The Crossroads
of Creativity.
The Crossroads
of Creativity.
The Future of Our Past
The OKPOP Foundation has officially completed the $18 million Heart & Soul Campaign, and the State Treasurer has now approved and certified the pledges, releasing the state’s matching funds. This milestone marks the beginning of OKPOP’s next chapter: exhibit design, fabrication, and the build-out of Oklahoma’s first museum dedicated to the global creative impact of its people.
Hello Friends and Potential Donors,
“You know, this whole campaign wasn’t just about raising $18 million – it was about backing a mission that means something. OKPOP is here to celebrate the crazy amount of creativity that comes out of Oklahoma, to tell the stories of the folks who shaped music, film, and art, and to fire up the next generation to chase their own big dreams. The way people showed up to support this blows me away. Oklahoma should be proud of what’s coming.”
Honorary Campaign Chair
Remembering E. Nelson Bridwell, born on this day in 1931. 🎂📚⚡
Born near Sapulpa and raised in Oklahoma City, Bridwell grew from an Oklahoma kid fascinated by comics, mythology, and superheroes into one of the great behind-the-scenes minds at DC Comics. Over his career, he wrote and edited stories involving Superman, Shazam!, Super Friends, The Legion of Super-Heroes and many more, earning a reputation for his extraordinary knowledge of comic-book history and continuity.
And there’s a wonderful Oklahoma connection to the comic pictured here.
Captain Marvel Adventures No. 34 was published in 1944 and featured “Captain Marvel in Oklahoma City.” Bridwell was not involved in the original issue. But Captain Marvel was already part of his world. Bridwell later recalled discovering Captain Marvel comics at around age ten.
More than three decades later, Bridwell became professionally connected to the character himself. In 1977, he edited the major retrospective Shazam! From the Forties to the Seventies, which included a reprint of that very same “Captain Marvel in Oklahoma City” story. The Grand Comics Database even notes the connection: Oklahoma City was Bridwell’s hometown.
Today, on his birthday, we remember E. Nelson Bridwell and his remarkable contribution to the world of comics.
#OKPOP #ENelsonBridwell #OklahomaHistory #ComicsHistory
If you don’t know the name Jesse Ed Davis, there is still a good chance you have heard his guitar.
Born in Norman, Oklahoma, on this day in 1944, Davis carried his Kiowa, Comanche, Seminole, and Muscogee heritage into a remarkable musical life. His unmistakable playing can be heard alongside Taj Mahal, Bob Dylan, George Harrison, John Lennon, Jackson Browne, Eric Clapton, and many others. He performed at the Concert for Bangladesh, played the soaring guitar solo on “Doctor, My Eyes,” and helped shape recordings that became part of the fabric of American music.
But Jesse Ed Davis was more than a gifted sideman. On his own records, including ¡Jesse Davis!, Ululu, and Keep Me Comin’, he stepped into the foreground as a singer, songwriter, and bandleader with a sound entirely his own.
His playing could be restrained, soulful, fierce, and deeply human, often within the same song. Later in his life, his work with poet and activist John Trudell brought Indigenous music, identity, poetry, and resistance together with the power of rock and roll.
Davis often stood just outside the spotlight, but his sound remains impossible to erase. Today, on his birthday, we remember an Oklahoma original whose guitar spoke across genres, cultures, and generations.
Happy birthday, Jesse Ed Davis.
#JesseEdDavis #OKPOP #OklahomaMusic #RockAndRollHistory
It was great to have Oklahoma documentary filmmaker James Payne in at OKPOP for a video interview about his creative journey, the power of place, and what it means to tell true stories with care.
Raised in Ardmore and now based in Tulsa, James has spent his career following stories wherever they lead. His work has taken him from Okie Noodling and The Creek Runs Red to Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo, Far Western, projects with The Flaming Lips, and sound work on Terrence Malick’s To the Wonder.
Throughout our conversation, James reflected on documentary ethics, the relationship between fact and perspective, the importance of place, and the patience it takes to let a story reveal itself.
For anyone with a story or creative project they’ve been waiting to begin, James shared this simple reminder:
“It’s the beginning that is important. It doesn’t need to be completely thought out… you have to experience it and let it play out. But the beginning is the most important part.”
Thanks, James, for sharing your story with us and helping us preserve another chapter of Oklahoma’s creative legacy.
