The final vote held by the City Commission to approve $49,000 of hotel/motel tax funds was held Monday, April 13 at City Hall. Two of the four city commissions attended the meeting remotely, while Paul Taylor and Mayor Homer Nicholson attended in person. 

Before the final vote was taken, Kelsey Wagner spoke briefly about the project, summarizing the mural project journey to this point. 


"First, I’d like to thank the City Manager, the Mayor, the Commissioners and the other city staff who have allowed us to pursue this project, and who have offered a hand of support. We appreciate everything you have done, and this project would not be possible without your support, so on behalf of Ponca City Main Street and all the mural donors, thank you.
 
I wanted to say a few words about this project before the vote, something to recap the journey where we started and where it’s taken us.
 
On January 12, 2018, Rick Sinnett made his first visit to Ponca City. Since that day over two years ago, he’s made dozens of trips up here to examine the mural site.
 
For those of us involved in the process of planning, the last two years have been spent raising money, scheduling meetings, speaking with lawyers, filling out paperwork and figuring out logistics of painting two mega murals – this process has been a journey.
 
It hasn’t always been easy, but I see now that the process was necessary.
 
When I look back on it, every step was essential. Every step made us look inward and question our dedication to this project.
 
Every setback made those of us driving this project forward to re-evaluate whether or not we were 100% in…and every step of the way, the answer was yes.
 
Donors stepped up, community advocates stepped up, art supporters stepped up. With every possible setback, the unequivocal answer was – yes, we believe in this project, and we will see it to the end.
 
Even now, as our world faces a novel pandemic, the art that has been planned for over a year has taken on new meaning.
 
The East side mural, Oklahoma Sunrise, portrays an image of a butterfly transforming after metamorphosis, a symbol of transformation, rebirth and of thriving after diversity. That image takes on new meaning now.
 
And the West Side mural, “The Beauty of Life,” a piece of art dedicated to reminding us of the brevity of life, the endless and never-ending circle of life and death and the only constant we can rely on – change.
 
As we transform and change, I hope these murals can become a symbol of persistence in the face of adversity and hope in a brave new future, for America, for Oklahoma and especially for Ponca City."

The mural project will begin immediately, first with the creation of the giant stencils. The painting is scheduled to begin within 30-60 days. 

He insisted, despite our initial opposition, that was what he should paint. We told him we didn’t think it was possible. We had no idea how to fund it, or if it could even be done, and we had no idea what the art would look like. Rick is known for his colorful, Oklahoma-centric murals all over the state of Oklahoma. When you look on the TravelOK mural site, 3 of the 12 featured mural images on the website cover are his work. In fact, if you read on the TravelOK site under “notable mural artists”, they describe Sinnett as an Oklahoma American Folk Artist, saying “his work across the state has only just begun”

So, we asked Rick to work on rendering some images, and we approached John McNeese about funding this project. John approved the project before he ever laid eyes on the images. We then began working with the city because as we found out, repainting the elevator had been something they had wanted to do for quite some time, and we also found out that the lowest quote they had for painting it up to that point was $250,000. In fact, in the Ponca City comprehensive plan, Chapter 2, page 15 states one of the City’s goals is to develop a public art program, particularly in downtown, and to create a fundraising campaign to generate sufficient revenue to paint a mural on the Robin Hood Flour grain elevator, with the goal of creating a distinctive identity for the downtown district.

In addition to fulfilling a goal that city had, we would be achieving the goal with a public/private partnership which is preferred to all public funding, because then the community has buy-in and ownership. So, with John’s $20,000 matching pledge, the city’s potential $49,000 from tourism funds and $30,000 more raised in private donations, suddenly the $100,000 Rick Sinnett mural was a feasible project.  The City also inquired about painting the other two structures in an effort to “complete the project” and that is something we hope to do.

The City of Ponca City is no stranger to ambitious long-term or multi-year projects, and just as they are currently doing with the Ponca City Broadband project and the massive Trail System project, we propose breaking the elevator project down into phases in order to make it more manageable and attainable. 

We waited for Rick to get us the renderings, and he did. Rick is a professional artist; he’s created thousands of pieces of art and has experience painting large structures including elevators, which is not something most artists can say. Rick was born in Mustang, Oklahoma, and having an Oklahoma-born artist was very important to us. When we got the images, and when we understood that the $150,000 cost savings was primarily due to the stencil painting technique developed by Sinnett, and the simplistic solar-fade-resistant coloring, we took our next steps with the images Rick presented to us. So, we spoke with the property owners David Hall, Jr. and Noah Hall. We had an amazing meeting with them. We showed them the images and they said, “we approve of any images that aren’t offensive” and they even offered to allow Rick to keep his travel trailer on their property, and for him to use their electric and water hook ups. 

In regards to this project, Ponca City Main Street reached out to multiple local officials for their perspectives, and they had this to share: 

Representative Ken Luttrell stated, “I, alongside Lt Gov Pinnell have seen the impact that these types of murals can have on downtown districts and I full support this project. In fact, the artist, Rick Sinnett is a friend of mine, and I know he will do a wonderful job on this mural”

Senator Bill Coleman stated that, “I am for Elevator mural project, and all things that will beautify Ponca City”

And remember, art is an economic driver. In July 2017, Kelsey Wagner presented the findings of the AEP5 study to the City Commission and reported that the Arts industry in Ponca City had made a 5 million impact in 2015, generating $305,000 in local tax revenue. This art project will not only rejuvenate and revitalize a downtown area, it will also have a major and lasting economic impact on local businesses and government municipalities for years to come. ​

Thank you to these generous donors who have already contributed towards our goal! 

​City of Ponca City
John McNeese
Ponca City Tourism
Ponca City Main Street
Shanley Wells-Rau
Rachel Stewart
MyMediaMatters
Trina Liles-Sims
Jayne and Mark Detten
Lori Henderson
Rick and Kim Hancock
Liz Leaming
Grace Chism
Stacy Behel