The living memory of one of Tulsa, Oklahoma’s biggest drivers of the city’s noteworthy contributions to the visual landscape of 20th-century America is getting its due this weekend in an awesome way.
Goff Fest is about to descend on one of the city’s most important historic landmarks. The Tulsa Club Hotel will host the inaugural edition of a four-day festival honoring the life, work, and legacy of its architect, the late Bruce Goff.
Goff was an architectural prodigy who went on to become one of the Midwest’s most prominent practitioners of Modernism. Most of his extant early buildings were realized in the Tulsa metropolitan area, including the Boston Avenue Methodist Church and Riverside Studio, which are both on the National Register of Historic Places.
Organized by Tulsa’s Goff Center of the Continuous Present (GCCP), the festival is the brainchild of Brooklyn-based artist Karl Jones. Jones was named a Tulsa Arts Fellow in 2019 and said his realization that the architect had in fact lived his life as a gay man while on a tour of the renovations then being made to Goff’s iconic Art Deco hotel.
“I know what it’s like to grow up gay in Tulsa, and I wondered how my life, and the lives of others, might have been different if we had been aware of people like Bruce Goff, and the great contributions he and so many others have made to the arts and culture of the this city and this country,” Jones told the Tulsa World newspaper.
Festivalgoers can enjoy a full slate of activities including a beer tasting and multiple panel discussions. A recent documentary about the architect will also be screened. More information about the festival, including a schedule of events and registration, can be found here.
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