National Cowboy Museum offering discount admission to Thunder fans on home game days
The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is offering a $2 discount off the price of admission to patrons who wear their Oklahoma City Thunder (or Miami Heat) gear to the museum on a home game day.
That means visitors will have their first chance to take the National Cowboy Museum up on its discount offer today. For more information, go to www.nationalcowboymuseum.org.
Game 2 of the NBA Finals pitting the Thunder against the Heat will tip off at 8 tonight at Chesapeake Energy Arena. The game will air on ABC (KOCO-5)
Thunder up and cowboy up!
-BAM
Video: Reba McEntire returns to Oklahoma to receive Annie Oakley Society Award
Country Music Hall of Famer, superstar entertainer and Oklahoma native Reba McEntire returned to her home state Thursday to receive the Annie Oakley Society Award at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.
“Any time that I can be associated with the name Annie Oakley or anything to do with Annie Oakley, I am very honored and pleased,” Reba said.
Named for the famed sharpshooter and entertainer, the 2-year-old Annie Oakley Society celebrates women who demonstrate leadership and the entrepreneurial spirit of the Great American West. Former Oklahoma first lady Cathy Keating, one of the society’s co-founders, said Sandra Day O’Connor received the inaugural honor last year.
“We typically pick women who have achieved significant firsts. Of course, Sandra Day O’Connor was the first woman Supreme Court justice. Reba has had one first after another. She really is a glass-ceiling breaker … and she is a very, very quiet philanthropist as well,” Keating said.
With Thursday’s luncheon, the society has raised more than $2 million for its goal of improving the National Cowboy Museum’s children’s offerings, including the planned addition of what’s billed as the first and only Native American playground, Keating said. Craig Clemons, the museum’s chief development officer, said the society’s efforts were the impetus for launching a full multi-million dollar comprehensive campaign designed to help the entire institution continue to thrive in the 21st century.
“All the money that is raised from here goes to the children and family areas of the museum, and “We’re building a new children’s museum to inspire both little cowboys and cowgirls to be whatever they want to be, to dream big dreams, to live the code of the West, to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, to be honest and have integrity, and all those things that really are important to building our communities,” The Annie Oakley Society is actually blazing a trail for the museum to find new and different ways of doing that,” Keating said.
McEntire, who hails from Chockie, capped her visit by donating the society.
NewsOK host Angi Bruss and I spoke Thursday to Reba and to Keating about the Annie Oakley Society Award, the exciting developments coming up at the National Cowboy Museum and Reba’s new TV show, “Malibu Country.” Watch the video to learn all about it.
To read my feature about Thursday’s festivities honoring McEntire, click here.
-BAM
Reba McEntire returns to Oklahoma to receive the Annie Oakley Society Award
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, right, presents Country Music Hall of Famer and Oklahoma native Reba McEntire with the Annie Oakley Society Award Thursday at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Looking on his former Oklahoma first lady Cathy Keating, one of the society's co-founders. Photo provided by www.ownbeyphotography.com
A version of this story appears in Friday’s The Oklahoman. To see a video of Reba McEntire talking about the Annie Oakley Society Award, click here.
Reba McEntire receives the Annie Oakley Society Award
The Country Music Hall of Famer and native Oklahoman returned Thursday to her home state, where she was honored at a luncheon at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.
An accident between a catering truck and the Concorde inadvertently helped Reba McEntire get her favorite job in her long and varied entertainment career: Playing Western heroine Annie Oakley on Broadway.
In 2000, McEntire and her husband/manager Narvel Blackstock were set to fly the turbojet from New York to England for a television appearance, but fate had other ideas.
“They said that our plane had been canceled ‘cause the catering truck had backed into the Concorde and knocked the door off the hinges. I thought that was pretty bizarre, but it’s also fate, ‘cause Narvel said ‘What do you want to do today?’ … Anytime we’re up in New York City, we go see a play. He said, ‘Well, they’ve been asking you to do ‘Annie Get Your Gun’ for awhile now. Do you wanna go see it?’” McEntire recalled with a smile.
“At intermission, we looked at each other, and I said, ‘I gotta be on this stage.’ She’s a very powerful woman and we are here today still honoring her because of all the examples she set. She was a strong woman. She fed her family. She stood up for what she believed in. She traveled the world. She performed in front of queens, probably presidents, too … and she was very, very respected. So she’s a lady I’ve always looked up to and was kind of always there in the back of my mind, kind of ‘What would Annie do in a situation like this?’”
On Thursday, the Country Music Hall of Famer, 57, returned to her home state to receive
klahoma country music/acting superstar Reba McEntire talks at a press conference after she was honored as The Annie Oakley Society Award winner on Thursday, June 7, 2012, in Oklahoma City, Okla. Photo by Steve Sisney, The Oklahoman
the Annie Oakley Society Award at a luncheon at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Gov. Mary Fallin , the state’s first female governor, called McEntire a “shining star of Oklahoma” as she presented the multi-talented entertainer with the award, a bronze statuette of the Western legend that was designed by Deborah Fellows.
“Reba McEntire embodies the spirit of Oklahoma and certainly upholds the Annie Oakley Society’s name and all that it stands for. Reba has been a true trailblazer throughout her entire career in entertainment, in business, as a wife and as a mother. She has been able to do all these things while breaking through many barriers,” Fallin said.
“Like the legendary Annie Oakley … she pushed boundaries of her dreams in her industry that is dominated by men while proving that anything can be done, anything can be accomplished, on many, many levels, whether it was country music, whether it was acting, whether it was fashion, whether it was fashion. This never-give-up attitude has inspired so many others and motivated women of all ages to dream really big.”
Named for the famed sharpshooter and entertainer, the 2-year-old Annie Oakley Society celebrates women who demonstrate leadership and the entrepreneurial spirit of the Great American West. Former Oklahoma first lady Cathy Keating, one of the society’s co-founders, said Sandra Day O’Connor received the inaugural honor last year.
“We typically pick women who have achieved significant firsts. Of course, Sandra Day O’Connor was the first woman Supreme Court justice. Reba has had one first after another. She really is a glass-ceiling breaker … and she is a very, very quiet philanthropist as well,” Keating said.
With Thursday’s luncheon, the society has raised more than $2 million for its goal of improving the National Cowboy Museum’s children’s offerings, including the planned addition of what’s billed as the first and only Native American playground, Keating said. Craig Clemons, the museum’s chief development officer, said the society’s efforts were the impetus for launching a full multi-million dollar comprehensive campaign designed to help the entire institution continue to thrive in the 21st century.
“All the money that is raised from here goes to the children and family areas of the museum, and “We’re building a new children’s museum to inspire both little cowboys and cowgirls to be whatever they want to be, to dream big dreams, to live the code of the West, to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, to be honest and have integrity, and all those things that really are important to building our communities,” The Annie Oakley Society is actually blazing a trail for the museum to find new and different ways of doing that,” Keating said.
McEntire, who hails from Chockie, capped her visit by donating the society. The singer/actress was inducted into the museum’s Hall of Great Western Performers in 1995, and her father and grandfather are both in its Rodeo Hall of Fame.
“This establishment, this organization, this building, means an awful lot to the McEntires. It’s very special to come back,” she said.
McEntire, who is preparing to launch her new TV sitcom “Malibu Country” in November, recalled watching the “Annie Oakley” show as a child on her family’s black-and-white TV set, and she played the sharpshooter in the 1995 TV movie “Buffalo Girls.” But her favorite role of her career, which ranges from music and movies to TV and fashion design, was playing her heroine on Broadway.
“I got to play a character whom I admired. I got to be playing with other folks on the stage. I got to act in costume, change costumes a lot and dance and sing. So it was always the things I love to do wrapped up in one package,” she said.
“Any time that I can be associated with the name Annie Oakley or anything to do with Annie Oakley, I am very honored and pleased.”
-BAM
Best Bets for June 8-10, 2012: Prix de West, CB Radio Comedy Tour, OK Mozart and Fun.
Tim Cherry's sculpture "Otter Knot" is part of this year's Prix de West.
1. View work by the country’s top contemporary Western artists at the Prix de West Invitational Art Exhibit and Sale, opening this weekend and running through Aug. 5 at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63. Information: 478-2250 or www.nationalcowboymuseum.org. To read The Oklahoman’s preview of the Prix de West, click here.
2. Hear alternative rockers Fun. with special guest Now Now at 7 p.m. Friday at the Diamond Ballroom, 8001 S Eastern. Information: 677-9169 or www.diamondballroom.net.
3. Laugh at the CB Radio Comedy Tour, featuring John Tole, Chris Cubas, Brad Porter and Cameron Buchholtz, at 9 p.m. Saturday at The Conservatory, 8911 N Western. Information: www.conservatoryokc.com.
