Today, Mayor Monroe Nichols, members of the Crosbie Heights neighborhood, and local artists celebrated the completion of new murals on the 3rd St. underpass of I-244 between S. Heavy Traffic Way and S. Nogales Ave.

The art was completed by local artists Jamie Pierson with Scraps Designs and Vinny Gomez with VNICE, along with help from the neighborhood and community.

“This project reflects our bold commitment to involving our local artist community and shows what we can do when we work with our neighborhoods to make great things happen,” Mayor Nichols said. “I am grateful for the Crosbie Heights neighborhood, our local artists, the Tulsa Arts Commission, and for our team here at the City for helping bring this to life.”

The 3rd Street underpass murals were initiated by the Crosbie Heights neighborhood via community engagement efforts through the City’s Vibrant Neighborhoods Partnership program. Ultimately, two local artists, Jamie Pierson with Scraps Designs and Vinny Gomez with VNICE, were selected to create murals in dialogue with the neighborhood to serve as a gateway to Crosbie Heights. As part of the process, residents submitted photos of their windows, doors, and rooftops to be included in the mural design.

“We are incredibly excited to be unveiling this new mural,” said Fletcher Stewart, Crosbie Heights’ Neighborhood Association President. “It brings much needed color and beauty to our neighborhood’s connection to downtown. We want to say a huge thank you to both of the artists, Jamie pierson and VNICE. They were so engaged with learning about what makes Crosbie Heights special. They created a mural that we are proud to have represent us. We are grateful to the city for creating the Vibrant Neighborhoods Partnership and including Crosbie Heights in it. We look forward to continuing to collaborate through the program on making Crosbie Heights a thriving, eclectic and vibrant downtown neighborhood.”

During the course of the process, the City held a community paint day that involved youth from Common Good, a nonprofit organization located in the adjacent Charles Page neighborhood (which also participates in the Vibrant Neighborhoods Partnership program).

Crosbie Heights murals are funded through $24,000 via the 2019 Improve Our Tulsa 2 funding for Planning and Economic Development initiatives on Charles Page Boulevard.

“The Third Street mural project is rooted in community connection, and that's the kind of art I most love to do,” Jamie Pierson of Scraps Designs said. “I'm so grateful to the residents of Crosbie Heights for allowing me to create a mural that celebrates their neighborhood.”

As background, the City has completed several projects with local artists over the last year, most recently seen at the Zink Lake Overlook, where murals were completed in September 2024 that included work from 11 local muralists that transformed an early 80s legacy River Parks concrete structure into a welcoming, placemaking initiative to enhance Zink Lake.

Vision Arts Updates
As the City works to continue collaboration with the local artist community, Vision Arts is the main funding source for future projects, which distributes $150,000 annually to local arts organizations via 2016 Vision Tulsa $2.25 million allocation to the Arts Commission - a 15-year program.

Recently announced in June of 2024, Vision Arts 5 awarded funding to 21 different local arts organizations. As part of the Vision Arts application process, the City held technical assistance workshops to provide resources and training around Grantwriting and marketing for arts organizations. Ultimately, an estimated $1.13 million in local government revenue was created via the Vision Arts 5 cycle.

Moving forward, the City will continue to include the community in local art. In the last several months, more than 12 interviews were completed by City Design Studio as part of an “Arts Listening Tour” community engagement effort to better understand the needs and opportunities within Tulsa’s creative communities. Additionally, a newly created artist distribution list is helping more than 200 local creatives in notifying them of new City arts opportunities when they are available.