Vision Arts 5 Grant Awards Announced

6/26/2024

The City of Tulsa, Tulsa City Council, and the Tulsa Arts Commission are pleased to announce the selected Vision Arts 5 grantees. The program provides $150,000 in grants to local nonprofit arts, humanities, and cultural organizations.  

“Vision Tulsa continues to enrich Tulsa’s quality of life in many ways,” Mayor G.T. Bynum said. “In addition to the projects such as Zink Lake and Gilcrease Museum, Vision Tulsa includes these Vision Arts grants for our enjoyment of music, theater, events and exhibits that also provide our city with jobs, economic activity and increased tourism.”

Vision Arts supports organizations and activities that provide quality arts and cultural programming to the citizens of Tulsa while simultaneously promoting and encouraging tourism and economic development throughout the city.

Funds for the program are made possible through the Vision Tulsa economic development package approved by Tulsa voters in 2016.

Awardees were required to specify how their proposal will promote tourism or have an economic impact within Tulsa. The proposals were based upon the following:

• A single event, performance, project and/or work of art, OR
• A series of events, performances, and/or works of art that are promoted and marketed as a single integrated occurrence, OR
• Another initiative of an arts organization featuring demonstrable economic impacts or the promotion of cultural tourism

The Tulsa Arts Commission oversees the grant-making process led by a special subcommittee of Arts Commissioners: Machele Miller Dill (chair of the subcommittee), Brandon Rule (chair of the Arts Commission), Holbrook Lawson, and Obum Ukabam. The Arts Commission provided multiple information sessions along with separate grant writing sessions for organizations seeking guidance. This round of grant applications was the largest to date with 34 organizations submitting applications requesting almost $1 million in project funding.

Two City Councilors, Laura Bellis and Crista Patrick, serve on the Independent Review Panel to assist the Arts Commission in the review process.

“I am so proud to be a small part of this grant process,” Council Vice-Chair Crista Patrick said. “In times of great turmoil ‘The Arts’ provides understanding and hope; it can bring people together in a way that nothing else can.”

The program will invest a total of $102,500 in 15 organizations whose annual donations do not exceed $400,000 per year:

• $56,000 to seven performing arts organizations:
  • $10,000 to Heller Theatre Company
  • $10,000 to Portico Dance Theatre DBA Oklahoma Movement
  • $6,750 to Theatre North
  • $15,000 to Chamber Music Tulsa Inc.
  • $5,250 to American Theatre Company
  • $4,000 to Clark Youth Theatre

• $23,500 to three miscellaneous organizations:
  • $10,000 to the Red Dirt Relief Fund
  • $5,000 to Art House Tulsa
  • $5,000 to MapWorks Tulsa, Inc.
  • $3,500 to Oklahoma Fashion Alliance

• $15,000 to three film or media organizations:
  • $5,000 to Twisted Arts, Inc.
  • $5,000 to Circle Cinema Foundation
  • $5,000 to Tulsa Film Collective

• $8,000 to one art gallery:
  • $8,000 to Brady Craft Inc. / 108 Contemporary

Additionally, the program will invest a total of $47,500 in six larger organizations whose annual donations equal or exceed $400,000 per year:

• $12,500 to one art gallery:
  • $12,500 to Living Arts of Tulsa

• $7,500 to one art museum:
  • $7,500 to Philbrook Museum of Art, Inc.

• $5,000 to one culturally focused institution:
  • $5,000 to East Tulsa Main Street Inc.

• $5,000 to one miscellaneous organization:
  • $5,000 to the Downtown Tulsa Partnership

• $17,500 to two performing arts organizations:
  • $12,500 to Tulsa Symphony Orchestra
  • $5,000 to Tulsa Performing Arts Center Trust

About Vision Tulsa

Vision Tulsa, an $884 million sales tax renewal package approved by voters in 2016, is making substantial investments in economic development, education, public safety, streets, and transportation needs citywide. With citizen priorities providing the driving force behind the creation of Vision Tulsa, transformative projects and enhancements are setting the stage for a bright future for Tulsa.