4. Listen to the acclaimed trio of bassist Esperanza Spalding, drummer Terri Lyne Carrington and pianist Geri Allen at 2 p.m. Sunday at Oklahoma City University, 2501 N Blackwelder. The concert is part of the OK Mozart Festival, which features many shows in Oklahoma City and Bartlesville. Information: www.okmozart.com.
-BAM
Reba McEntire receives Annie Oakley Society Award today
The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is proud to announce that multi-talented Oklahoma born-and bred superstar Reba McEntire received The Annie Oakley Society Award today at the organization’s second annual luncheon.
The society celebrates women who demonstrate leadership and the entrepreneurial spirit of the Great American West, according to a news release.
“Oklahoma native, Reba, is a woman who embodies the values of The Annie Oakley Society,” said former First Lady of Oklahoma Cathy Keating in the release. “She is a trailblazer who has broken glass ceilings in everything she has undertaken by soaring to the top as a musical artist, actress, author, business woman, entertainer, wife, mother and champion of charitable causes.”
Reba, like the legendary Annie Oakley succeeded with her determination and strength of character. By using her talents, she broke barriers for women all while showing great compassion for other women.
“In harmony with Annie Oakley’s tradition of cherishing families and helping others, proceeds through membership of The Annie Oakley Society are combined to fund the renovation of the children’s area of the Museum,” said Keating. “Future plans to support improvements in other areas of the Museum will ensure its future as a place where families can learn and cherish the West, as well as honor Annie’s lifelong commitment to her family and education.”
The Annie Oakley Society, co-founded by Keating and Lynn Friess, has added a new dimension to the museum by honoring and raising awareness of outstanding women of the West. The society has raised more than $2 million to date, according to the release.
McEntire, who hails from Chockie, is a Country Music Hall of Famer, a television actress in the midst of launching her second sitcom and even played Annie Oakley on Broadway.
In addition, the society announced at today’s luncheon that McEntire has made a donation that will go toward the society’s efforts to revitalize the museum, especially its children’s area and programming.
Look for more of my story, including my interview with Reba, Friday in The Oklahoman, on NewsOK and here on BAM’s Blog.
-BAM
What to do in Oklahoma on May 27, 2012: Check out the Chuck Wagon Gathering & Children’s Cowboy Festival at the National Cowboy Museum
Jack Ramey, from Mustang, and Bill Nuzum, from El Reno, prepare to unload a chuck wagon from a trailer Wednesday, May 25, 2011, for the Chuck Wagon Gathering and Children's Cowboy Festival this weekend at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. Photo by Paul B. Southerland, The Oklahoman Archives
Today’s featured event:
Check out the Chuck Wagon Gathering and Children’s Cowboy Festival at 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today Saturday and Sunday at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63.
The 22nd annual event includes outdoor cooking, children’s activities, live Western music and more. To read The Oklahoman Food Dude Dave Cathey’s feature on the event, click here.
For more information, go to www.nationalcowboymuseum.org.
For more events, go to www.wimgo.com.
-BAM
Memorial Day weekend festivities planned across Oklahoma
Rascal Flatts, from left, Picher-bred Joe Don Rooney, Jay DeMarcus and Gary LeVox, will play a benefit show Monday at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa. The show will benefit the Owasso-based Folds of Honor Foundation, which provides post-secondary educational scholarships for children and spouses of military service men and women killed or disabled while serving our country.
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
Memorial Day weekend festivities planned across Oklahoma
Communities around the state are honoring the troops, showcasing live music and spotlighting the arts over the three-day holiday weekend, widely considered the unofficial start of summer.
The unofficial start of summer has arrived, and venues across Oklahoma are offering events that will honor the troops, showcase live music, spotlight the arts or generally make the three-day Memorial Day weekend a festive affair.
Rascal Flatts’ Folds of Honor benefit show: 8:30 p.m. Monday at The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa, Interstate 44 and Exit 240. The superstar country band, which includes Picher-bred guitarist Joe Don Rooney, is playing a benefit show for the Owasso-based Folds of Honor Foundation, which provides post-secondary educational scholarships for children and spouses of military service men and women killed or disabled while serving our country. The show will cap the foundation’s Patriot Cup invitational golf tournament. Doors for the concert open at 7:30 p.m. Information: www.hardrockcasinotulsa.com or www.foldsofhonor.org.
45th Infantry Division Museum’s Memorial Day Ceremony: 10 a.m. Monday at the museum, 2145 NE 36. The ceremony honoring U.S. service members will include a military flyover, massing of the colors and a distinguished guest speaker. Admission is free. Information: www.45thdivisionmuseum.com.
