Annointed by Andy
By JAMES D. WATTS JR. World Scene Writer 6/23/2004
"They (The Andy Warhol Foundation) asked if we had ever considered submitting a grant proposal," said Steve Liggett, executive director of Living Arts of Tulsa (above). "I said we hadn't, and they said, 'Well, you should, because what you're doing here is exactly the kind of work we like to fund.'" ROBERT S. CROSS/World file
Living Arts to receive three-year grant from Warhol foundation
In 1969 - right around the time Andy Warhol published his statement that "in the future everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes" - a Tulsa musician and teacher named Virginia Myers started a little endeavor called Living Arts.
Thirty-five years later, the Prince of Pop Art and the doyenne of Tulsa's contemporary arts community are getting together in a big way.
Living Arts of Tulsa will be the recipient of a three-year $60,000 grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. It is the first time the foundation has awarded an Oklahoma arts group in its 17-year history
"The Obstructional Process of Self-Realization" by Rian Kerrane and Mark Guilbeau was a room-filling installation piece presented as part of the 2002 New Genre Festival. ROBERT S. CROSS/World file
The Andy Warhol Foundation awards grants twice a year. According to its mission statement, the foundation seeks to "foster innovative artistic expression and the creative process by encouraging and supporting cultural organizations that in turn, directly or indirectly, support artists and their work ... (focusing) primarily on supporting work of a challenging and often experimental nature."
That fits exactly with the purpose of Living Arts of Tulsa, which has given Tulsa artists and audiences the opportunity to explore all manner of contemporary visual and performing arts for the past 35 years, through its exhibits by local and regional artists in its Myers Gallery and through its annual New Genre Festival.
The Living Arts grant, which will be distributed in three annual payments of $20,000 each, will go toward helping fund the New Genre Festival, as well as installation art exhibits.
Steve Liggett
"We're absolutely delighted to receive this grant," said Steve Liggett, who has served as executive director of Living Arts of Tulsa since Myers' death in 1991. "It's especially gratifying that it comes from the Warhol Foundation, because Andy Warhol himself was a tireless experimenter in the arts.
"And we're also pleased to be the first Oklahoma group the Warhol Foundation has recognized," he said. "I guess we were in the right place at the right time."
That time was October 2003, and that place was the office of the Living Arts Space, 308 S. Kenosha Ave. "That's when I got this call, completely out of the blue, from a person at the Warhol Foundation," he said. "She said she had been hired to check into arts organizations in the 14 states that as yet had not approached the foundation for grants. Oklahoma was one of those states.
"She had been checking Web sites and calling around, and apparently when she asked people about contemporary and experimental art in Oklahoma, they pointed her toward Living Arts," Liggett said.
The foundation arranged to visit Tulsa, and toured the installation pieces that had been set up at Living Arts and the University of Tulsa as part of last year's New Genre Festival. Liggett also gave the visitors a glimpse at some of the organization's past events, and talked about Myers' work and vision.
"They were all very low-key, down-to-earth kind of people," Liggett said. "And when we had finished, they asked if we had ever considered submitting a grant proposal. I said we hadn't, and they said, 'Well, you should, because what you're doing here is exactly the kind of work we like to fund.'"
The Lelavision Performance Group (right) presented "Banging Bamboozles" as part of the New Genre Festival with Living Arts in 2000. Courtesy
Liggett said Living Arts likely will use the Warhol grant to help bring more installation art works to Tulsa.
"Installation art is one of the hardest things to get funding for, simply because of the nature of the work," he said. "It's large, it's designed for a specific space, it's expensive to ship, and it really can't be sold. But at the same time, installation art is also some of the most challenging and rewarding work being done these days, and Tulsa doesn't get to see enough of it."
The Warhol Foundation grant is not a matching grant, requiring the receiving organization to raise an equal amount of money in order to receive it. However, Liggett said Living Arts plans to treat it that way, as a spur to its own fund raising.
Living Arts of Tulsa has an annual budget of about $90,000.
"We believe we are in a period of great evolution," he said. "We have a new board that's excited about the work we're doing. And this grant will give us the ability to put into action some of the plans and dreams we've had for a long time, and to help establish relationships that could lead to long-term funding.
"Getting a grant from the Warhol Foundation also helps put Living Arts on the map, nationally," Liggett said. "The people who get money from the foundation is a real 'Who's Who' of contemporary art groups and museums. We've been out here for 35 years, and it's really nice to be recognized as deserving to be a part of that company."