A new public art trail in Tulsa now stretches across six underpasses of I-244, serving as a visual connection between north Tulsa and downtown.
Unveiled this month, the Pathway to Hope Public Art Trail was commissioned through the Oklahoma Arts Council’s Art in Public Places program, in partnership with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation. Each installation highlights community stories and local history at heavily traveled underpasses, offering reflection, education and inspiration.
Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols, the city’s first Black mayor, spoke at the dedication. Nichols credited his mom reading historian John Hope Franklin’s book, “From Slavery to Freedom,” and the legacy of his grandfather, B.C. Franklin, for first drawing him to Tulsa in 2002 as a student at the University of Tulsa.
“It is the reason why I am here in a city I’d never been to — inspired by the stories that you will see now reflected every single day as you cross downtown into the Greenwood District,” Nichols said.
One of the six murals, entitled "Visionaries," appears on the underpass walls of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The 16 large portraits were created by artists Joel Daniel Phillips and Alexander Tamahn, honoring key figures who shaped Greenwood and north Tulsa’s legacy — including B.C. Franklin, an attorney who defended survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.
“Once we got a pretty clear vision of the direction we wanted to go, everything just flowed in a really beautiful way,” Tamahn said.
Each mural includes QR codes linking to biographical profiles by Oklahoma State University’s Dr. Autumn Brown, helping viewers learn more about the individuals featured in the artwork.
The murals aim to unite history with present-day Tulsa while highlighting often-overlooked Black community leaders. Shuttles were provided after the dedication for guided tours of the six art installations.
