Dedication of “The Tulsa Spirit” entrance monument to the Brady Heights Arts Parkway When: Where: Wednesday, October 22, 9:45 am to 10:15 am The dedication of the “The Tulsa Spirit” monument will be held on-site. The monument is located at the Brady Heights gateway median on North Denver at Fairview, just north of the Tulsa County Election Board. A reception will follow at the neighboring Brady Mansion. Mayor Kathy Taylor and Brady Heights residents and members of the Art Parkway planning committee will offer remarks. The monument is the first installment of the Brady Heights Art Parkway. This project began with fundraising several years ago and was completed with receipt of a portion of the 2025 Vision funding for neighborhood improvements. You can find out more about the project if you go The Tulsa Spirit Monument at http://bradyheights.org/monument.html.
What:
"The Tulsa Spirit Monument,” located at the Denver entrance to Brady Heights at Fairview, incorporates a set of four mosaics. The monument was commissioned by Brady Heights Neighborhood Association with funding support provided by the City of Tulsa Vision 2025 and private donors. The mosaics were designed and produced by Tulsa artist Margaret Aycock and Tulsa mosaic artist Caryn Brown with the participation of Emerson Elementary School children, Brady Heights neighbors and young mothers from the Madonna House. National Historic Preservation Conference Bus Tour will be stopping at the dedication/press event of the gateway monument at Brady Heights Neighborhood. The North Tulsa tour will be held Wednesday, Oct 22 from 8 am to noon. The Brady Heights historic neighborhood is on the Preservation Bus Tour. The tour planners have included adequate time to the tour for the participants to attend the dedication of the "Tulsa Spirit Monument." Roberta Clardy is coordinating the North Tulsa bus tour. A second tour will be conducted Friday afternoon, October 25. The session will pass through Brady Heights around 2:45 pm - 3:00 pm as a “drive through only” tour with on-the-bus narration. “Preservation in Progress” is the theme of the National Preservation Conference, to be held in Tulsa, October 21- 25, 2008. A new commemorative poster of the monument mosaic tile panels (see attachments) will also be unveiled at the Oct. 22 monument dedication ceremony. The neighborhood is selling this poster of the four mosaics just in time for the upcoming National Historic Preservation conference in Tulsa. The poster will be available for purchase at selected local hotels and retail establishments and through the www.bradyheights.org website. Poster sales proceeds will support the further development of the Brady Heights Art Parkway. Poster design was by Tulsa graphic designer Celina Burkhart. Poster printing was generously underwritten by David Denham. The posters will be sold @ $15 each. Arrangements are being made to also sell the posters at selected Tulsa retail stores. The poster size is 20 x 36 inches (vertical).
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ADD ONE: MORE ABOUT THE MOSAIC PANELS Narrative Summary about the mosaics. The Brady Heights Art Parkway Committee developed the concept for Tulsa Sprit monuments mosaic panels. The four-sided obelisk monument was a community project in every way. Margaret Aycock, an oil painter, and Caryn Brown, a mosaic artist worked with on the designs and Caryn Brown created the finished panels. School children from Emerson Elementary helped create the border around the oil boom panel. Young women from Madonna House and neighborhood children and adults helped create the border on the pre-statehood panel. The panels depict four eras in Tulsa's history. Brady Heights received a lot of input on the design from residents. For example, Wess and Cathryn Young's handprints are part of the Native American/Pioneer panel. (Wess is a Tulsa race riot survivor and he and his wife helped establish the Brady Heights Neighborhood Association over 20 years ago). Two Native American neighbors, one Creek and one Osage, donated designs for the border of the panel from blankets and medicine bags of their ancestors. The design also replicates art deco designs from some of our downtown and Greenwood districts in one of the panels. The four panels incorporate the following designs: Pioneer/Native American: Native American designs on the border, quilt patterns, friendship blanket, and trail of the covered wagon. 1920s, 30s and 40s: Art deco and oil era themed design, oil derrick, river area, art deco symbols from downtown and Greenwood, jazz piano keys, sun and growth. 1950s to Present: Route 66, Cains Ballroom, Blue Dome (automobile gas station and now venue for music and art), aerospace industry, and flowers representing the 60s. Future: This embodies our hopes for the future that there would be preservation of historic neighborhoods and historic downtown buildings, that our river and sky would be clean, and that our future is bright. The type at the bottom of the mosaic panels commemorative poster reads: "The Tulsa Spirit Monument, located at the Denver entrance to Brady Heights at Fairview, incorporates a set of four mosaics. The monument was commissioned by Brady Heights Neighborhood Association with funding support provided by the City of Tulsa Vision 2025 and private donors. The mosaics were designed and produced by Tulsa artist Margaret Aycock and Tulsa mosaic artist Caryn Brown with the participation of Emerson Elementary School children, Brady Heights neighbors and young mothers from the Madonna House. Poster design by Tulsa graphic designer Celina Burkhart. Poster printing generously underwritten by David Denham. All proceeds from poster sales benefit the historic Brady Heights Neighborhood Association Art Parkway.” Dedication of “The Tulsa Sprit” Brady Heights Entryway Monument 2
ADD TWO: More about the Monument and the Art Parkway Design Process At turn of the century (2000 – not 1900), the Brady Heights Neighborhood Association developed a capital improvement plan to create an Art Parkway to enhance neighborhood revitalization efforts. The Art Parkway project built upon earlier efforts by the neighborhood to place two traffic circles in the center median of Denver Avenue at its north and south entryways. With the support of funding from the City of Tulsa, the traffic islands are intended to serve as traffic calming devices to slow vehicular traffic and help protect the children who play, ride bikes and walk home from school along Denver Avenue. In 2001, to advance the vision of the Art Parkway, a “Blue Ribbon Committee” was organized by the Brady Heights Neighborhood Association to support fundraising and design efforts. The landscape architectural firm of Howell and VanCuren was engaged to render drawings for the proposed Art Parkway. An obelisk design was finalized for the "Tulsa Spirit" monument to be placed in the entry median at Denver Avenue and Fairview. The monument design features red brick and Carthage limestone, surrounded by brick paving with inscriptions of the names of Art Parkway donors. In summer 2008, McGee Enterprises Inc. was the selected bid in a competitive bidding process conducted by the City of Tulsa to construct the monument. Terry McGee, owner of McGee Enterprises Inc., is a local builder, developer and entrepreneur with previous investments in Brady Heights. Brady Heights residents Michelle Barnett and Margaret Aycock chaired the Arts Parkway Committee and the Tulsa Spirit Youth Arts Program at Emerson Elementary School. The mosaic panels that flank the four sides of the monument were designed by Margaret Aycock and Caryn Brown. Margaret Aycock is known for her oil paintings, as a teacher of oil painting and through the Arts and Humanities “Artists in the Schools” program. Caryn Brown was the mosaic artist who created the mosaic panels and lead community workshops. Brady Heights worked with Emerson to create several workshops that involved the children to create the border on one of the mosaic panels. A student art contest encouraged students earlier this year to put to paper their own vision for Tulsa's future. The children's finished pieces were displayed at Living Arts of Tulsa and cash prizes were awarded to the winners. As part of their own community grant, Emerson teachers and children also participated in the Brady Heights community garden project. As part of the mosaic panel design process, Brady Heights hosted workshops for adults and children in the neighborhood, as well as the young women residing at the Madonna House in the neighborhood. Brady Heights is most appreciative of support of the community in helping providing donations to the project, including a City of Tulsa Vision 2025 Neighborhood Fund grant, Downtown Tulsa Unlimited, the HOW Foundation, Living Arts of Tulsa, Oklahoma Visual Arts Association, Spirit Bank and the Tulsa Women's Foundation. Two Tin Roof Art sales were also held at Living Arts to raise funds for the Art Parkway. Funding opportunity for Tulsans: You can still purchase a paving brick to be placed around the obelisk monument; the cost is $75 each and will be engraved with the name of your own favorite Tulsan. Brady Heights Credo: “A Diverse Community, Preserving our Past, Promoting our Future.” Quote attributed to Tate Brady: "Indian and white man, Jew and Gentile, Catholic and Protestant, we worked side by side, shoulder to shoulder, and under these conditions the „Tulsa Spirit‟ was born and has lived and, God grant, it never dies.” Dedication of “The Tulsa Sprit” Brady Heights Entryway Monument 3
