Travels with the Chairman: Oklahoma City and the Arts' Role in Building Healthy, Resilient Communities
Recently, National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Mary Anne Carter joined the Oklahoma Arts Council in Oklahoma City to see firsthand how the arts help build healthy, resilient communities. During the visit, she met with artists, cultural leaders, and community organizations whose work demonstrates the many ways the arts preserve heritage, support health and well-being, and strengthen communities across Oklahoma.
Chairman Carter's first stop was the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum where she honored the lives forever changed by the 1995 bombing and reflected on the National Endowment for the Arts' response to the tragedy, which helped support the city's recovery and the healing of survivors through the arts. The experience became a defining moment in the agency's understanding of the arts as a powerful tool for healing, resilience, and community well-being.
Next, Chairman Carter visited the Paseo Arts District, including Shakespeare in the Park, which recently received a $15,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant to support personnel costs for an apprenticeship program for emerging theater artists, and the public art installation We Have Arrived, honoring the Vietnamese American community's Boat People journey. The visit to Paseo Arts District highlighted how artists, arts organizations, and local businesses work together in communities across Oklahoma City to create vibrant neighborhoods and support local economies.
At the Oklahoma City Ballet, Chairman Carter experienced first-hand a Dance for Parkinson's class. This partnership between the ballet and the Oklahoma Parkinson's Alliance offers a fun, social setting where people living with Parkinson’s can improve mobility, balance, and motor function through seated and standing dance movements.
Oklahoma is home to seven past recipients of the National Endowment for the Arts’ National Heritage Fellowships for folk and traditional artists and during several visits Chairman Carter learned how Oklahoma’s museums are preserving and caring for America's artistic heritage. At the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, Chairman Carter toured their exhibit area and its collections vault. At the Oklahoma State Capitol, she viewed public art celebrating Oklahoma's artists and history, including portraits of Oklahoma Cultural Treasures. Among them are National Heritage Fellows Doc Tate Nevaquaya, a Comanche flutist, and early country, rockabilly, and gospel singer Wanda Jackson. The work of 2021 National Heritage Fellow Anita Fields (Osage/Muscogee) is featured in the Capitol.
Chairman Carter also had the opportunity to meet with the broader arts community at an event hosted by the Oklahoma Arts Council at the First Americans Museum. Carter and Oklahoma Arts Council Executive Director Amber Sharples participated in a public conversation exploring the essential role of the arts in strengthening communities, supporting health and well-being, and creating opportunities for people of all ages to participate in the arts. National Heritage Fellows Anita Fields and Bruce Caesar participated in the conversation, and Tim Nevaquaya opened the event with a flute performance honoring the legacy of his late father, Doc Tate Nevaquaya.
Thank you to the Oklahoma Arts Council and the many artists, cultural organizations, and community leaders for welcoming Chairman Carter to Oklahoma and for sharing how the arts are strengthening Oklahoma City’s communities in so many ways.
Visit the Travels with the Chairman section for more stories as Chairman Carter explores our country’s vibrant arts communities.
Learn more about the National Endowment for the Arts' response to the Oklahoma City bombing in our 2015 story, Opening the Heart and Soul: Spiritual and Physical Rebirth after the Oklahoma City Bombing
Watch an interview with Chairman Carter on Oklahoma News Report about her visit to the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum
