Oklahoma City Museum of Art screens 'Beautiful Losers'

New York City has seen hundreds of art movements come and go, but none quite like the skateboard/graffiti/punk/DIY scene in the 1990s when street-level outsider art began infiltrating mainstream galleries and museums.

"Beautiful Losers" is a documentary about the cultural epicenter that fed off an assortment of artists collectively pushing the medium into mainstream pop culture.

The film screens 7:30 p.m. Thursday, and 5:30 and 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art in a joint venture between Film Curator Brian Hearn and the co-founders of Uptown United, Chad Mount and Sam Fredrickson. After the final screening on Friday and Saturday, the audience will be invited to visit Uptown United at 24 W. Park Place for post-screening events demonstrating Oklahoma's own burgeoning art scene.

Fredrickson said the idea was born from conversations with Hearn about their desire to use Uptown United as a gathering ground for innovative artists, in hopes of inspiring more collaboration within the metro.

"The core of the film is about artists, but more than just the work they are creating, how it applies to the movement of a culture," Fredrickson said. "If you have a core group of people who start taking those steps, who are willing to put the work in to get things done, then it becomes contagious and can lead to bigger things."

Admission for the screening is $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and students. Uptown United will ask for donations to the after-event, which will start at 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. "Charles Martin

 

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