Monument
Brady Heights Historic Neighborhood begins work on Tulsa Spirit Monument in this Centennial year. This will be the first installment on Tulsa's first and only Art Parkway. This project began with fund raising several years ago and was spurred on by our recent receipt of a portion of the 2025 Vision funding for neighborhood improvements. The monument will be located downtown gateway median on North Denver and Fairview, just north of the Election Board.
The four-sided obelisk monument will display mosaic tiles created by artist Caryn Brown with the participation of Emerson Elementary School children.
The panels will depict four eras in Tulsa's history. We received a lot of input on the design from residents. For example, Wess and Cathryn Young's handprints are part of the Native American/Pioneer Panel. (Wess is a race riot survivor and he and his wife began our neighborhood association.) Two Native American neighbors, one Creek and one Osage donated designs for the border of that panel from blankets and medicine bags from their ancestors. We will replicate art deco designs from some of our downtown and Greenwood districts to be included in one of the panels. These, along with the handprints, will be created out of another material and inlaid.
The four panels will incorporate the following designs:
- Pioneer/Native American: Native American designs on the border, quilt patterns, friendship blanket, trail of the covered wagon.
- 1920s, 30s and 40s: Art Deco and oil era themed design, oil derrick, river area, art deco symbols from downtown and Greenwood, jazz piano keys, sun and growth.
- 1950s to Present: Route 66, Cains Ballroom, Blue Dome (automobile gas station and now venue for music and art), aerospace industry, flowers representing the 60s.
- Future: This embodies our hopes for the future that there would be preservation of historic neighborhoods and historic downtown buildings, that our river and sky would be clean, and that our future is bright.
The Brady Heights Neighborhood Association and Art Parkway Committee includes Margaret Aycock (Chair), Michelle Barnett (who is also President of Brady Heights Neighborhood Association) and Jana Aveihe. The monument was designed by Margaret Aycock and Caryn Brown. Margaret Aycock is best known for her oil paintings and as a teacher of oil painting and through the Arts and Humanities Artists in The Schools Program. Caryn Brown is a mosaic artist who will create the mosaic panels and lead community workshops.
We are working with Emerson Elementary School to create several workshops that will involve the children. They will work with our mosaic artist to create the border on one of the mosaic panels. We held an art contest for the students earlier this year where students put to paper their own vision for Tulsa's future. We displayed the children's finished pieces at Living Arts and awarded cash prizes for the winners. Later in the year, as part of their own community grant, Emerson teachers and children will work with us on landscaping or community garden project.
We are hosting other workshops for adults and children in our neighborhood and the girls at Madonna House, which is also in our neighborhood. We are thankful for the involvement of the community at large as we have received partial funding from several sources including Spirit Bank, Tulsa Women's Foundation, and Oklahoma Visual Arts Association. We also have obtained some of the stone from Centenary Church to cap the brick obelisk.
Opportunities for Tulsans: We will be including paving bricks on the ground around the obelisk. These can be ordered for $75 each and engraved with the name of your own favorite Tulsan.
Brady Heights has developed a capital improvement plan to create an Art Parkway and enhance our neighborhood revitalization efforts. We plan to replace the existing farm-style street lights with historically appropriate lighting.
Download, print and mail in the "Buy a Brick for Brady Heights" form or contact Margaret Aycock at: artistswaygallery@yahoo.com
The capital improvement plan envisions the construction of four traffic circles along Denver Avenue at the intersections of Marshall, Latimer, and Haskell Place. These traffic circles will become the site of a stunning outdoor sculpture garden, stretching the length of the neighborhood. The Brady Heights Art Parkway will showcase the outdoor works of regional artists illuminated atop the traffic circles. This program and the resulting displays will tie in nicely with the downtown revitalization, Brady Arts District, and the Hope VI residential redevelopment. It should also prove to be a near downtown attraction, not just for the residents of Tulsa, but for visitors as well, highlighting Tulsa's cultural prominence.