The ahha's Hardesty Arts Center is closing.
This sudden news has shaken the community. Community members and artists alike are sad and shocked by the abrupt news.
Friday artists could be seen moving their work and supplies out of the building. Artist Bill Derrevere was one of those artists. He tells me he found out about the closure Thursday night and wasn’t given a reason as to why.
Noelle Keely, who lives in downtown, visited ahha's Hardesty Arts Center on multiple occasions. For her day job she specializes in artist activations. She says for the Tulsa Arts District and creatives like herself ahha was seen as an opportunity.
“The director would come to us and say if you have an idea lets execute it. So that opportunity right there was so exciting for all of us and now that it's gone I think that it just doesn’t give a lot of creatives hope. So it's just really sad,” Keeley said.
Now she worries what will happen to the building and the art community now that it's closing.
“If nothing’s going on here then it's just a depletion of Tulsa Arts District," Keeley said. I mean we were growing and this was such a growth opportunity for us that now that it's taken away I feel like we are going to have to cross a lot more barriers and it gives opportunity for other negative things to come in.”
She also worries the building will become a spot for the homeless with nothing going on inside the building.
The final day of operations is November 4th. 2 News Oklahoma reached out to officials Thursday to learn more about the closure.
We have made the difficult decision to announce the closure of ahha’s Hardesty Arts Center on Friday, November 4, including ceasing the operations of our programs for now. We are working closely with our partners to ensure we find a long-term future for some of our programs and do this as quickly as possible.
For our artists, partners and vendors, please know we are working as quickly as possible to get in touch with you. If you have any immediate questions, please email ahhaTulsaOK@gmail.com.
We thank our employees, guests, donors and partners for more than 60 years of support and look forward to bringing our programs back to continue our focus on keeping Tulsa creative.
Founded as the Arts and Humanities Council in 1961, the focus of ahha was to bring "arts to the community through innovative programming and to facilitate collaboration amongst the various arts organizations in Tulsa." Originally run out of the historic Harwelden Mansion, the organization rebranded as ahha and opened the Hardesty Arts Center in the Tulsa Arts District downtown in 2012.
- Programs offered included
- Artists in the Schools
- Community Arts Partnerships
- Any Given Child-Tulsa
Given the programs and partnerships with area school districts, we reached out to Jenks Public Schools. The district says many of their students were scheduled to go on field trips to the facility in the coming weeks.
We are saddened to hear about the closing of Ahha Tulsa. Jenks Public Schools is grateful for all they have done to enhance our students' experiences with the arts whether it was through programs like Artist in the Schools or on site field trips. Most recently, several third grade classes visited Ahha Tulsa and the students, families, and teachers raved about their time viewing, immersing in, and creating art. We regret the closing of Ahha and are hopeful this type of focus on the arts will continue in Tulsa in the near future.
2 News Oklahoma reached out to officials with ahha again Friday to get a better understand on what lead to the closure, and what the future is for the organization and programs. We received this response:
Unfortunately, it has been increasingly difficult to operate ahha in its current form due to the most challenging economic and social time in recent history.
We are working closely with our partners to ensure we find a long-term future for some of our programs and do this as quickly as possible.
For our artists, partners and vendors, please know we are working as quickly as possible to get in touch with you. If you have any immediate questions, please email ahhaTulsaOK@gmail.com. We ask for patience as we contact all those that reach out.
We thank our employees, guests, donors and partners for more than 60 years of support and look forward to bringing our programs back to continue our focus on keeping Tulsa creative.
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