New Light

Oklahoma City’s vibrant arts scene continues to grow, and one of the most anticipated annual events in the city’s cultural calendar is the Founders Day celebration at Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center. This occasion not only commemorates the arts center’s rich history, but also highlights its ongoing dedication to fostering creativity, innovation and community engagement.

A Legacy of Artistic Excellence
Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center, founded in 1989 as City Arts Center at the State Fairgrounds, has long been a cornerstone of Oklahoma’s cultural landscape. Over the years, the organization has evolved into a dynamic space that showcases a wide range of visual, performing and public art. Its mission is clear: to encourage artistic expression in all forms through education, exhibitions and performance. Founders Day pays tribute to the individuals and organizations that laid the foundation for what the arts center has become today.

As we approach this year’s Founders Day on April 17, we look forward to honoring the legacy reflected not only in the physical space of the arts center but also in the thriving creative culture that has emerged in Oklahoma City over the past few decades. Inspired by the vision of our founder and chairman, Christian Keesee, we are excited to recognize some of the individuals who have helped make the arts center an indispensable creative resource for our community.

This year’s deserving honorees are Liz Eickman, Aimee Harlow, Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds and Claire Holloway.

To honor the work and many contributions of these outstanding individuals and further accessibility to the arts within our community, a group of the arts center’s most dedicated supporters has generously offered to match donations up to $75,000 through April 17. All contributions help sustain exhibitions, education programs and community initiatives, allowing Oklahoma Contemporary to continue making the arts accessible to everyone.

Liz Eickman is the director of the Kirkpatrick Family Fund, which makes significant philanthropic investments in programs and organizations that provide leadership to advance cultural, intellectual and societal interest in central Oklahoma and in the Colorado Pikes Peak region. Eickman directs a multi-state grants program and special initiatives that emphasize organization endowments, arts education, the role of arts in community development, animal wellbeing and an important health concern for Oklahoma — the reduction of teen pregnancy. She serves as an advisor to the Kirkpatrick Foundation, Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center and Honestly: Youth Sexual Health. Liz also serves on the boards of Green Box, Mollie Spencer Farm, Historic Green Mountain Falls Foundation LLC, Kirkpatrick Family Fund Real Estate LLC, Campbell Art Park LLC, Kirkpatrick Publishing LLC and Kirkpatrick Policy Group as well as a commissioner for the Oklahoma City Arts Commission.

Aimee Harlow is a community leader and activist. She has dedicated herself to supporting nonprofit organizations that make Oklahoma a great place to live and work.

She currently serves as chairman of the Board of Directors of Allied Arts Oklahoma City and, in 2018, co-chaired the Allied Arts campaign which raised more than $3 million for over 40 arts agencies across the state.

Harlow also serves on the University of Oklahoma Honors College Board of Visitors and is a dynamic volunteer for myriad other organizations including Oklahoma City Ballet Board of Directors, Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma City, Myriad Gardens, Junior League of Oklahoma City, Westminster School, Winter Ball, Pi Beta Phi, Oklahoma City Philharmonic and the Oklahoma Creativity Forum.

She and her husband David co-chaired the 2021 United Way annual campaign, which raised $17.8 million to support more than 100 lifesaving programs in our community. During the campaign they generated thousands of new donors, raising over $700,000 in new dollars.

Harlow previously served on the Capital Campaign Board for Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center and is past chair of the Development Committee and secretary of the organization’s board of directors.

She was president of Oklahoma City University’s Societies group from 2020-2022, which builds awareness and funds for OCU. She chaired the 2021 Beaux Arts Ball that supports the Oklahoma City Museum of Art and co-authored a coffee-table book with Bob Burke entitled The Beaux Arts Ball – The First 75 Years, which was published by the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. Harlow recently graduated from Leadership Oklahoma Class 35.

Harlow’s passion for community service has resulted in her receiving numerous awards, including Panhellenic Woman of the Year, the OKC Friday Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Oklahoma, Journal Record’s Fifty Making a Difference, Oklahoma City University’s Award of Excellence, Pi Beta Phi’s National Crest Award for Community Service and the Ladies in the News Award for Excellence in Community Service.

Harlow earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration with an emphasis in marketing and journalism from the University of Oklahoma in Norman. She retired in 2019 from a 33-year career in banking-software consulting and sales from FIS Corporation.

Harlow and her husband reside in Oklahoma City. They have two adult children: Kristina, who works as a consultant for PwC in New York City; and Will, a civil engineer for Wallace Engineering in Oklahoma City.

Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds is an artist and an advocate for Indigenous communities worldwide. His work includes multidisciplinary forms of public art messages, large scale drawings, the Neuf series acrylic paintings, prints, works in glass and monumental porcelain enamel-on-steel outdoor sculpture. The tribal elder serves as an instructor/painter in the traditional Cheyenne Earth Renewal Ceremony at Concho, Oklahoma, and is one of the leaders of the Cheyenne Elk Scraper Warrior Society.

Heap of Birds’ artistic creations were shown in the 2007 Venice Biennale. While representing Indigenous communities, his art focuses first on social justice, and on the personal freedom to live within the tribal circle as an expressive individual.

His work has been exhibited at some of the most renowned institutions in the world, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Orchard Gallery, Northern Ireland; the Cheyenne and Arapaho Nations Reservation in Oklahoma; Site Santa Fe Museum, New Mexico; Grand Palais in Paris, France; National Institute of Education Gallery, Singapore; and Documenta in Kassel, Germany. His art holds a place in the collections of many museums, such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City; Walker Art Center in Minneapolis; and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Most recently, his work was acquired for the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City; Forge Project, Hudson, New York; Tia Collection, Santa Fe, New Mexico; the British Museum and Tate Modern in London; Anchorage Museum in Alaska; LACMA in Los Angeles; and the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

In 2012, he was named USA Ford Fellow, and in 2014 he was honored as a Distinguished Alumni from the University of Kansas in Lawrence. During 2020, the artist was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and then chosen to join their Department of Art. He has received grants and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Andy Warhol Foundation, Bonfil Stanton Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trust, AT&T, Lila Wallace Foundation, Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Sharing his expertise and talent with the next generation of artists, Heap of Birds has taught at Yale University; University of Capetown, South Africa; and the University of Oklahoma. Now retired from teaching, after 30 years of service, he is professor emeritus.

Heap of Birds received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Kansas. The artist’s master of fine art degree is from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia. He has also completed graduate level study at the Royal College of Art in London. He has been awarded honorary doctor of fine arts and letters degrees from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston; Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver, Canada; and California Institute of the Arts in Valencia.

His interest in supporting arts for all has been realized by funding gifts to the University of Kansas, which established a Native-named family gallery and annual Indigenous art exhibition, and at the Tyler School of Art. The Temple gift brings an additional Native-named family art gallery and Indigenous on-site residency for artists, which includes a studio and exhibition, thus encouraging artistic creation and expressions from generations to come.

Claire Holloway is an artist and teacher from Oklahoma City. Inspired by the stockyards and fairgrounds she grew up near, Holloway’s work focuses on untraditional western themes. This interest in depicting western motifs was elevated from a hobby to strict study when she enrolled in the Oklahoma Academy of Classical Art. This Edmond-based studio taught Holloway foundational skills of drawing and painting. With a continued passion for working representationally, Holloway attended the University of Oklahoma, where she studied painting and sculpting. Sculpture became her focus after taking classes with sculptor Paul Moore. Upon graduating in 2021, she set her sight on the goal of telling the untold stories of the west. Holloway spent more time around the traditional “western” areas of Oklahoma and saw how many fables, stories and interactions go unnoticed.

Gradually this passion led Holloway to learn from contemporary sculptors throughout the United States, traveling throughout Oklahoma, Colorado and Washington to work with wildlife artists. After assisting in workshops and studios, Holloway began instructing weekly classes on drawing and painting from life at the Oklahoma Academy of Classical Art. Teaching how to work from life made Holloway realize the importance of foundational instruction for any artist: if a student approaches a complex subject matter with the right process, they will achieve their goal. This lesson stayed with Holloway as she began teaching at Oklahoma Contemporary’s Studio School. Holloway has taught at Studio School since 2022, instructing classes on sculpting and animal drawing as well as teaching several classes exclusively for veterans. From drawing dogs to still life painting to sculpting a pet, Holloway builds a material and subject matter foundation, giving her students solid ground to walk on.

Alongside teaching at Studio School, Holloway has worked at the Crucible Foundry since 2022 to learn the lost-wax casting process. Her work is represented at Terra Rosa gallery in Guthrie and held in private collections throughout the west. Additionally, her work has been shown in multiple shows with Allied Arts and the Paseo Arts Association.

Join us April 17 at 4:30 p.m. for Founders Day 2025 as we celebrate this incredible group of individuals championing accessible artistic engagement across Oklahoma. Grab your free tickets, and donate in honor of one or all of our award recipients!

With special thanks to the following supporters who have made this generous match possible: BancFirst, Steve and Kim Bruno, Annie Bohanon, Ann Johnstone, Joan Maguire, James Pickel and Chuck Wiggin.

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