Retired Master Sgt. Steve Cope is escorted by the Governor's Honor Guard as Cope places the memorial wreath at the base of the flag pole during the 2011 45th Infantry Division Museum Memorial Day Ceremony. Photo by Chris Landsberger, The Oklahoman Archives
Celebration of Freedom: Activities begin at 9 a.m. Friday, 8 a.m. Saturday, 10 a.m. Sunday and noon Monday in Hobart. The event will include a fly-in, parade, concert by Neal McCoy and Gen. Tommy Franks book signing. It will coincide with the annual Arts on the Square arts and crafts show and Kiowa County Quilt Show. Information: www.celebrationoffreedom.com.
Sixth annual Music & Mayhem: 5:30 p.m. Saturday at Eufaula Cove Amphitheatre, 399 Lakeshore Drive, Eufaula. Hear Dierks Bentley, Eli Young Band, The Great Divide and The Cadillac Black. Doors open at 5 p.m. Information: www.levellandproductions.com.
Rocklahoma: Music continues through Sunday at the three-day camping and rock music event at Catch the Fever Festival Grounds in Pryor. This year’s festival will feature more than 70 acts including Rob Zombie, Chickenfoot, Creed, Megadeth, Slash, Queensryche, Chevelle, Jackyl, Theory of a Deadman, Hellyeah, Puddle of Mudd. Information: www.rocklahoma.com.
36th Annual Paseo Arts Festival: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. with music until 11 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. with music until 7 p.m. Monday in the Paseo Arts District. The festival will feature more than 80 artists, live music, festival foods, children’s activities and more. Admission is free. Information: www.thepaseo.com.
A chuck wagon sits under a tree on the grounds of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, on Thursday, May 17, 2012. Photo by Sarah Phipps, The Oklahoman
Chuck Wagon Gathering and Children’s Cowboy Festival: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63. The 22nd annual event includes outdoor cooking, children’s activities, live Western music and more. Information: www.nationalcowboymuseum.org.
Edmond Jazz and Blues Festival: 4 to 10 p.m. Saturday and 2 to 10 p.m. Sunday at Stephenson Park, Boulevard and Fifth. The event includes live jazz and blues by Equilibrium, Kelley Hunt, Chris Hicks and more. Admission is free. Information: www.Edmondjazzandblues.org.
Rhythm Q’s & Blues: 10 a.m. Friday and Saturday at Hafer Park, 1034 S Bryant in Edmond. The event will feature a barbecue cook-off officially sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbeque Society. The people’s choice competition and public tasting is set for 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, or until the food runs out. Festivities on Saturday also include a car show, children’s art activities and live music from Edgar Cruz, Kyle Dillingham and more. Information: www.rqblues.org.
Schwarzstock 2012: 5 p.m. Saturday at the Schwarzstock Festival Grounds, 3604 N Cimarron Road. The third annual Oklahoma indie music festival features Crystal Vision, The Gentle Art of Floating, Horse Thief and seven other local bands. Doors open at 4 p.m. Information: www.facebook.com/Schwarzstock.
Lindsey Rickards, Hillary Titus and Chynna Collins dance during the Edmond Jazz and Blues Festival at Stephenson Park, in Edmond, Okla., Saturday, May 28, 2011. Photo by Sarah Phipps, The Oklahoman Archives
101st annual Boley Rodeo and BBQ Festival: Activities begin at 11 a.m. Saturday and 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Boley’s Main Street and rodeo grounds. The event features rodeo action, barbecue and a parade at 1 p.m. Saturday. Information: www.boleyokrodeo.com.
17th annual Oklahoma Renaissance Festival: 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday through Monday at the Castle of Muskogee. The final weekend of the annual family-friendly festival includes magicians, musicians, jugglers, jesters and other medieval-style performers, festive food and shopping for handcrafted items. Information: www.okcastle.com.
66th annual Will Rogers Stampede Rodeo: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 6 p.m. Sunday at Will Rogers Roundup Arena, E Blue Starr Drive, Claremore. The event will feature steer wrestling, team roping, bull and bronc riding, barrel racing and mutton busting just for the youngsters. Information: www.willrogersstampede.com.
Bethany 66 Festival: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday in downtown Bethany. Festivities include downtown sidewalk sales, children’s activities, classic car show and live entertainment, including a performance by local favorite Edgar Cruz. Information: www.Bethany100.com.
Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship: Games start at 3:15 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. Saturday, with the championship game at 1 p.m. Sunday at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark, 2 S Mickey Mantle Drive. Information: www.okcallsports.org.
ONLINE
To learn about more Memorial Day events across Oklahoma, go to www.wimgo.com or www.travelok.com.
-BAM
Bruce Boxleitner, Fess Parker, Temple Grandin among 2012 Western Heritage Award honorees
Bruce Boxleitner
Actors Bruce Boxleitner and the late Fess Parker; animal scientist, best-selling author and austism advocate Temple Grandin; the late historian and author Walter Prescott Webb; and the late spur maker and cowboy Jerry Cates will be celebrated at the 51st anniversary Western Heritage Awards next month at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.
The Board of Directors at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum announced today the 2012 inductees who will be celebrated at the April 21 gala.
First presented in 1961, the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum Western Heritage Awards were established to honor and encourage the legacy of those whose works in literature, music, film and television reflect the significant stories of the American West. The awards program also recognizes inductees into the prestigious Hall of Great Westerners and the Hall of Great Western Performers as well as the recipient of the Chester A. Reynolds Memorial Award, named in honor of the Museum’s founder. Each honoree receives a Wrangler, an impressive bronze sculpture of a cowboy on horseback.
For tickets or information on the Western Heritage Awards, go to www.nationalcowboymuseum.org.
Read more about this year’s honorees after the break.
Michael Martin Murphey brings Cowboy Christmas Ball back to Oklahoma City’s National Cowboy Museum
For the 17th year, Michael Marti
Michael Martin Murphey brings Cowboy Christmas Ball back to Oklahoma City
For the 17th year, the Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter is helping the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum continue the American holiday tradition.
n Murphey is bringing a truly American Christmas tradition to Oklahoma City.
The singer-songwriter will keep the customs of an old-fashioned Western holiday with his popular Cowboy Christmas Ball at 7 p.m. Friday at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.
“It’s the only really American Christmas tradition that we have. Everything else is European,” Murphey said in a phone interview last week from Lubbock, Texas.
“Tchaikovsky’s ‘The Nutcracker’ (is) Russian. The Victorian Christmas and Charles Dickens always comes around every year. But there’s nothing that’s really about the American feeling of Christmas, and I think the Cowboy Christmas Ball is that.”
Murphey modeled his Cowboy Christmas Ball, now in its 19th year of touring the Southwest, on a more than century-old tradition started in Anson, Texas. In 1885, an Anson couple got married at Christmastime and invited all the ranching families. Famed East Coast journalist Larry Chittenden was in town and wrote a poem about the event.
The poem was published in the London Times, The New York Times and many other newspapers, and the ball became a yearly tradition. People began coming from thousands of miles away to take part in the Cowboy Christmas Ball, which last year in Anson drew participants from several surrounding states and even a couple from Japan.
A Texas native, Murphey, 66, still plays the Anson ball every year and helped the Oklahoma City museum establish its event.
“Next to the Anson event … Oklahoma City is the most important to me. Because they get it, what a phenomenal American tradition this is,” said Murphey, who now divides his time among Texas, Colorado and Wisconsin.
“Oklahoma City every year proves that this is a fabulous, fun tradition. It may be all about history, but it’s the history of fun,” he added with a laugh.
“They just get out there and just kill it with the ‘Cotton-eyed Joe’ and the schottische and all these great dances. And the ladies make these incredible dresses, these Victorian ball gowns, and everybody else wears Western clothes. And the kids get out and dance and go crazy because it’s a family-style dance. All this has been documented and it goes back to the original ball.”
In the past year, the Grammy-nominated musician has expanded his efforts to preserve the history of the Cowboy Christmas Ball. He has been working with the Southwest Archive in Lubbock to gather more historical photographs that he has worked into the show, along with clips from a 1953 documentary about the Anson ball.
“It shows the people dancing at the ball, and some of the guys that were at the original ball are interviewed. And then those same guys who are in their 80s and 90s — one guy’s even 101 — they’re out there dancing at the ball to the music they’ve danced to ever since they were a kid,” Murphey said.
“Just in one year … we have really found some incredible stuff: a fiddle that was played at the original ball (and) great pictures of Larry Chittenden. … We found the guest book that people signed going all the way back into the ‘30s when they did the first reenactment of the ball in ’34.”
