Press Releases
July 03, 2006
UCO Conducts Oral Histories as Price Tower Arts Center Seeks Information From Past Tenants
(Bartlesville, OK) Five students from the Museum Studies Program at the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO) are conducting oral history interviews with past tenants of Price Tower for the Arts Center's tenant history project this summer. The students include: Julie Bennett-Jones, Felicia Harrison, Keith Lough, Kim Penrod and Kathi Goebel. All are well-trained in conducting oral history interviews.
Dr. Patricia Loughlin is heading up the project with her expertise in oral history as the Assistant Professor of History at UCO and has offered several oral history courses as part of the Museum Studies Program. She has written several books including Hidden Treasures of the American West and a recent manuscript on the history of the University of Central Oklahoma for Oklahoma's centennial in 2007.
Dr. Carolyn Pool, Professor and Director of the Museum Studies Program, notes, "Oral history projects offer an opportunity for UCO's Museum Studies Program students to gain valuable experience and to apply what they have learned in the classroom. Their training under Dr. Loughlin has also prepared them to serve, through internships and independent studies, museums and other cultural organizations around the state."
Price Tower Arts Center is currently working to preserve, restore, and conserve the top three floors of Price Tower. As a part of those efforts, the Arts Center has begun to supplement the documents and objects pertaining to the H.C. Price Company, currently in their collections, with those of the Tower's other commercial and residential tenants.
The goal of the Arts Center's curatorial team is to work and display memorabilia and recollections of many of the known occupants of the Price Tower, for a better understanding of how the leased spaces in the tower functioned. This will help enhance the visitor experience when taking the historic tower tours and experiencing this landmark destination as it was in 1956.
The Arts Center is seeking individuals and companies who have resided in, rented space or worked in Price Tower any time between 1956 and 1981. The project is in conjunction with their fall exhibition Wright Restored: Frank Lloyd Wright's Price Tower Interiors, which celebrates the close of Price Tower's 50th anniversary. If you or someone you know fits that criteria, please contact Scott Perkins, Curator of Collections and Exhibitions at 918.336.4949 or sperkins@pricetower.org.
Dr. Patricia Loughlin of UCO states, "We are pleased to partner with Price Tower Arts Center on this important project. Our students enjoy going out in the field and conducting oral history interviews." She adds, "We are dedicated to preserving the stories of Oklahoma."
Known tenants of Price Tower included Bruce Goff (perhaps the tower's most recognized tenant), doctors, lawyers, realtors, utilities, communications, and various retail establishments occupied the lower floors of the Price Tower during its first twenty-five years.
Items such as photographs, stationary, business cards, promotional materials, and written recollections are welcome, and will either be on loan or become part of the archives of Price Tower Arts Center. Items are needed by July 31, 2006, however, the Arts Center welcomes year-round donations relating to Price Tower, the H.C. Price Company and Frank Lloyd Wright. For more information on this ongoing project visit the web at www.pricetower.org/collections/tenant-project/.
About Price Tower
The landmark destination for art, architecture and design, Price Tower Arts Center, a 501(c) 3 nonprofit, provides local, regional and global audiences with the experience of great art, architecture and design in an arts complex whose centerpiece is Frank Lloyd Wright's only skyscraper, the Price Tower.
This National Historic Landmark building, completed in 1956, contains a museum with permanent and changing exhibition galleries; original and restored historic Wright interiors (available by tour); and The Wright Place museum store.
Visitors may also experience Wright's masterpiece as guests of Inn at Price Tower, a high-design hotel that the Arts Center has created within Wright's skyscraper, along with the Inn's eclectic Copper Bar.
Historic tours are available with advanced reservations. Admission is $10 adults, $8 seniors (65+), $5 students and children 16 and under and includes admission to the museum exhibitions (tax not included as may be applicable). For more information, the public may call 918.336.4949 or visit the web site at www.pricetower.org.
