Tulsa's Local Arts Scene

We're glad to welcome back to our program the Tulsa-based guitarist, composer, and music producer Chris Combs, who's known for his work with COMBSY, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, and other jazz/experimental/multi-genre outfits. Combs tells us about (and shares tracks from) his forthcoming album, "Roche Blave: Large Ensemble Works Recorded Live in Switzerland," which will be released by the nonprofit Horton Records on April 30th.

(Note: This interview originally aired last summer.) We're pleased to welcome our friend John Wooley back to StudioTulsa. A longtime Tulsa-based music and pop-culture writer -- and the host, of course, of the popular Swing on This program, heard every Saturday night here on KWGS -- Wooley is the co-author, along with Brett Bingham, of a new book about the historic Cain's Ballroom.

On this installment of ST, we learn about a show that recently opened at Philbrook Museum of Art here in Tulsa. "From the Limitations of Now" will be on view through September 5th.

Our guest on StudioTulsa is Carolyn Sickles, the Executive Director of Tulsa Artist Fellowship, or TAF, which is an arts-and-community-focused project of the George Kaiser Family Foundation. The TAF recently announced that it has given 22 of its fellows an Arts Integration Award for 2020-2021, which is meant to help these artists further their involvement with (and presence within) the Tulsa community via new works, new series, and so on. The award includes a $25,000 stipend, $10,000 in project resources, and also free living and work spaces.

Our guest is Marcello Angelini, the Artistic Director of Tulsa Ballet. From March 5th through the 14th, the company will once again offer a Signature Series at Studio K three-part program (which will be accessible in both online/streamable presentations as well as in-person/socially-distanced shows at the Studio K performance space in Tulsa's Brookside neighborhood). The series will include two newly-made World Premieres and a piece that was created just for Tulsa Ballet. These three ballets will be the work of choreographers Andrew McNicol, Yury Yanowsky, and Jennifer Archibald.

Our guest is the Tulsa-based writer, creative writing teacher, playwright, and performer, Michael Wright. He's had an active, far-flung career in the dual worlds of literature and theatre. The author of novels, plays, poems, and varous performance-art and spoken-word experiments, Wright was also the 2010 Playwriting Teacher of the Year for the Association for Theatre in Higher Education and the winner of the Kennedy Center 2011 Milan Stitt Award for outstanding teaching and professional work in playwriting.

Our guest is the Dallas-based artist Fred Villanueva, whose exhibition titled "The Trayectorias" (or "the trajectory," or "the path") is on view at ahha in downtown Tulsa through February 21st. This show, per the ahha website, "presents past artistic explorations that Villanueva has re-mixed to create new paintings, drawings, and installations.

On this edition of ST, we chat with artist and Living Arts of Tulsa board member Tina Henley, who is the curator for an interesting group show now on view at Living Arts called "Project Hope, Unity, and Compassion." On view through the 22nd, it is a collection of large-scale artworks which were created on plywood last summer by various artists, and which were then used to cover store-fronts, windows, and buildings in advance of the Trump rally at the BOK Center.

On this edition of ST, we learn about the next Tulsa Symphony Orchestra concert, which happens on Sunday afternoon (the 18th) at 3pm at ONEOK Field in downtown Tulsa. (At this concert, masks will be required to attend, and social distancing will be in effect.) The concert will feature Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio Overture, Max Bruch's Scottish Fantasy, and Brahms' Symphony No. 4 in E minor. Our guest will be the Guest Conductor for this concert, Sarah Hicks.

We are pleased to welcome Mark Dolph back to StudioTulsa. He's Curator of History at Gilcrease Museum here in Tulsa. He tells us about an exciting new exhibition at that museum presenting the work of Shan Goshorn, the late Tulsa-area artist.

Our guest is Christina Burke, the Curator of Native American and Non-Western Art at Philbrook Museum of Art here in Tulsa. She tells us about an exciting new show at the museum, "Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists," which is now on view for members only -- and which will open to the public on Wednesday the 7th. As noted the Philbrook website: "Women have long been the creative force behind Native art.

Update:  Statement from the University of Tulsa School of Art, Design, and Art History

The gallery is open to TU Students, Faculty, and Staff Only and is Not Open to the Public.

While we are not open to the public, please join us Thursdays in September at the University of Tulsa School of Art, Design, and Art History Facebook and Instagram pages for special virtual programs and highlights.  

On this edition of ST, we learn about a multi-artist, multi-media exhibition opening soon at Living Arts of Tulsa called "Speak: Speak While You Can." The show gathers works by several outstanding Native American artists, all of the creations focused on various indigenous/tribal langauges. Our guests are the co-curators of this show, both of them noted Native artists in their own right: Tony A. Tiger (Sac & Fox/Seminole/Muscogee) and Bobby C. Martin (Muscogee/Creek).

Our guest on ST is Brian Horton, president of the non-profit Horton Records, which is a Tulsa-based indie record label dedicated to documenting, promoting, and growing our local and regional music scene.

On this edition of ST, we learn about THE EXPERIENCE: IMAGINE, which is a newly created group exhibition opening today (Friday the 7th) at ahha Tulsa. It's a rather Outer Space (or Sci-Fi, or Other Worldly) type of show that, per the ahha website, features "large-scale, semi-permanent, interactive art. When you visit THE EXPERIENCE: IMAGINE, you will explore zones designed and built by one of six Tulsa-based artists. Each has different interactive elements.