The Cowboy Christmas Ball isn’t Murphey’s only effort to continue Western musical traditions. In June, he released “Tall Grass & Cool Water,” the sixth album in his “Cowboy Songs” series and the third in his “Buckaroo Blue Grass” set, which explores the similarities between bluegrass and American cowboy music.
Produced by his son Ryan Murphey, the new album features the epic “James Gang Trilogy” along with the Western Music Hall of Famer’s first recording of The Sons of the Pioneers standard “Cool Water.”
“I finally found the band to do the arrangement I hear in my head, and that was the main reason I did it now as opposed to earlier,” Murphey said. “But my favorite thing on the album is ‘Blue Prairie.’ I love that song. It’s one of the more obscure Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneer songs that to me is timeless.”
Murphey closes the new album crooning with Western songstress Carin Mari on “Springtime in the Rockies,” a song that brings back fond memories of his childhood vacations in Colorado.
“That one is the one that I sang around the campfire … when I was a kid with my parents, my grandparents and my aunts and uncles and cousins. We all sat around with the (park) rangers back when rangers had time to do that and sang ‘Springtime in the Rockies,’” he said.
“‘Tall Grass and Cool Water’ is about the things that you feel and the stories that get told in the prairies and the mountains,” he said.
The prolific singer-songwriter was in the studio last week working on his upcoming album, which is “not cowboy or bluegrass necessarily” but will consist of acoustic originals.
However, his focus during the holidays remains the Cowboy Christmas Ball, and he and his wife Karen are looking forward to leading off the dances Friday night in Oklahoma City.
“It’s the best dance that we put on because you’ve got so much space. It’s the most dancing that we see at any of them,” he said.
“There’s families that their kids grow up and get married, and we showcase them in the grand march. Sadly, there’s old-timers that we’ve known for years that pass on and now there’s a widow out there. It’s really about family and reunion.”
GOING ON
Michael Martin Murphey’s Cowboy Christmas Ball
When: 7 p.m. Friday.
Where: National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63.
Information or reservations: www.nationalcowboymuseum.org or 478-2250, Ext. 219.
-BAM
Late, great landscape painter Wilson Hurley to be featured in TV narrative “Envisioning the West,” airing Sunday on OETA
Landscape painter Wilson Hurley is shown with his "New Mexico Suite," one of his five "Windows to the West" triptychs that hang in the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in this 2005 photo from The Oklahoman Archives.
Acclaimed Tulsa-born landscape painter Wilson Hurley (1924-2008) will be featured in a television narrative titled “Wilson Hurley: Envisioning the West” airing at 9:30 p.m. Sunday on local PBS station OETA.
Hurley is best known for creating the five massive triptych paintings titled “Windows to the West,” which hang in the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum’s Sam Noble Special Events Center.
The TV program is the companion piece to “Envisioning the West,” an exhibit on view in the museum’s the Atherton Alcove through March 30. The exhibit tells the story of how the Prix de West artist created the “The Wyoming Suite,” one of the “Windows to the West” triptychs.
The exhibit delves into how Hurley’s knowledge of topography and a special easel helped him paint the enormous, beautifully rendered triptychs. It focuses specifically on Hurley’s work on the “The Wyoming Suite,” which depicts the lower falls of Yellowstone Canyon.
The idea to honor the late artist and his immense contributions to art world originated with Gerrianne Schaad, director of the museum’s Dickinson Research Center, and she hired Mary Blood-Suto (formerly McEntire) to produce a TV narrative to accompany the exhibit.
“Hurley was also an author, a lecturer, an aviator, a banker, a lawyer, and a soldier” says Schaad in a news release. “Everything he experienced added a new dimension to his painting and his life.”
Hurley was born in Tulsa but moved as a young boy to Virginia when his father, Gen. Patrick Hurley, became President Hoover’s secretary of war. The family later moved to New Mexico, where he was exposed to great artists, graduated from high school and made his home.
Hurley died in 2008, about a year after being diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease. He was 84.
Blood-Suto, who attended Putnam Schools and graduated from the University of Oklahoma, has returned to live in Oklahoma City after a 27-year absence, and she was pleased to help share the story of an Oklahoma-born icon.
“It was such an honor to write and produce Wilson’s story and it was a great welcome home,” says Blood-Suto in the release. “I hope the viewers will be pleased and it will inspire them to visit the museum to see more on Hurley and other great artists.”
For more information on the “Envisioning the West” exhibit, call 478-2250 or go to www.nationalcowboymuseum.org.
-BAM
