'Putting our best face forward': Art returns to Oklahoma Capitol after renovations

The Oklahoma state Capitol is getting an upgrade.

About 500 paintings and other pieces of art that brought a pop of color and a dose of culture to the historic building are making a comeback.

For nearly six years, Capitol hallways and rotundas were mostly bare after the artwork was packed up and moved to climate-controlled storage as the building underwent an extensive restoration.

With the renovation complete, the Oklahoma Arts Council started this summer reinstalling art throughout the building, a process that will be mostly complete by the year's end.

From oil paintings of Oklahoma natives Ralph Ellison, Mickey Mantle and Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher to dreamy landscapes and lifelike drawings of key historical moments, the Capitol art collection is both a history lesson and an art lover's dream.

"We're considering it the largest public art museum in the state once we're finished," said Amber Sharples, executive director of the Arts Council.

Sharples said she's confident the Oklahoma Capitol will have more art than any other state Capitol. The hundreds of works spread across six floors, numerous murals and three rotating exhibits will put Oklahoma's seat of state government in a league of its own, she said.

The Capitol art collection unofficially began when a Bartlesville oilman commissioned a massive mural called Pro Patria to commemorate the trials and tribulations of World War I. The eye-catching work on the fourth floor of the Capitol was dedicated in 1928.

The Oklahoma Legislature in 1963 began commissioning additional art, including massive portraits of four notable Oklahomans that are referred to as the state's "sons." The portraits that are prominently displayed in the fourth-floor Capitol rotunda depict humorist Will Rogers, Olympian Jim Thorpe, former U.S. Sen. Robert S. Kerr and Sequoyah, creator of the Cherokee syllabary.

Oklahomans are excited to have the art returning to the Capitol, said Jarica Walsh, the Arts Council's director of visual and public art.

"It really highlights the importance of our public art program," she said. "It's about enhancing the space and building identity in all state buildings."

The Arts Council is preparing to unveil about 20 new works that will join the Capitol art collection. The first new piece was installed in late August.

Artist Lucas Simmons, of Shawnee, painted a four-panel, life-size mural that will greet visitors on the ground floor of the Capitol. Once all the panels are installed, the massive artwork named after Oklahoma's state motto, "Labor Omnia Vincit" — a Latin phrase that means work conquers all — will depict workers from various local industries.

Other new works will include murals of Black Wall Street in Tulsa and the Katz Drug Store sit-in. There will be a pair of custom-made cowboy boots by Guthrie bootmaker Lisa Sorrell, a ceramic wall installation and portraits of singer Wanda Jackson and Wilma Mankiller, the first female principal chief of the Cherokee Nation.

The new works are largely paid for through the state's Art in Public Places Act, which requires 1.5% of the budget for certain capital improvement projects to be invested in public art that is then managed by the Arts Council.

The return of the Capitol collection presented a unique opportunity for Arts Council officials to rethink how pieces were presented throughout the building. The art is now chronologically organized by floor or corridor according to a certain theme. The art is also organized in a way that attempts to tell the state's history as visitors wander through the building.

The themes include Native American history in Oklahoma, African American history, Western heritage, the state's natural beauty, Oklahoma's legacy and the roots of state commerce and economic development.

Previously, the collection wasn't as curated because pieces were accumulated over time, Walsh said.

"As we took the work out, we were able to really take that deep dive and come up with this curatorial plan for prioritizing the visitor experience and how people are going to be learning our history as they move through the building," she said.

The Arts Council plans to resume offering travel grants to cover the cost of school field trips to the Capitol. The program that was put on hold while building renovations were ongoing will resume to include tours of the Capitol art collection, Sharples said.

"We're putting our best face forward for visitors and really showcasing the art with a professional museum-quality program with tours for Oklahomans and visitors alike," Sharples said.

She said she hopes the program helps inspire the next generation of Oklahoma artists.

After all, it was on a high school field trip of the Capitol that artist Mike Wimmer, of Muskogee, found inspiration, Sharples said.

Wimmer, who now has several paintings on display in the Capitol, was mesmerized by the works of renowned artist Charles Banks Wilson. In addition to life-size portraits of famous Oklahomans, Wilson painted four massive murals that are impossible to miss from the fourth-floor rotunda.

"We want students to connect with these works," Sharples said. "We're hoping that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our generation to create new works and inspire new artists."

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma Capitol art collection returning after six-year restoration