OVAC h is tor y John McNeese
In the Beginning: The History of OVAC by Julia Kirt and Kelsey Karper John McNeese’s founding principles of the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition mirror the qualities we imagine McNeese hoped for artists’ careers: intentionality, professionalism, credibility and integrity. With an idea and a few supporters, McNeese established this organization to give money to artists. The story we usually tell of OVAC’s founding is a bit funnier—that a group of artists used to get together for coffee and adult beverages. They complained regularly about the state of their art careers in Oklahoma and grumbled that they did not have enough opportunities or buyers. Out of those bellyache sessions, OVAC was born. Some of that myth is true. McNeese and founding board member Laura Warriner refer to gatherings of artists at the Classen Grill, called Café Society, as precipitating the organization. McNeese said, “There wasn’t much going on for Oklahoma artists.” He pointed out that at the time artists were unhappy, the Contemporary Arts Foundation had closed, the museum juried shows were gone, IAO was in transition (housed in the garage of the Classen Arts Center) and the National Endowment for the Arts rarely funded Oklahoma artists. These issues and concurrent discussions spurred the passion of McNeese’s vision. McNeese ran a gallery next to IAO at the Classen Art Center, which was in a building that once stood near 52nd and Classen in Oklahoma City. During his time in this space, McNeese developed the idea for the 12x12 fundraiser and the first one benefited the IAO gallery, featuring about 20 artists with each piece priced at $100. The show sold out. Eventually, he closed his gallery at the Classen Art Center and moved to a space near Laura Warriner’s studio a few blocks away. McNeese recalled that Laura served as a great sounding board and supporter of his dream for OVAC. He carefully thought through naming the organization Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition, wanting to emphasize educating audiences beyond just artists by calling it “arts” and employed “visual” to differentiate it from other disciplines. He said “coalition” was a popular term at the time and seemed to define what OVAC was doing by bringing artists together.
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Roger Runge served as the first board president. His personality and expertise from his experience working at the Firehouse Art Center made him an excellent choice. His ability to convey the ideas and purpose of the budding organization helped to gain further support. Others who served on the first board were Mark Briscoe, Jerry Brown, Marie Dawson, Nicholas Kyle and Warriner. In the beginning stages of forming what would become OVAC, McNeese remembered some specific people whose support and willingness to take a chance were instrumental in helping it get off the ground. Betty Price and the State Arts Council of Oklahoma gave OVAC a $1,000 grant in the first year. Marilyn Myers, who was Executive Director of the Kirkpatrick Foundation at the time and later moved on to the Kirkpatrick Family Affiliated Fund, also gave financial support early on. Support from these organizations, as well as several individuals, made the early efforts possible. McNeese and Warriner each gave personally in order to begin a fund for OVAC at the Kirkpatrick Foundation. In 1990, McNeese used the 12x12 fundraising idea again, this time to benefit OVAC. This was the first of what would become an annual fundraising event for OVAC. The show was held at Pickard Gallery and the entire show was sold to collectors and art supporters Bob Cochran and Jan Semrod. Their art collection was quite impressive and McNeese recalled that they would give tours of their collection as a benefit to OVAC. In a spark of practical genius, McNeese began the OVAC newsletter in July of 1988, before OVAC was even incorporated. As an organization without a real physical space for recognition, the newsletter served as a vehicle for getting the word out about OVAC and other art events. It also helped to develop a mailing list and to keep in contact with members. Nicholas Kyle and Rose Allison later took the newsletter into the Cross Currents format, making it more of an arts publication with a sleeker design, more photos and art reviews. The first issue as Cross Currents was July/August 1990. In January of 2005, it would evolve again into the current format of Art Focus Oklahoma.
So, why didn’t OVAC have a public space to be associated with? Initially, the organization did not want to compete with neighboring IAO. A public space was never a part of the focus for OVAC, believing that the money would be better spent on programs rather than the overhead cost of running and maintaining a gallery. Helping artists financially through grants and awards was a focus. The first $1,000 artist award was given to James Seitz in 1989 and was made possible through many small gifts from individuals. The Artist Awards of Excellence would change and evolve over the years to include awards for excellence in specific media, an art criticism award and fellowships. McNeese believed it best to give multiple awards of equal value rather than having a first, second or third place. Currently, this program is giving two Fellowship awards of $5,000 each annually as well as Student Awards of Excellence to art students in Oklahoma universities. OVAC also developed a Sudden Opportunity Fund that would allow artists to take advantage of opportunities that would assist in the advancement of their careers. The first Sudden Opportunity grant was given to artist Jenny Woodruff to get to Alaska to attend the opening of her exhibition there. The Sudden Opportunity Fund would later develop into what is now the grants program, offering artists assistance in many areas including professional basics, start up funds, working with the community and continuing training. OVAC also saw a need early on to recognize individuals who were great supporters of the arts. The Distinguished Achievement Award was created to honor a person or organization that had