Oklahoma Arts Council Helps Cities and Towns Find Quality of Life Boost Through New Arts Districts
For seven years, dozens of Oklahoma towns and neighborhoods have taken advantage of the Oklahoma Arts Council’s Cultural District Development program, which has helped spark new life in historic downtowns and Main Streets across the state.
In 2013, Alva was the first recipient of grants and planning expertise through the program, which was used to create marketing materials for a new arts district, including an arts and culture brochure and downtown signage. Public art and youth programs were also established through the grant, along with private funding and a hotel tax implemented by the city.
Today, Alva has become an arts and culture hub in northwest Oklahoma, including a Friday “art walk” that attracts hundreds each month.
Molly O’Connor, the assistant director at the Oklahoma Arts Council, said Alva was a great community to start in because it had a university near its historic downtown, which was built in a way that allowed people to gather.
“They just had a lot of potential there and I think a lot of towns across the state have a similar situation,” O’Connor said.
Alva was in the process of experiencing growth through a regional oil and gas boom that also brought a lot of new families into town. O’Connor said city leaders wanted to find a way to help many of the new residents feel a sense of community in their new hometown.
Two years later, Enid took part in the Cultural District Development program to enhance its Arts and Entertainment District that spans eight downtown blocks, hosts several annual events – including the annual Downtown Arts Festival –, and is home to an event center and theater.
A few years later, Ponca City leveraged a cultural district grant to establish the “Grand Arts District.”
The grant helped us to “strategically plan our Arts and Culture District to market our cultural assets to a wider audience, while also bringing more people to the table to find creative solutions to existing issues,” Ponca City Main Street Executive Director Chelsea McConnell said in 2017 when the city was awarded the grant. “We want to make our downtown as vibrant and full of activity as possible, and this grant will help us take a bold step towards planning that future.”
The Cultural District Development program offers up to $25,000 in funding and has also invested in urban neighborhoods, such as the Paseo Arts District in Oklahoma City and Tulsa’s Kendall Whittier district.
O’Connor said cities that have utilized the grants have some similar characteristics, but are also able to focus on their unique qualities, which becomes an important part of the process.
“One major component of this project is really trying to work with communities to identify their cultural assets,” O’Connor said. “Communities know best what they need rather than us telling them what they need.”
O’Connor said it can be a challenge for some smaller communities to envision a cultural district because they see it as something more common in a larger city. When people think about an arts district, they often think of Tulsa or Oklahoma City, O’Connor said.
But O’Connor said small towns have an advantage.
“One advantage that the smaller communities have is they can start small and it can be grassroots in a lot of ways,” O’Connor said. “They might look at larger communities like Oklahoma City and say, ‘We don’t have a museum of art’ or ‘We don’t have this,’ but the focus has been starting on what you have.
“On the smaller scale with these communities they can do a lot with a little and one reason is because there are people in these communities that are passionate about living there.”
The program requires a committee of local stakeholders, which can include non-profit leaders, elected officials, and local artists.
“It’s further enhancing the idea that we are all in this together and we are doing this together, and it can really show you the support you already have locally,” said Cayla Lewis, community arts director at the Oklahoma Arts Council.
Another way the Oklahoma Arts Council supports municipalities is through its Leadership Arts Program, which works with 30 individuals from across the state each year to help them become advocates for the arts in their community. The program has accepted many mayors and city council members in previous classes, Lewis said.
The program includes four two-day sessions that give participants the chance to learn about the role of the arts in economic development, education, and quality of life.
“It’s really a community development program that focuses on how the arts can improve the economic impact in communities, which is a goal for nearly every city in the state,” O’Connor said.
Once again, O’Connor said the goal is to help city leaders think about their own unique assets and move away from thinking about investment in the arts as only a “big city option.”
“Even as a state I think we can often get into this thinking that we are not Chicago or we are not Atlanta,” O’Connor said. “It can often be a lot of thinking about what we are not, and that can cut short the enthusiasm we have. But through this program we often start with looking at what we have and (leaders) really start to see what their own community has to offer.”
Not only can arts programs and districts encourage economic development through new business and events, but it can also be a boost for quality of life and give residents a reason to remain.
“I think one thing that Oklahoma has dealt with is the ‘brain drain’ and the way young professionals leaving has hurt our state,” O’Connor said. “Even in smaller communities those people leave for Oklahoma City and Tulsa for employment and quality of life, but arts can help.
“One of things that we have heard in these smaller communities is that they want to help people feel like they have options to stay in that community and that there are opportunities there.”
For more information regarding the Oklahoma Arts Council and it’s programs, please visit www.arts.ok.gov