Forward Thinking

I love good food and drink— who doesn’t? Visitors will get just that at Café Contemporary (from Avery Cannon, co-creator of Empire Slice House). The new easy and casual café features great coffees, clever drink specials, and an original menu offering everything from soups to grab-and-go treats. His tasting menu blew our socks off and the portobello mushroom Reuben may be my downfall. But what a way to go!

I am so proud of our Teen Arts Council, a brand-new initiative that provides critical intel as we create vibrant, elective programs for teens while offering valuable experience in nonprofit leadership, contemporary art practices, team building, and event planning. The council’s yearlong work will culminate May 2 with our first Teen Night, a fun-packed arts happening just for teens. This year’s event will be centered around Jen Lewin’s Aqueous—our spring outdoor arts activity in Campbell Art Park.

Over the next few months, Oklahoma Contemporary will be “in the news” on a national scale. In September, we hosted a New York City press breakfast for top art, design, architecture, travel, and lifestyle media outlets, and more than a dozen national writers and editors will visit Oklahoma City for a preview and again in March for the grand opening. A boom of architecture stories this fall and Travel + Leisure’s recent spotlight on OKC as a top destination (featuring our new facility) are only the beginning.

This may seem a bit silly, but I’m really excited about our new loading dock and art-receiving systems. For the first time in our history, state-of-the-art systems to receive, unpack, acclimate, and store contemporary art will dramatically elevate our capacity to exhibit the world’s finest. Knowing that I’m not the only infrastructure geek, we’re already planning opportunities for behind-the-scenes peeks into this fascinating aspect of our operation.

Our new shop may be physically small, but it will quickly garner a big reputation. The shop will feature a wide range of items at an equally wide range of price points, with Oklahoma Contemporary as the only local retailer for most of the merchandise. In fact, many items will be designed exclusively for us, including ceramics by Simphiwe Mbunyuza, earthenwares by Taussen Brewer, handmade bags from Bryan Couchman, and one-of-a-kind prints by Matt Goad.

It’s high time that I up my game with a digital media class in our new Studio School. The ”exible and purpose-built classrooms in the main building and in The Studios, a renovated ware house, have opened the door for brand-new course offerings. In fact, we’re going from twelve different classes per session to more than fifty. We will also offer sound-painting courses, a DJ school for adults, and expanded options in traditional course areas of sculpture, ceramics, and fiber arts

We are very well known for Camp Contemporary, our week-long arts program during summer, spring, and fall breaks. I can’t wait to see the building full of eager, young artists. I am especially excited to see our new Early Childhood Studio in action—where the very youngest creators and artists, with their caregivers, will begin exploring the vast world of creativity. If only an opportunity like this had been around when my boys were toddlers…

Bright Golden Haze is our inaugural exhibition. Our staff’s research indicates that an exhibition of this scale and importance has likely never been assembled in the state of Oklahoma. The artists included represent a who’s who of local, national, and international stars. We are setting the bar high with intention and purpose. I can’t wait to see the reactions of our visitors as they experience and explore—and selfishly, I will find moments of solitude when I can reflect and appreciate on my own.

We open our doors on March 13, 2020. The entire staff knows that we will all be very weary, a bit stressed, and most likely exhausted, but we are all fueled by the shared privilege of being part of this once-in-a-lifetime experience. We look forward to that early spring morning and the sight of thousands of visitors waiting their turn to experience Oklahoma Contemporary. Great thanks will be due to loyal trustees, staff, donors, patrons, and artists for their roles in leading toward that day. I feel quite fortunate to be along for the ride.

You would think that having played piano or organ for dozens and dozens of weddings, I would shiver at the thought of another, but I am a sap for the sentimental. One week after our opening, the first happy couple will walk down the aisle for their “I dos,’” have cocktails on our terrace, dine in the Te Ata Theater and have their first dance in our beautiful dance studio. We will be the city’s most unique, one-stop-shop for special events. I can’t wait to be a fly on the wall. Hopefully, they won’t notice me tearing up with joy in the corner.