#OKPOP #OklahomaCreatives #DocumentaryFilm #OklahomaFilm #Storytelling @jdpayneok
Happy 918 Day, Tulsa! 💛💙💗
We love calling the Tulsa Arts District home and being surrounded by so much art, music, history, creativity, and community. There’s nowhere else we’d rather be building OKPOP.
Special thanks to @buckatomson66 @eric3dee @robotsmakemecry and @tulsound for helping us celebrate 918 in true OKPOP style. 🤖✨
Here’s to Tulsa, Oklahoma creativity, and all the people who make this place what it is.
#918Day #Tulsa #TulsaArtsDistrict #OKPOP #OklahomaCreativity @tulartsdist
Members of the OKPOP team are in Edmond this week for the Oklahoma Museums Association Conference! We’re connecting with fellow museum professionals, exchanging ideas, learning from one another, and making new friends from across the state.
We’re grateful to be part of Oklahoma’s vibrant museum community!
#OKPOP #OklahomaMuseums #OMAConference #MuseumCommunity #EdmondOK
Remembering legendary steel guitarist Ralph Mooney, born on this day in 1928 in Duncan, Oklahoma.
With a sound that was sharp, expressive and unmistakably his own, Mooney helped define both the Bakersfield sound and outlaw country. His influential playing can be heard throughout the music of Wynn Stewart, Buck Owens, Merle Haggard and Waylon Jennings. He also co-wrote “Crazy Arms,” which became a country standard through Ray Price’s landmark recording.
Mooney’s steel guitar could cry, cut, swing and soar. His singular style inspired generations of musicians and earned him induction into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in 1983.
Today, OKPOP remembers an Oklahoma original whose sound forever changed country music.
“Pick it, Moon!”
#RalphMooney #OklahomaMusic #SteelGuitar #CountryMusic #OKPOP
🎮 “It’s not about resources; it’s about resourcefulness.”
For our latest Oklahoma Historical Video Interview, OKPOP sat down with game developers Elliott Ridgway of Megalithic Mainframe and Daniel Jackson of Create Something Interesting LLC.
Elliott and Daniel shared how early encounters with Super Nintendo, RPG Maker, and other creative tools revealed that games were not only something they could play, but something they could make.
Their individual and collaborative projects include The Idiot’s Tale, Ramify, Solos, Mann Con, Shapeshift Sean, and Emmy Saves the Galaxy, a massive puzzle adventure featuring nearly 1,000 handcrafted levels and a courageous one-eyed canine hero inspired by Elliott’s late Papillon, Emmy.
They also discussed the friendships, game jams, conventions, experiments, setbacks, and creative problem-solving behind independent game development, as well as the growing community fostered by Tulsa Game Developers.
“You can create incredibly moving, impactful experiences through the medium of video games,” Elliott told us.
Daniel also shared his hope that Tulsa can become a destination for creators, a city people think of when they decide, “I want to make games.”
Start small. Be resourceful. Find your community. Keep creating.
They did it. So can you.
#OKPOP #OklahomaCreatives #GameDevelopment #TulsaGameDevelopers #VideoGameHistory @tulsagamedevs @megamainframe199x @createsomethinginteresting
Remembering Oklahoma musician Steve Gaines on his birthday.
Born on this day in 1949 and raised in Miami, Oklahoma, Gaines was a gifted guitarist, vocalist and songwriter whose time with Lynyrd Skynyrd was tragically brief but deeply influential.
His fiery playing, soulful voice and songwriting helped shape the band’s 1977 album Street Survivors. Gaines wrote “I Know a Little” and “Ain’t No Good Life” and shared lead vocals with Ronnie Van Zant on “You Got That Right.”
Today, we celebrate an Oklahoma creative whose remarkable talent left a lasting mark on rock and roll.
🎧 Give “I Know a Little” a spin in his memory.
#SteveGaines #LynyrdSkynyrd #OklahomaMusic #SouthernRock #OKPOP
Donate
Your charitable donation directly contributes to OKPOP’s future, we are grateful for your support! Donations to support the OKPOP Museum may be made to the OKPOP Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Donations are tax deductible as allowed by law.
Donations may be made through the secure online donation form or mailed to:
OKPOP Foundation
422 North Main Street
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74103
If you have questions about additional gifting options, please contact Abby Kurin at akurin@okpopfoundation.org
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