A museum opening in June as an initiative of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission will feature Greenwood-inspired art created by and for children.
The Tulsa Children's Museum of Art will open on the OSU - Tulsa campus on June 1 with an exhibition called "Greenwood, Black Wall Street, and the 1921 Race Massacre: Through the Eyes of Children," according to director Dr. Courtney Skipper.
"Children are very forgiving, and I felt that they should be leading some of the charge for reconciliation, and especially through art because art is so healing," Skipper said. "Art produces cognitive empathy, it produces emotional empathy and it causes people to act, to want to help."
Skipper said the museum, part of the Greenwood Art Project, will accept submissions through May 20 of visual works in any medium done by students fitting one of four themes: Greenwood in Tulsa; Black Wall Street; 1921 Tulsa Massacre, and Futuristic Tulsa/Greenwood.
Once open, the museum will also feature art classes for children, Skipper said.
"I just want the kids to have fun, be in the space of Greenwood ... and kind of have them internalize that: 'This is the place that I'm going to be building, I'm going to be drawing, painting, and I belong here,'" Skipper said.
"We have south Tulsa, west Tulsa, east Tulsa, but every student who comes to that space, that's their space, that's their history," Skipper said.
