Sara Anais Hathaway moved to Tulsa from Chicago in October 2024. She wanted to find a space for artists like herself in her new community.
She soon found Art House Tulsa, an eastside organization focused on supporting local and regional artists.
“(Art House) felt more like a community of peers rather than feeling like you had to be really professional or businessy, which is what I really liked about them,” she said.
Hathaway became one of four artists in residency at Art House Tulsa. Now, the home she found will pause its programming and events in June after facing fundraising challenges.
The announcement came after the organization’s co-director stepped away last year and the group was unable to find new long-term funding sources.
Art House Tulsa’s farewell show is set for 7 to 11 p.m. Saturday at 11110 E. 27th St. You can purchase tickets for $15 online. There will be music by Angelfux and a cash bar by East Side Eats.
“The reason we paused it is because of the programs that we have going on right now, like with the artist residency and any time we do like pop-ups or shows, it takes money,” co-founder Rogelio Esparza said. “But with the pause, it just means, maybe we’ll do a show in two years.”
Losing a space for emerging artists
The organization helped over 200 artists across its nearly seven years in existence. Co-founders Allison Ward and Esparza brought the organization to life through art shows in their own homes, eventually expanding it to include different locations and showcase more artists.
Artist Rebekah Danae was among those featured in Art House Tulsa’s exhibitions. She said the pause brings a loss of non-traditional spaces for showing and exhibiting, especially for emerging artists to show their work.
“When we give emerging opportunities emerging artist opportunities, it’s invaluable to practice setting up a show, to make a statement for your show to install, to have your friends install with you to test and try your ideas in real time, and having that, like, hands-on experience prepares you to show work at Gilcrease or Philbrook or outside of Tulsa,” she said.
It’s a real win when they see someone who has been featured in an Art House show displaying their work in bigger spaces across the country, she said.
The organization allowed Hathaway to be in spaces with people around her age and emerging artists that are still figuring out the direction of their art, unlike other galleries that focus on established and older artists.
“They let me explore, they let me have a space to just kind of figure myself out as an artist, which I feel is super valuable,” she said.
It felt like the right step in her professional development when Hathaway learned about the residency opportunity.
“That’s what I was really hoping for and that’s what I definitely got,” she said. “It felt so nice to be able to have a studio ‘cause I turned my dining room into my art studio at home.”
Artists in residency use the space at Studio 1801, a collaboration between Art House and Tulsa artist VNICE World to provide a space for artists and the community to connect at 1801 S. Garnett Road.
VNICE World worked closely with Esparza throughout the years. He first met and heard about Art House Tulsa when he was DJing. It was around this time that he picked art back up.
It was one of the first times he had done an exhibition on a bigger canvas, he said.
Art House stood out to him because it was one of the first organizations to create an art event at a house, VNICE said. You started seeing other ones pop up afterwards.
The organization has gone a long way since it started, he said. VNICE will be a featured artist at the farewell show, alongside artists Zuawe, Qumes and Miles Rogoish.
“For me, I didn’t look at it as one last one,” VNICE said. “I feel like a lot of people are like ‘Oh, are they completely shutting down?’ And I don’t know, maybe I’m just kind of in denial.”
What’s next
Although Art House Tulsa’s farewell show is on Saturday, Hathaway will remain in their artist in residency program through December.
She’s been working with VNICE to host community events at Studio 1801 and recently hosted a paint and sip event at Art House Tulsa.
The future of Art House Tulsa remains uncertain. Organizers say it’s a temporary pause as Art House can live on since it started with little to no money, but grew into something that needed resources to survive. If someone were to come up with an idea or funding opportunities in the future, Esparza said they’d be open to bringing a show back to life.
The last show will bring the organization back to its roots: a show simply inside of a house.
“That’s how Art House started, with doing art shows in non-conventional spaces,” Esparza said.
This article was produced as part of a partnership between the Tulsa Flyer and La Semana, a Tulsa-based bilingual Spanish-English newspaper serving Latino communities in Oklahoma.
News decisions at the Tulsa Flyer are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
