Bolt Tower '75 foot sculpture' proposed for Oklahoma City Fairgrounds

[Laramie]

Arts commissioners voted unanimously to recommend city council consider placing a 75-foot-tall sculpture at the Oklahoma City Fairgrounds. Projected cost: $905,000 would come from the Arts budget.

For comparison, this will equal the size of the Golden Driller at the fairgrounds in Tulsa.

[Bellaboo]

Wonderful. Need more culture in OKC.

[TheTravellers]

Wonderful. Need more culture in OKC.

The fairgrounds is probably the last place I'd look in OKC for arts-type culture, lol.......

10,000th post, yay!

[jn1780]

Its something not a barn at the fairgrounds so I approve.

[mugofbeer]

If they built a straw out the top it would resemble the Pop's sign in Arcadia.

[shavethewhales]

Its something not a barn at the fairgrounds so I approve.

Exactly. The OKC fairgrounds are in desperate need of a bit more culture and intrigue. Everyone misses the whimsical monorail and observation tower, among other things that used to be there. Make it a more interesting public place that people actually remember.

[Bill Robertson]

If they built a straw out the top it would resemble the Pop's sign in Arcadia.

That was my exact first thought.

[Canoe]

The fairgrounds is probably the last place I'd look in OKC for arts-type culture, lol.......

10,000th post, yay!

Congradulations.

[unfundedrick]

The fairgrounds is probably the last place I'd look in OKC for arts-type culture, lol.......

10,000th post, yay!

You may have forgotten that the fairgrounds used to be the location of the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.

[Bullbear]

You may have forgotten that the fairgrounds used to be the location of the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.

Key to that post is "use to be" the fairgrounds use to have many more interesting structures but are all gone. The airplanes, Museum, monorail, Space Needle.

[jn1780]

Key to that post is "use to be" the fairgrounds use to have many more interesting structures but are all gone. The airplanes, Museum, monorail, Space Needle.

Museum of Art leaving was the start of the great purge. Not that I'm complaining about them leaving we obviously got something far greater downtown.

Hopefully this sculpture will lead to more interesting things being added back. Now that they have all the main things they want either built or underconstruction.

[TheTravellers]

You may have forgotten that the fairgrounds used to be the location of the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.

Nope, went there when it was there, but as others have said, that was then and then was a loooooooooooooooooooooong time ago. And yes, the new museum is pretty fantastic, we go there often. Don't like that they don't have a restaurant any longer, but glad the gift shop was able to massively expand.

[Rover]

Arts commissioners voted unanimously to recommend city council consider placing a 75-foot-tall sculpture at the Oklahoma City Fairgrounds. Projected cost: $905,000 would come from the Arts budget.

For comparison, this will equal the size of the Golden Driller at the fairgrounds in Tulsa.

So, what is this representing, or is it just form for form's sake?

[unfundedrick]

Nope, went there when it was there, but as others have said, that was then and then was a loooooooooooooooooooooong time ago. And yes, the new museum is pretty fantastic, we go there often. Don't like that they don't have a restaurant any longer, but glad the gift shop was able to massively expand.

Then, unlike your statement, you actually did look there for arts type culture, long time ago or not. My biggest wish is more that they could do something to dramatically improve the landscaping. It just always looks so barren.

[TheTravellers]

Then, unlike your statement, you actually did look there for arts type culture, long time ago or not. ...

The fairgrounds hasn't had any sort of arts-type culture for decades, this is the present, not 1980, my point still stands.

[bombermwc]

If it's going on the fairgrounds, then you might as well make it accurate and tell what it's real purpose is. It has to be for a horse right? Tiepost?

[TheTravellers]

If it's going on the fairgrounds, then you might as well make it accurate and tell what it's real purpose is. It has to be for a horse right? Tiepost?

[Bill Robertson]

The fairgrounds hasn't had any sort of arts-type culture for decades, this is the present, not 1980, my point still stands.

True. And it's not likely to come back. I LOVED the monorail, the space tower and the art museum. And anyone that knows anything about me knows I spent tons of time at the race track for many years. I have tons of family memories as both a kid and a parent. I proposed to my wife at the fair. But that fair and that fairgrounds are gone. Never to return. The youth today have smart phones and laptops with very sophisticated graphics and gaming software. They would not find the monorail or space tower the least bit interesting.
bombermwc has it right. It's a horse show and occasional gun show, craft show, high school BB tourney, etc. venue. And for that it's really about what's required. For cultural purposes I'd much rather see money spent in the places that already have some cultural interest.

[Jersey Boss]

Is it made of bolts or is the name of the artist "Bolt"?

[TheTravellers]

... For cultural purposes I'd much rather see money spent in the places that already have some cultural interest.

I can see your point, but to me it seems more like street art or art in public parks - just put something interesting and possibly really cool and neat in random (but not really) places around a city. So it's fine, but it's not like anybody will go to the fairgrounds just to see it, and not like it's the start of a renaissance of anything more than horse, gun, etc. shows and sports there. That's what I was trying to say, thanks for kicking my brain into gear.

[Bill Robertson]

I can see your point, but to me it seems more like street art or art in public parks - just put something interesting and possibly really cool and neat in random (but not really) places around a city. So it's fine, but it's not like anybody will go to the fairgrounds just to see it, and not like it's the start of a renaissance of anything more than horse, gun, etc. shows and sports there. That's what I was trying to say, thanks for kicking my brain into gear.

I like that idea too. Art in different places. I just didn't think of it.

[Rover]

Then, unlike your statement, you actually did look there for arts type culture, long time ago or not. My biggest wish is more that they could do something to dramatically improve the landscaping. It just always looks so barren.

The art museum never fit at a fair site with dirt track racing, gun shows and garden expos.

[TheTravellers]

It was a step up from the previous mansion it was in, on to bigger and better things. As evidenced by the current building it's in. If that's the sequence of it that I remember right.

[unfundedrick]

It was a step up from the previous mansion it was in, on to bigger and better things. As evidenced by the current building it's in. If that's the sequence of it that I remember right.

Actually, it was at the fairgrounds before the Buttram Mansion.

https://www.okcmoa.com/visit/events/okcmoa-at-75/
"The story of OKCMOA begins with the opening of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) Experimental Gallery in 1936 in downtown Oklahoma City. Two years later, the gallery relocated to the larger Municipal Auditorium in the Civic Center. The Oklahoma Art Center was incorporated on May 19, 1945. Sheets was appointed director of the new center, and over the next 30 years, she helped shape the Museum’s collection into what it is today.

After two decades in the Municipal Auditorium, the Oklahoma Art Center moved again to its new Fairgrounds location in 1958. In 1968, the OAC purchased the collection of the Washington Gallery of Modern Art, a short-lived contemporary art museum in Washington, D.C. This prompted the formation of the separate Oklahoma Museum of Conservative Art — with a focus on representational works — which relocated to Buttram Mansion in 1977. In 1989, the two museums merged to become the Oklahoma City Art Museum."

[SoonerDave]

Since they wholesale destroyed the fairgrounds to accommodate the whims of the horse crowd, I think the ship of regaining public interest has sailed. Dallas knows how to maintain and upgrade a fairgrounds. OKC knows how to bulldoze them. I, for one, couldn't care less about this sculpture.