The foundation acquired more than four acres at N. Broadway and N.W. 12th Street to house the City Arts Center.
Christian Keesee, president of the Kirkpatrick Family Fund, said the center has outgrown its current location at 3000 General Pershing on the fairgrounds, and the new location will provide perfect access and parking for visitors.
“We’ve gone through this really lengthy process about trying to find someplace,” Keesee said. “I think we’ve found a location that is really accessible for people downtown but for people in other area of the city as well.”
For the past 23 years, City Arts Center has been housed in the building once occupied by the Omniplex at the fairgrounds. Once the Omniplex (now Science Museum Oklahoma) moved to its current location across the street from Remington Park, City Arts Center moved in.
The Kirkpatrick Family Foundation still holds the lease on the building housing City Arts Center, and likely will turn the building over to the fairgrounds, Keesee said, noting the move hopefully will be completed in three years.
He said plans for the new location involve a three-phase transformation:
• moving the education and exhibit office,
• the creation of a black box theater and multi-use facility, and
• the creation of a contemporary dance and movement facility.
Keesee said that final phase will be carried out over a longer term, in less than nine years.
“By the time it’s all done, it would be a campus dedicated to contemporary art and culture in all its forms,” he said.
