Eric Baker, Owasso, Golden Bliss, Kiln-formed Glass, Steel, Agate, 114”x96”x124”
Art in Public Places Mentorship Program by Lisa Prior In 2005 when Debby Williams was appointed the first Director of the State of Oklahoma: Art in Public Places Program, Oklahoma ranked in the lower half of states with public art funding. Clearly, Williams had a long hill to climb. Her efforts have proven to be very effective and as of this writing, she has seen the completion of four major commissions with 22 other projects in various stages of development. “Within the next two years,“ says Williams, “we will have a public art program on the scale of Texas and Colorado.” Yet for Williams there was one thing lacking. “Oklahoma has great talent but we were not seeing enough of our own artists applying for these commissions.” Putting Oklahoma artists into these commissions is merely the A-side of Williams plan; her ultimate goal sees Oklahoma artists successfully competing for national public art commissions. To see this ambition realized, though, a pool of Oklahoma artists with real-time public art experience would need to be created.
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After a series of public art workshops failed to address the problem, Williams had the idea of creating a mentorship program. In Julia Kirt, Executive Director of the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition (OVAC), Williams found an enthusiastic partner and together they created the framework for the Public Art Mentorship Program, which would offer artists without public art experience the opportunity to work with a mentor who could guide them through the whole process. “We wanted the best of the best for our mentor and Lynn Basa was at the top of our list,” said Williams. “Not only has she literally written the book on public art, she is also in the unique position of knowing about our regional culture after completing a public art commission in Vinita, Oklahoma.” Basa’s 2008 book The Artist’s Guide to Public Art navigates the warrens of logistical and bureaucratic challenges presented by this genre. Without funding, however, the program was just a really good idea. OVAC put out the
word and found a private benefactor with a shared belief in Oklahoma artists to underwrite the program. OVAC’s relationship to the art community at-large yielded a healthy response to the call for artists, just as Williams and Kirt had hoped. Next, the list of applicants was winnowed down to three artists who were each assigned a public art project through the Art in Public Places program. Eric Wright of El Reno makes sculptures in cast concrete and steel, materials that lend themselves to his commission for the Oklahoma Transit Authority (OTA) in Chickasha. To date, his pieces have been small studio-sized works with concrete castings no larger than a square foot. For sometime now, Wright has wanted to work on a larger scale. “I felt confident that I could go to the next level on my own through trial and error, but with a mentor I feel I can take bigger risks.” “I’ve always thought about submitting proposals for public art commissions, but I felt overwhelmed. This program is what it