Oklahoma is getting more than $1M in NEA grant money. Find out which arts groups benefit

From an exhibit chronicling the career of a prominent Native American artist to a play paying homage to a pioneering Black aviator, four Oklahoma arts organizations have grand plans for grants they're getting from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The NEA — the federal agency that is the largest funder of the arts and arts education in communities nationwide — has revealed more than $103 million in recommended grants in its spring grant announcement for fiscal year 2023.

Organizations in all 50 states and U.S. jurisdictions will use the funding to carry out an array of arts projects, "demonstrating the many ways the arts enrich our lives and contribute to healthy and thriving communities,” said NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson in a statement.

Four Oklahoma organizations are receiving grants totaling more than $1 million as part of the allocation.

Here are the Sooner State spring NEA grant recipients and what they're planning to do with the federal funds:

NEA state partner Oklahoma Arts Council receiving $997,100

The Oklahoma Arts Council is receiving $997,100 as the NEA's Oklahoma partner. Each year, the NEA awards about 40 percent of its appropriated program funds to state and regional partnerships intended to ensure access to the arts for all Americans.

The Oklahoma Arts Council's annual state partnership grant from the NEA represents nearly 20% of the state agency's budget.

"We use it to further our reach in providing Oklahomans everywhere access to the arts and arts education through our grants and programs," said Oklahoma Arts Council Executive Director Amber Sharples in an email.

"The NEA is fulfilling the role for which they were established by America’s leaders more than a half-century ago. ... Federal, state and private funding for the arts works uniquely together to generate a sound ecosystem empowering the arts to thrive in all communities."

The state partnership grant from the NEA increased over last fiscal year, when the Oklahoma Arts Council received $883,900.

"As Oklahoma’s arts and cultural sector continues to rebuild from the pandemic, this year’s increase in our state partnership grant from the NEA is a welcome investment that will strengthen arts in education, quality of life and economic opportunities through the arts," Sharples said.

Oklahoma Contemporary using $50,000 grant for Native artist's retrospective

Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center has been awarded a $50,000 NEA project grant to support its creation of the first retrospective exhibition chronicling the career of Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds, an acclaimed Cheyenne and Arapaho artist based in Oklahoma City.

In his more than three-decade career as an artist, educator and activist, Heap of Birds has become renowned for his works connecting historical violence to contemporary injustice.

"We're thrilled to have Edgar working with us on a key retrospective of his work going back to the early days of his career ... and the imprimatur of the National Endowment for the Arts is not to be understated. The $50,000 grant we received in support of the exhibition came as a really pleasant surprise to us. That's a very large (project) grant for the NEA. ... It means a lot," said Oklahoma Contemporary Director Jeremiah Matthew Davis.

A longtime OKC resident who hails from Wichita, Kansas, Heap of Birds taught at the University of Oklahoma from 1988 to 2018. His work has been featured in solo exhibits at the Berkeley Art Museum in California; the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Australia; the National Museum of the American Indian in New York; and more.

"His work is collected widely internationally. He's done multiple projects with the Museum of Modern Art in New York. ... He's got such an established international reputation, yet he's never had a solo exhibition here in his home state," Davis said.

Lyric Theatre putting $10,000 grant toward world-premiere play about Tchaikovsky

For Lyric Theatre, a $10,000 NEA project grant is helping make possible its world-premiere production of "Concerto" Sept. 13-Oct. 1 at its Plaza District theater.

As part of its ongoing New Works Initiative, Lyric is producing Alan Olejniczak's fact-based musical drama that centers on famed Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Nadezhda von Meck, the patroness who supported him. 

"It's a new perspective on something we think we know, which is Tchaikovsky, and it's a great opportunity for a theater ... to collaborate with an orchestra," said Lyric Producing Artistic Director Michael Baron, who is directing the new play.

Produced in collaboration with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic and Music Director Alexander Mickelthwate, the play will take audiences behind the scenes as Tchaikovsky works on his "Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35." 

In harmony with Lyric Theatre's "Concerto," the OKC Philharmonic will open its 2023-2024 Classics concert season by performing Tchaikovsky's "Violin Concerto" as well as his "Symphony No. 6" Sept. 9 at Civic Center Music Hall.

"You're getting real human stories behind who Tchaikovsky was. If you're like, 'Oh yeah, that's the guy that wrote "The Nutcracker" and "Swan Lake,"' well, of course, that's not who he was. Those are the works he did — and knowing who he was, how he created these pieces, who was funding those pieces, is beyond fascinating," Baron said.

Broken Arrow nonprofit earns $20,000 grant for play about pioneering aviator Bessie Coleman

The Broken Arrow-based nonprofit organization Greatest Stories Never Told has been awarded a $20,000 NEA project grant for a play lifting up the inspiring story of Bessie Coleman, the first Black and Native American female aviator and the first Black person to ever earn an international pilot's license.

A Texas native, Coleman attended the Colored Agricultural and Normal University, now Langston University, in Oklahoma, but she was forced to drop out of college after one semester because she could no longer afford tuition. Her father also lived in Oklahoma, and she still has family in the Sooner State.

"She could barnstorm better than most men. She was a powerhouse ... and she was a civil rights activist," said Louisa Jaggar, executive director of Greatest Stories Never Told. "She would not perform at all for a segregated crowd. ... One time, she was actually threatened by the Ku Klux Klan, and that didn't change her behavior. She would not change no matter what anyone said."

Interest in Coleman's accomplishments has soared this year as the trailblazer has been featured on a newly designed U.S. quarter and immortalized as a Barbie doll. The NEA grant will help Greatest Stories Never Told develop a touring production of a play about Coleman titled "No One Owns the Sky," with Jaggar co-writing and co-directing alongside Daytime Emmy-winning actor and Broadway performer Kevin Mambo (TV's "Guiding Light," Broadway's "Fela!").

The mission of Greatest Stories Never Told is to inspire youngsters through plays, exhibits and other efforts to share the often-overlooked historical legacy of women and people of color in the STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — fields.

"We really believe that the living history plays that we develop change children's lives, because you can't do something you can't see — and what we're helping kids see is what they can actually do," Jaggar said.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma arts organizations get more than $1M as part of NEA grants