2024 will be focused on only two works of art that will be placed at five sites for six months each. Public responses from last year indicated that people wanted the opportunity to slow down and relax, to have a shared experience.

“One of the major findings was that people said that they connected with someone new while viewing the art,” Rossi says. “What we heard is that people really responded to the outdoor installations. We’ve determined that encountering art in a natural setting is unexpected – there’s a surprise factor. If someone is on a walk or at the park, they are experiencing a moment of leisure. They have time to slow down and connect, to have a shared experience. As a city museum, we have a responsibility to listen to the citizens.”

Using the scaled-back model allows people to have a deeper experience with the artwork than they might have in a museum. Rossie says they found that many citizens had never been to Gilcrease, and some were unaware that it existed. She hopes that by going into the community, Gilcrease in Your Neighborhood will encourage individuals and families to visit the brick-and-mortar museum when it opens.

“Kids and families are our audience,” she says, “so we created family activity guides for each site that connect the work of art to the site. Last year, kids would often stop their parents or grandparents to look at the art. Kids will blow you away with what they observe.”

The first artwork, weather permitting, will be installed on Jan. 20. It features a Mexican woman at a festival in Oaxaca, so viewers might learn about the region, about Monarch butterfly migration, festivals, clothing, the paper banners (papel picado) or the nature in the region depicted in the art.

“Tehuana Woman” by Miguel Covarrubias, will be the first work displayed by Gilcrease in Your Neighborhood.

“We also want community members to see themselves in the art, and to make cultural connections,” Rossi says. “Accessibility is important to me and to the museum. The program guides and activity guides will be bilingual.”

Each location also includes a scavenger hunt with prizes, and a QR code that visitors can scan for augmented reality, history and expanded information related to the art. Children are invited to create their own work of art, which will be displayed at the 101 Archer Building.

“Art museums are also places where people can increase well-being,” Rossi says. “The family guides help facilitate that. Everyone needs a different entry into works of art. It’s our job to figure that out. People connect with one another, and they’re inspired – and their day is just a little bit better.”

She said that the Gilcrease in Your Neighborhood anecdotal findings tracked with a national study on the public value of art museums. The research found that 95% of people expressed some benefit to their well-being when they visited a museum.

Rossi says they also learned that family festivals were preferred over lectures and informative talks. Family festivals, performances, art-making experiences, fashion shows, cooking, family workshops and intergenerational projects were popular last year and will be implemented this year as well.

“I felt validated,” Rossi says. “We’re teaching people about art, but we’re learning from the public to make art accessible and engaging. They’re connecting to identity and culture. We want to pique people’s curiosity, to inspire. This will continue to inform what we do when the museum reopens.”

The sites for this year’s Gilcrease in Your Neighborhood include Turkey Mountain, Keystone Ancient Forest, Gathering Place, Oxley Nature Center and Ray Harrell Nature Center.

“All of our sites have been incredibly generous with their time,” Rossi says. “We are partners in lifelong learning.”

The project goals remain the same this year.

“This is our commitment,” Rossi says. “To listen, partner with and to be responsive to our community. It’s been a joy to get to know our partners and places where people recreate and spend time. It makes us fall in love with our community all over again.”

 Betty Casey is the associate publisher and editor in chief of TulsaKids Magazine. She has been with TulsaKids over 20 years.