Close to Home OKC Oklahoma Judicial Center and Oklahoma State Capitol
The Oklahoma Judicial Center, located southeast of the Oklahoma State Capitol, is a treasure trove of public art from the historic to the contemporary. The building is open to the public and free to visit, but guests must go through security. Most legendary are a series of murals on the third floor, commissioned by Kiowa Six artists Monroe Tsatoke and Spencer Asah in 1934. The murals were completed five years after the building was opened in 1929 as the home of the Oklahoma Historical Society, which had formerly been housed in the Capitol basement. In 1961, the legislature named the building in honor of aviator Wiley Post, and when the Historical Society outgrew the building and moved to its new nearby location in 2005, plans were already in the works, thanks to Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice Yvonne Kauger, to rename and repurpose the building as the Oklahoma Judicial Center. Building on the foundation of these murals, which were restored during the building’s complete restoration in 2011, the Art in Public Places Committee for the Center’s Art Collection selected, commissioned and acquired pieces connected and relating to the history of Oklahoma, including paintings, sculptures, textiles and photographs. A cornerstone painting commissioned by Mike Wimmer called Kiowa Six pays special homage to the sixth female artist, Lois Bougetah Smoky, oftentimes forgotten in history in the shadow of her five male counterparts. Outdoors, Vietnam Veteran is an eight-foot bronze statue of a soldier wearing a 1960s combat uniform, a tribute to the 54,000 Oklahomans who served in the Vietnam War. Artists Jay O’Meilia and sculptor Bill Sowell (Pawhuska) used an 18-year-old of Osage descent as a model for the monument and were selected by a panel of six Vietnam veterans to design the bronze and granite monument following a statewide competition in 1984. The statue is part of the Oklahoma Veterans Memorial , and the plaza also includes four bas-relief bronze sculptures (depicting battles of WWI, WWII, Korea and Vietnam), granite panels with the names of Oklahomans who were killed in action in all wars and an eternal flame. Nearby: Across the street at the Oklahoma State Capitol, view the sculpture As Long As the Waters Flow by Allan Houser (Chiricahua Apache). After viewing the maquette of Circle of Life sculpture by Seminole Nation Chief Enoch Kelly Haney at the Judicial Center, travel up Lincoln Boulevard to compare it to the full-size piece outside the Oklahoma Banking Department (2900 N Lincoln Blvd), plus admire his sculpture of The Guardian atop the Capitol dome. Haney was the first full-blood Native to serve in the Oklahoma legislature and has earned the title Master Artist of the Five Civilized Tribes. Fun fact: The cornerstone for the Oklahoma Judicial Center was laid during a ceremony on Statehood Day, Nov. 16, 1929. Items placed inside include the Oklahoma Constitution, the book The Birth of Law and texts printed in Cherokee, Muscogee- Creek and Choctaw, as well as a box of typeface in the Cherokee syllabary invented by Sequoyah.
AS LONG AS THE WATERS FLOW BY ALLAN HOUSER. ATOP THE DOME, THE GUARDIAN BY ENOCH KELLY HANEY.
VIETNAM VETERAN IN FRONT OF THE OKLAHOMA VETERANS MEMORIAL BY JAY O’MEILIA AND BILL SOWELL. COURTESY OF THE ART IN PUBLIC PLACES COMMITTEE.
16 METROFAMILYMAGAZINE.COM / EVERYTHING GUIDE 2021-2022
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