Last Updated on March 3, 2023, 10:25 PM | Published: March 3, 2023
OKLAHOMA CITY — Last month’s opening of the exhibition “Art and Activism at Tougaloo College” at Oklahoma City Museum of Art has placed front and center the conversation of art-as-protest not only in OKC, but across the nation.
To better understand this intersection of art and activism, and to help drive and encourage the local conversation around it, OKCMOA’s membership and planning board, the Moderns, invited three prominent local leaders from within the worlds of art and social planning to join in a public discussion Thursday, March 2nd.
Ward 7 Councilwoman Nikki Nice hosted OKC-based rapper/organizer/restaurateur Jabee Williams and Virginia Sitzes, founder of Sunday Dayz Mural Festival, spotlighting female and non-binary artists, and co-founder of OKC arts collective Art Group, together on stage to shed light on their own works and the social change they hope it furthers.
‘Eye-opener’
“You both engage with so much community activism, even beyond art,” Nice said to Williams and Sitzes during her introduction, expressing her hope “for these artists to talk about the way that they interpret what is around them and how they see their communities or their life experiences.”
In discussing the activist-minded art projects that the guests had helped to create or organize, Williams focused on the many Northeast OKC mural projects highlighting Black life and community on the Eastside, as well as the overwhelming success of the Juneteenth on the East festival.
“The first project that we did was the murals on the side of the Eastpoint Market,” Williams said of the public art collective that he co-founded, With Love OKC. “But definitely Juneteenth has been transformative for our community. And it’s really been an eye-opener to know what we can do.
It’s kind of raised the energy around what’s possible, because we’re so used to having to leave our community to experience these types of things. And now we finally get to have it.”
‘Transforming hearts and minds’
Similarly, Sitzes focused on spotlighting the important work of underrepresented female and non-binary artists through the Sunny Dayz Mural Festival, and in particular the works that provide an honest look at marginalized communities within the sometimes more reserved cities in which the traveling festival takes place.
“Art really is this broad history book of what’s been going on in a very raw and authentic way,” she said. It gives us this incredible opportunity to use that to introduce new ways of thinking and to make people feel less alone.”
Much of the night’s discussion was focused on the accessibility of public artwork as a means to encourage more widespread engagement and visibility of activist issues.
“Oftentimes, we look at a piece of art and one person might see one thing, and another person might see something else,” Williams said. “But we can all agree that it’s beautiful, right? And so art actually brings us together in a way that nothing else can. And if that art is transforming hearts and minds and bringing folks together, then that in itself is activism.”
‘We need teams’
While the expectation may have been a night of artists discussing individual passions and singular visions, statements from both Sitzes and Williams quickly turned primarily to praise for their collaborators, co-workers, and even one another.
“Our 2021 festival wouldn’t have happened without Virginia,” Williams said of his fellow special guest on stage. “That whole year, she was not only doing all the work for Sunny Dayz, but she was like my right hand for Juneteenth as well.”
Williams and Sitzes have served together as members of the Oklahoma Mural Syndicate, helping to direct and coordinate the evolution of Oklahoma’s acclaimed public art, beginning with their creation and management of OKC’s ongoing Plaza Walls project.
“We need teams,” Sitzes said. “We can’t do this on our own.”
‘This kind of intersection’
That same team spirit is at the heart of OKCMOA’s Moderns program, comprised, as the museum’s website states, of “members, patrons, and rising business, civic, and social leaders” that work to brainstorm and organize public events around the museum’s exhibitions and themes.
One current Moderns board member, Freedom Oklahoma Executive Director Nicole McAfee, explained the motivations behind presenting the night’s panel discussion.
“To give a platform to Virginia and Jabee and Councilwoman Nice is exciting, especially for people not familiar with them to be exposed to them,” McAfee told me following the event.
“There are people who come to art from activism who maybe wouldn’t come to art otherwise, and people who come to activism through art. That’s one of the things that is exciting about this kind of intersection.”
The hope of the Moderns board is that these kinds of events and discussions can foster new curiosities and considerations around the artworks on display and the sometimes challenging or even controversial histories behind them.
“It’s a whole new space to learn about the kinds of activist history of a place like Tougaloo College and to learn about how that collection started,” said McAfee. “This art gives us a lot of opportunities to ask questions and learn.”
Brett Fieldcamp has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
