“Tulsa has become so well known for murals and public art over the last decade that art is now a huge part of the Tulsa zeitgeist,” said Jeramy Pappas, OU-Tulsa director of digital marketing and strategy, who spearheaded the project.
“With our beautiful campus in the heart of midtown, extending the creativity and expression of public art here allows us to tell the story of our unique, close-knit OU-Tulsa community; to create something that reflects not only our students, faculty and staff, but our values and aspirations,” he said. “This is the first project of its kind on an OU campus, and more than a year’s worth of thorough work and planning went on before anyone ever picked up a paint brush.”
A local art collective, Black Moon, completed the projects.
Black Moon is a group of Black artists from the Tulsa area who create thought-provoking art and work to cultivate creativity in their community. Its artists are responsible for several important and groundbreaking art projects and installations in the Tulsa area, including the iconic “Black Wall Street” mural in Tulsa’s Greenwood District, the “Oklahoma” mural inside Tulsa International Airport, and “Time Travel,” housed at the Philbrook Museum of Art.
Standing over 6 feet tall, the Penguin was originally brought to the Tulsa campus in 2002 as part of a fundraiser for the Tulsa Zoo.
The Bison statue was installed at OU-Tulsa in 2004 as part of a community art project benefiting the Nature Conservancy of Oklahoma.
The mural is an original creation by the artists from Black Moon.
