A Journey Through Time and Culture at OKC’s 21c Museum Hotel by Kerry M. Azzarello
(left) Exterior view of 21c Museum Hotel Oklahoma City (former Fred Jones Manufacturing Company). Along the sidewalk, planted among a row of bald cypress trees, one can spot Matthew Geller’s Woozy Blossom (Platanus nebulosus), 2010-2015, steel, water, copper, pump. Photo by Kerry Azzarello. (right) Marilyn Artus, Her Flag: Take 7, 2016, mixed media collage with hand and machine embroidery. Image courtesy of the artist.
21c Museum Hotel opened in Oklahoma City in June 2016. The boutique hotel housed in a renovated historic building centers on an art museum open to the public free of charge containing an extensive collection of some of the most relevant contemporary art today. The novel idea started with Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson, collectors and preservationists who wanted to integrate contemporary art into daily life by sharing their collection of work by living artists with new audiences. Their goal was first realized in 2006, when they rehabilitated a series of 19th century warehouses along downtown Louisville, Kentucky’s West Main Street. 21c Museum Hotel, and its art-community-lifestyle, was born. A decade later, they celebrated the opening of the sixth 21c Museum Hotel located at 900 West Main Street in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. “When we opened the first 21c in Louisville ten years ago, we wanted to help revitalize a once-vibrant area on West Main Street in Louisville,” said Steve Wilson, CEO of 21c Museum Hotels. “We saw a similar opportunity here in OKC, on the western edge of downtown and, to be
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a cultural catalyst and agent of forwardthinking change on Main Street, in an area with a rich, storied past.” That past began 100 years ago, when construction was completed on the Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant in 1916. Albert Kahn designed the four-story brick building. A young employee named Fred Jones ambitiously worked his way up in the company. Eventually, he established the Fred Jones Manufacturing Company, which is how many locals refer to the building. In 2014 the structure became listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Historically, the building’s purpose as an assembly line for automobile production allowed for mass-production of motor vehicles—making them more accessible to the general public. As is often mentioned on the museum tours—that’s precisely what 21c aims to do with art—create a space where the public can interact with contemporary art and see it as a part of their daily lives. Since the 21c collection, along with other works on loan, is spread across all six of their current locations nationwide, each city’s venue is unique and carefully
crafted to each particular location. Museum Director and Chief Curator Alice Gray Stites curates the exhibitions and installations. For the Oklahoma City venue, art is displayed in the 135 guest rooms, the 14,000 square foot museum, the restaurant, and everywhere in-between. Within all of those spaces, one can find permanent sitespecific installations, rotating exhibitions, and even works by local artists. The inaugural main exhibition at Oklahoma City’s 21c Museum is Labor & Materials, a diverse look at life, toil, and the building blocks of work features pieces by approximately 50 artists from the US and all over the world. According to Stites, “Exploring the evolution of industry in the 21st century, Labor & Materials presents a precarious balance between promise and peril.” She says, “The scale, scope, and speed of technological innovation heralds unprecedented changes in what, how, where, and by whom goods and services are produced and provided.” Visitors will be confronted with positive and negative aspects of contemporary issues such as mass consumption, globalization, domestic labor, environmental impact, and cultural identity.