ADD THREE: More about the Brady Heights neighborhood and its rich history. Our Neighborhood Location. The Brady Heights neighborhood is located just north of downtown and extends along Denver and Cheyenne Avenues to from Fairview to Marshall Streets. More generally, the neighborhood is bounded by the inner-dispersal loop to the south and to the west by the L. L. Tisdale Parkway. The alley between Cheyenne and Main forms the east boundary, where the Oklahoma State University-Tulsa campus will eventually extend. Historic roots. From territorial days until the 1920s Brady Heights was an important part of the then fashionable north side of Tulsa. Young professional businessmen and oil men, such as G.Y. Vandever, I.S. Minks and "Diamond Joe" Wilson, owned homes here. The area derives its name from W. Tate Brady, a pioneer Tulsa developer and entrepreneur. He was one of the incorporators of the City of Tulsa, Oklahoma's first Democratic National committeeman, and he built the Brady Hotel and a large garage that is now home to the Cain's Ballroom. The architecture. Tate Brady built the distinctive mansion reminiscent of Robert E. Lee's Arlington home and gave the housing addition the "Brady Heights" name. Most of the homes in Brady Heights were built between 1910 and 1930, although we do have one home that was built pre-statehood. The varied home styles in our early 1900's historic neighborhood range from Folk Victorian and Colonial Revival to Craftsman Bungalow and American Foursquare. The houses of Brady Heights are of a larger scale and of a more complex design than those of the adjacent neighborhoods. Bay windows with leaded glass, carriage houses and broad porches suggest the elegance of earlier days. Brady Heights Neighborhood Association and Historic District. With a mission statement that promotes Brady Heights as a “Diverse and Welcoming Neighborhood,” Brady Heights is home to a diverse community of residents who have invested their time, energy and savings to revitalize a neighborhood and create an urban community. Ours is an authentic walkable neighborhood where people chat from the sidewalk to the porch. The Brady Heights Historic District and the Brady Heights Neighborhood Association (BHNA) were both created in 1980. The Neighborhood Association is a true residents association of home and property owners, as well as renters. The Association was established to promote a feeling of small town togetherness, address crime issues, promote beautification, and protect historic structures. Through the combined efforts of the Neighborhood Association, the grassroots involvement of the residents and city officials, it was the first Tulsa neighborhood to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1999 the area was protected by local Historic Preservation Overlay Zoning. The Brady Heights Community. Today many of the homes have been repaired and remodeled by the homeowners themselves and involved lots of neighborhood sheetrock, painting and roofing parties. Our present neighborhood still has that small town feel and like a small town it is very diverse in its population. We feel that we have been pioneers in the area of race relations within a city that has a history of being racially divided in the past. We are proud of the diverse yet cohesive nature of our neighborhood. We are black, white, Mexican, Native American, Asian, young, old, gay, straight and have a wide range of economic differences. We are a front porch community where everyone knows their neighbors.
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Art Parkway Blue Ribbon Committee Members: Mary Brady Wilbert E Collins David Denham Patty Eaton Charles Gilmore Jerri Jones J. D. Metcalfe Marty Newman Joe Robinson Shawn Schaefer Gary Trennepohl Emily Warner (facilitator)
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The National Preservation Conference. The National Preservation Conference is the premier preservation conference in the United States for professionals in preservation and allied fields, dedicated volunteers, and serious supporters. We’re proud that the National Trust for Historic Preservation has selected Tulsa to be the host city for the 2008 National Preservation Conference. Brady Heights will be on the tour Wednesday, October 22 from 9:45-10:15 and Friday afternoon, October 24.http://www.preservationnation.org/resources/training/npc/ Brady Heights contacts: Celina Burkhart Celina@meandmymac.com 810-1530 Russell J. Burkhart rburkhart@ihcrc.org 527-6548; 918-382-1203 (voicemail-direct line); 918-582-6405 (office fax) Nathan Pickard npickard@ci.tulsa.ok.us; Current Brady Heights Neighborhood Association President
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The Tulsa Sprit Monument at Denver and Fairview
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