With COVID cases now spiking across Oklahoma, and indeed, across much of the nation, it seems unlikely that Americans will be able to safely gather in large numbers anytime soon to hear music in a concert hall, arena, or auditorium. But the show, as they say, must go on -- and thus many gigs are lately being performed on Facebook Live, while others are being presented at drive-in movie complexes. Or via YouTube, etc. On this edition of ST, we talk to two local arts administrators on how they're planning to offer concert/orcheestral music to their audiences this fall.

Looking for new tunes to check out as you pass away all those homebound hours of late? We have some great tips on this edition of ST as we welcome Julie Watson to our show. She's long been a fixture of Tulsa's local music scene, writing about musicians and bands, presenting concerts, promoting new and emerging artists, and so forth. Watson formerly hosted a fine public-radio show on another station, "Tune In Tulsa," which mixed great conversations with compelling playlists, and she's also a fomrer co-producer of the OK Roots Music Series.

It's well-known that Oklahoma has the highest rate of female incarceration in the US. On this edition of StudioTulsa, we profile Poetic Justice, an important nonprofit that, per its website, aims to "reveal the individuality and experiences of the women who inhabit [our] state's prisons.

On this edition of StudioTulsa, we welcome the Tulsa-based composer, musician, and music teacher Noam Faingold back to our show. He's also the curator for the fifth-annual OK Electric Festival of Electroacoustic Music, which he tells us about. This special event (presented by Living Arts of Tulsa) happens tonight, Thursday the 5th, at Duet Jazz; more info, including how to get tickets, is posted here.

Our guest is the well-known, New York-based graphic artist, Luba Lukova. Her bold, accessible images have appeared in The New York Times, Time, and other leading publications, and her prints and posters are also in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Denver Art Museum, and the Library of Congress. She is currently a J. Donald Feagin Visiting Artist here at TU, and an exhibit of her socially-aware work, "Luba Lukova: Designing Justice," will soon go on view at the Henry Zarrow Center for Art & Education in downtown Tulsa.

Our guest is Bridget Quinn, a writer, art history scholar, and educator based in San Francisco. She joins us to discuss her 2017 book, "Broad Strokes: 15 Women Who Made Art and Made History." Quinn will deliver a sold-out "Women Who Changed Art" lecture tonight (Friday the 28th) at Philbrook Museum -- and that lecture will be based, in large part, on this book.

Our guest is Susan Neal, Executive Director of Gilcrease Museum, which recently announced that its current facility will be not just refurbished or remodeled but, indeed, entirely rebuilt. The museum announced over the weekend that its current building will be demolished, and that a new structure will be erected in its place. As Neal expalins, Gilcrease has been added to -- and/or expanded upon -- several times over the years. The oldest parts of the museum date back to 1913; the newest building in the Gilcrease complex dates from the 1980s.

The nonprofit Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition, or OVAC, which began in 1988, actively supports visual artists living and working throughout Oklahoma. On this edition of ST, we learn about a new OVAC show on view at ahha Tulsa -- it's a triennial exhibition called Concept, and it will be on display through March 22nd. Our guests are Sarah Ahmad, and artist whose work appears in this show, and Krystle Brewer, the executive director of OVAC.

On this edition of StudioTulsa, we offer another edition of the popular Museum Confidential podcast, which is co-created twice a month by Jeff Martin with Philbrook Museum and Scott Gregory with Public Radio Tulsa. This time around, MC looks back to May of 2018, when -- at Christie's in Hong Kong -- an 18th-century Chinese vase owned by Philbrook sold for $14.5 million. MC sets out to learn the full story behind this potentially controversial sale.

On this edition of ST, we learn about two 2019 Ruth Mayo Memorial Distinguished Visiting Artists here at TU, the painters Gideon Bok and Meghan Brady. They're based in Maine, and they also happen to be married. And their duo exhibit, "Being There," will open this evening (the 7th) at a special lecture/reception at the Alexandre Hogue Gallery on the TU campus. More info is poste here.

Our guest is Ron Spigelman, who will conduct the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra during its next concert (happening tomorrow night, Saturday the 5th, at the Tulsa PAC). Opening with Rimsky-Korsakov's vivid "Capriccio Espagnol," the evening will also feature Mozart's "Posthorn Symphony" (or Serenade No. 9) and Debussy's swirling and colorful "Images." More info is posted here.

Our program today explores the work of Jave Yoshimoto, a visual artist and educator born in Japan to Chinese parents who immigrated to California at a young age. A recent Tulsa Artist Fellowship alum as well as a recipient of a Joan Mitchell Foundation Painter's and Sculptor's grant, Yoshimoto now has a show at the Living Arts of Tulsa gallery, which he tells us about.

On this installment of ST, we learn about a new photography show at Gilcrease dedicated to the work of Dorothea Lange (1895-1965) and her peers. (The exhibit is on view through January 5, 2020.) Per the Gilcrease website, Lange's "empathetic images documented the toll that the Depression took on the nation. The evidence was seen in the long lines of desperate, jobless men, migrant workers searching for work, and impoverished families living in squalid conditions.

Our guest is Marcello Angelini, the Artistic Director at Tulsa Ballet. The company continues its current season with "Creations in Studio K," an exciting, three-part presentation happening September 12th through the 22nd at the Studio K @ Tulsa Ballet space (on East 45th Place near Peoria Avenue).