Author: RankTribe

We adore parlour games. Beyond the intriguing info that might be gathered, it’s a lifesaver when dinner-party chatter turns into an extended pause or veers into politics. Here’s one we love to pull from our quiver of queries: “Who do you dream of doing your portrait?” The artist — living or dead — can work in any medium, from painting or sculpture to photography. For April Arts Month, we approached some of our favorite Texas personalities with this hypothetical. Some took the assignment to heart and sent back thorough, insightful answers. Others offered a quick and witty réponse. We adore them all.

CORNELIA GUEST, actress; animal activist; daughter of C.Z and Winston Guest; former Deb of the Decade; author of The Debutante’s Guide to Life.

“Having been painted by Andy Warhol, I think I’d like Julian Schnabel, as I adore his work. Or perhaps an Old Master … maybe Tiepolo … I would love him to paint me with all my dogs.”

HOWARD AND CINDY RACHOFSKY, among ARTnews Top 200 Collectors; residence is a Richard Meierdesigned art repository, The Rachofsky House; founders TWO x TWO for AIDS and Art.

Howard Rachofsky

“How about Nicolas Party, our 2024 TWO x TWO honoree. His haunting and mysterious figures stay in your mind long after you’ve been in their presence, and his eccentric color palette would show me in a new light.”

Cindy Rachofsky

“Mine would be Gustav Klimt — similar to his painting The Kiss. Being married to Mr. Romance (dashing husband and art-world partner Howard Rachofsky), I think of us when I see that beautiful painting. The romantic subject matter, the sentimental iconography and intimate embrace … I love it all. Howard, not so much.”

BRIAN BOLKE, luxury merchant; founder of Forty Five Ten and The Conservatory; chaired Dallas Museum of Art’s Art Ball and TWO x TWO for AIDS and Art.

“For sure, Andy Warhol. I’d want a series, of course, in big bold colors, but I’d be perfectly happy with a Polaroid.”

JOHN SUGHRUE, co-creator and producer of Dallas Art Fair; founder, Brook Partners and Fashion Industry Gallery; developer, Museum Tower; president, Dallas Contemporary.

“Gabriel Rico creates sculptured works comprised of found and created objects that can read almost like a mathematics equation. Indeed, math equations can be embedded in the work. I find the work aesthetically beautiful; it inspires contemplation and self-awareness. If Rico could compose my portrait in equation form, perhaps the mystery of my life might be solved. That would get my attention.”

DONALD ROBERTSON, @drawbertson; prolific illustrator and pop artist; bon vivant; launched VivaGlam! for MAC Cosmetics; collabs with Jenna Lyons, Veronica Beard, Mark Cross, Mattel, Colette Paris.

“Rory Gevis. I believe in buying art from living artists — the dead ones don’t need the cash.”

ROBERT McCLAIN, founder of blue-chip McClain Gallery; known for his commitment to Texas greats from John Alexander to Dorothy Hood; fresh off chairing Rothko Chapel Art Auction.

“There is no art form that has informed us so much about the human condition as portraiture in its long history and influence. For my portrait, two artists come to mind, both from entirely different periods in history, but both gifted in capturing the psychological and emotional gravity of its sitter. Egon Schiele, the brilliant young Viennese artist who died at 28, created most of his works in the decade of WWI. His self-portraits capture a grotesque beauty rippling with agony and smoldering sexuality. If there is one portrait that haunts me, it’s Diego Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X. Francis Bacon declared it one of the greatest portraits that has ever been made.”

CAMERON SILVER, founder of L.A. vintage powerhouse Decades; created exhibition for MOCA; dresses top celebs for the red carpet; starred in Bravo’s The Dukes of Melrose.

“I would love to be photographed by Wolfgang Tillmans. Many years ago, I attended an opening reception at Regen Projects in Los Angeles, followed by a dinner in honor of Mr. Tillmans. The rawness of the images left an indelible impact that continues to captivate me.”

REBECCA RABINOW, director of The Menil Collection; decadeslong curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; under her Menil watch, exhibited under-recognized women artists from Chryssa to Ruth Asawa (up now at Menil Drawing Institute).

“Many years ago, as a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I helped organize an exhibition focused on Henri Matisse’s interest in textiles. A preparatory research trip included an afternoon at the artist’s foundation, which operated from Matisse’s former Paris apartment overlooking the Seine and Notre Dame cathedral. As we were sorting through a trunk of fabrics that Matisse had kept in his studio, his grandson went to the closet and pulled out a white fur coat. I immediately recognized it from various artworks. He insisted that I try it on, and wouldn’t you know, it fit perfectly! Everyone in the room agreed that if Matisse had been present, he would have insisted on drawing my portrait. I wonder what the drawing might have looked like.”

DAVID AND ANN SUTHERLAND, founders of Sutherland and Perennials brands; art collectors.

David Sutherland

“I would want Lucian Freud, an artist whose work is anything but realistic — which would scare me — but totally recognizable. A ‘soft’ Picasso, if you will.”

Ann Sutherland

“I will take Alberto Giacometti as a sculpture, as his stylized bronzes represent the Existentialist point of view. As I ponder his figures, I realize that his viewpoint would translate me as tall and thin — something I have always admired but not quite achieved.”

