Oklahoma Contemporary's monthly outdoor art bash returns to celebrate our connections to each other

A photo depicts a square of fabric marked with different colors of vibrant paint

This swath of fabric is an example of those that will be used in Katelynn Noel Knick's upcoming community inflatable sculpture as part of Oklahoma Contemporary's November Second Saturday.

What does it mean to belong to a community? Oklahoma Contemporary's upcoming Second Saturday celebration takes this question to heart. This month's free, family-focused day of art talks, hands-on art making, performances and adventures for all ages is about the power of coming together.

"We're all trying to social distance right now, so we're almost kind of losing a little bit of our sense of community," said Oklahoma Contemporary Youth and Family Programs Manager Christine Gibson. "We wanted to remind people that we are still a community — and we do still want to engage with each other, but in a safe way. I know we can't be together the way we all want to be, but there are some ways we can still be a community together."

November's Second Saturday will celebrate the connections we share with a variety of art-forward activities. Through collaborative movement led by RACE Dance Collective — in which participants can join from their designated, socially distanced spaces on the North Lawn — along with art-making and storytelling by Oklahoma Contemporary instructor Erica Tschida and an activity inspired by Julian Opie's Faime Walking, visitors will explore what makes us a community.

Explore the art and science of traditional Raku-style ceramics — and take home your own creation — at Oklahoma Contemporary's Second Saturday event on Nov. 14.

The day will also include an opportunity to join our ceramics community with an outdoor, traditional Raku-style firing, led by Oklahoma Contemporary Ceramics Program and Studio Manager David Stevens. In conjunction with a Studio School workshop, participants will purchase a ceramic object ranging from $10 to $50 to glaze and decorate before firing it in our state-of-the-art kiln and taking it home to enjoy.

Visitors can also add their own unique words, drawings or designs to a collaborative inflatable installation facilitated by local artist Katelynn Noel Knick. She'll be doing a live sewing demo and creating an inflatable on-site, using visitors' individual creations. "It's going to be kind of like a quilted painting," she said. "It will all come together with everyone's contributions, then I'll take it home and finish it, and it will be installed in the Learning Gallery."

An abstract inflatable sculpture on display in an art gallery

Come Close Get Lost, an inflatable sculpture by Katelynn Noel Knick, on display at ahha Tulsa.

Knick began experimenting with inflatable sculpture in 2017 as a way expand painting into 3-D forms. Her one-of-a-kind works have been on display at ahha Tulsa and Myriad Botanical Gardens in Oklahoma City, with work currently installed down the street from Oklahoma Contemporary at Factory Obscura. Collaboration is a key component for the artist, who's looking forward to Saturday's focus on community.

"Art can be so much bigger and better when you have more voices," Knick said. "I'm looking forward to giving people a chance to see this work become reality: this little square they created becoming a larger-than-life sculpture, turning that small contribution into something big. I think that's really exciting and magical."

To experience the magic for yourself, reserve your spot now for this community celebration in downtown Oklahoma City. Bring your blanket and a mask — along with your appetite for tasty seasonal treats from Café Contemporary — and get ready to enjoy a day of performances and activities on our North Lawn and throughout your new arts center, where you always belong.