WILLIAM CURTIS, founding principal of classical architecture firm, Curtis & Windham Architects; founding board member, Texas Chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art; recipient of ICAA Arthur Ross Award, Palladio Awards, and multiple John Staub Awards; watercolorist.

“I would go with John Singer Sargent and request a watercolor portrait. Unlike typical oil portraiture, watercolor is a fast and loose medium that results in many happy accidents. We might all benefit from the lightness, brevity, and clarity of beholding our own image in watercolor.”

DUAL, buzzy Texas artist acclaimed for aerosol action; successfully rebounded from tagging trains to gallery walls; collabs with LeBron James Family Foundation, Pabst Brewing Company, Dickies Workwear, Sprite.

“If I had to choose a single artist, it would be ARYZ. In the street art/graffiti scene, there have been so many artists that created awesome portraits, but ARYZ is the one to me who has a unique style. His juxtaposition of subject matter along with composition creates a strong painting that also has a very mysterious feel. His selection of location for his street work is damn near perfection.”

LESTER MARKS, Art League Houston’s 2002 Texas Patron of the Year; often figures in ARTnews Top 200 Collectors and Art & Antiques 100 of America’s Top Collectors issues; recently segued from blue-chip to investigating Black artists.

“I would choose George Condo. No one including myself wants to look at a realistic portrait of my ugly mug. George could spice things up a bit!”

ANITA SMITH, interior designer; art collector; co-chaired $10 million capital campaign to restore Project Row Houses’ Eldorado Ballroom; co-chair with Leigh Smith and their respective husbands, Gerald Smith and Reggie Smith, of Contemporary Arts Museum Houston Gala, April 6.

“Georgia O’Keeffe … To spend time with this amazing trailblazer female artist would be a treasured gift.

MICHELLE NUSSBAUMER, famed interior designer; owner of Ceylon et Cie; queen of the Ikat; chatelaine of a chalet in Gstaad and hacienda in San Miguel de Allende.

“It’s a toss-up, starting with John Singer Sargent. Who wouldn’t want to be immortalized by the famous 19th-century society painter? I especially love his portrait Madame X. I wouldn’t mind a portrait by Frida Kahlo. Imagine the variety of color, ethnic dress, and flower crowns. Not to mention her pet monkeys.”

LEIGH SMITH, fearless supporter of performing and visual arts; art collector; co-chair with Anita Smith, and respective husbands Reggie Smith and Gerald Smith of Contemporary Arts Museum Houston Gala April 6.

“My fantasy portrait would be painted by either Francis Picabia, Will Cotton, or a funky Surrealist-type portrait by George Condo. Picabia’s portraits are moody and dramatic women with simplified features often heavily outlined. Will Cotton has painted pop icons like Katy Perry into his fantastic landscapes of candy, whipped cream, cupcakes, and cotton candy. His narratives reflect desire, indulgence, and our overblown consumer’s ‘land of plenty.’ And Cotton’s work is just pretty. Of course, George Condo would not paint me in a flattering light, but the result would be a gorgeous, strange, and iconic painting.”

GARY TINTEROW, director of Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; scholar of 19th- and early-20th-century European painting and sculpture; the force behind the MFAH’s dazzling Kinder Building and Sarofim Campus.

“One of my most prized possessions is a portrait silhouette of me by Kara Walker that she gave to me. But if I were to transport myself to another era, I would sit for Nicholas Hilliard or Anthony van Dyck.”

NANCY STRAUSS HALBREICH, former board member, Dallas Museum of Art; former senior associate of Fine and Decorative Arts, Heritage Auction Galleries; dedicated philanthropist; daughter of former Dallas mayor Annette Strauss.

“I’m afraid John Singer Sargent would be too on the nose. Let’s go with Magritte. He’ll likely cover my face with a green apple or a tree … but given that I shun the spotlight and am camera-shy, that is just fine.”

CHRISTEN WILSON, two passions: art and fashion; chaired DMA’s Silver Supper and TWO x TWO for AIDS and Art; often found front row at NYC and Paris fashion shows.

“My choice would be Cindy Sherman. She wouldn’t just photograph me, she’d ‘Shermanize’ me, turning my likeness into a piece of art that screams fashion, but with a skew.”

TANNER MOUSSA, furniture designer alongside his sister, Mackenzie Moussa Lewis; co-founder MOUS.

“Magritte, who painted The Son of Man, which popped up in the iconic The Thomas Crown Affair. I’m drawn to his portrayal of the ethereal unknown — head in the clouds, piquing curiosity, blending reality with the unexpected.”

JAMES SURLS, one of the preeminent living artists from Texas working in the U.S. today; sculptor; heroic works in wood are in collections of Smithsonian American Art Museum, MoMA, Guggenheim, Whitney.

“I asked my wife, artist Charmaine Locke, who she would choose to do her portrait, and she said Georgia O’Keeffe. I asked her why, and her answer was ‘Because she did very vivid, colorful, and romantic portrayals of nature and was one of the most important, if not the most important female artists of the 20th century.’ That answer made me wonder who indeed I would choose. There is much to make me think that Vermeer may be the most important and best painter of all time … He would not only paint what represented the outside of me, but also what was inside of me.”

ERIN MATHEWS, titan in the real estate world; art collector; Chanel aficionado.

“My dream artist would be Jean-Michel Basquiat. I’m confident his portrait of me would show more than just the physical but also the true ‘me’ — with empathy.”

JANET HOBBY, board chairman of The Menil Collection; partner in art advisory MKG Art Management; with husband Paul Hobby, among Houston’s dashing philanthropic arts couples.

“The artist that comes to mind is Tomoo Gokita. He’s inspired by ’60s and ’70s Japanese and American subcultures, and his work is emotionally charged. His portraits are always distorted and eerily anonymous. Very unsettling, but super interesting.”

CERON, solamente Ceron; our own Warren Beatty in Shampoo; hairstylist to the stars.

“I would looooveee [exact enunciation] Michael Shane Neal. I’m fascinated with the fabulous way he portrays people. So elegant and beautiful. I’m a huge fan, but I would need gobs of money to afford a sitting. Love-love-love his work.”

PHOEBE TUDOR, Astrodome savior; passionate preservationist; benevolent friend of Hermann Park, Houston Ballet, Asia Society, and Rice University.

“My choice would be Slim Aarons, I’m kind of into the whole Swans thing right now. I would get family and friends to join me in creating one of his stylish scenes, maybe inside the Astrodome!”

BARBARA DAVIS, founder of Barbara Davis Gallery, incubator for eminent international contemporary artists such as Julie Mehretu, Andrea Bianconi, and Shahzia Sikander.

“I would choose Chuck Close, because in his interpretation, he’s able to reveal the essence of the subject.”

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

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RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

Legacy Russell’s Black Meme: A History of the Images That Make Us is a keen study of resistance, and there’s no more exciting mind to tackle a potent array of topics: Paris Is Burning, Rodney King, Trayvon Martin, Emmett Till, Cindy Sherman, Anita Hill, Magic Johnson, and so much more. Russell, whose first book, Glitch Feminism: A Manifesto, was published in 2020, is the executive director at New York’s The Kitchen performance space, and was previously a curator at the Studio Museum in Harlem. That’s where she first met artist Jordan Casteel. The two friends managed to sync up this past February to talk about the power of images, the importance of slowness, and the meaning of Harlem as home.

———

WEDNESDAY 4 PM FEB. 28, 2024 NYC

LEGACY RUSSELL: Okay, the recording has started. Jordan, part of the reason I was excited to be in conversation with you is because of your immense and gorgeous commitment to different models of Black representation. Having just written Black Meme, where so much of what I’m grappling with is the failures of representation, I’m curious to hear you reflect about what it means to paint Black people? Who is that in service of, and how might that carry us forward?

JORDAN CASTEEL: When I think about Black representation as it relates to my practice, I think about what it means to be alive today as a Black woman—not only in the physicality of Black forms within my paintings, but also in my physicality and my observations of the world. Black representation is ultimately so much bigger than the visual representation of an object in space or a person in space. It is about being alive and acknowledging the spaces around us and the way we have to move through them.

RUSSELL: I agree. And I love that you’re talking about this idea of liveness, because the book starts with a Black kiss, citing the film Lime Kiln Field Day [1913]. In it is an important moment of Black intimacy, a kiss between Bert Williams and Odessa Warren Grey. The scene allows us to think differently about this idea of liveness. What does it mean to feel astounded and inspired by this very ordinary act of love that we have not been given enough of? That has not been provided to us in terms of what we celebrate and center and champion through and beyond the internet. I think this question of liveness is really important, because when I stand in front of your work, Jordan, you are making a choice to represent liveness. And that pushes back at the very assumption of what I would call horizontal Blackness, this notion that Blackness must be on the ground and robbed of its liveness in order for it to be legible to a white imagination. I’m curious, what does it mean to you to put Black and Brown people into the history of painting?

CASTEEL: Your idea of a horizontal Blackness is so true. There is a perception that our Blackness is just lying down to be absorbed, as opposed to being actively engaged. So much of my work is focused on the living histories of what we’re observing and honoring in real time: Who is in front of me? Who are the people engaging in my everyday existence? But also, what are the places, what are the spaces? What does it mean to be actively alive, and confronting that head-on with intimacy? It’s the kiss. To see and feel passion, to give it in a reciprocal form, an act of love and an awareness in relation to one’s body. I think that is the thing driving my practice forward and so much of what you’re discussing in Black Meme.

RUSSELL: I’m keen to hear your thoughts on how photographic representation functions in your process. Or even technology as a whole.

CASTEEL: Technology plays such an intimate, important part. A photo is a stepping stone for me to reengage with a moment in time, as fleeting as it might have been, and then to spend an actual lengthy amount of time with it retroactively, by making the painting. It’s almost like a diary, where you’re taking a second to pause, to think about what is happening in front of you, to put it into words and actually reflect on it longer-term. So it’s a matter of speed and then slowness.

RUSSELL: It’s interesting to hear you talk about slowness. One of the problems with Black representation is speed, and we deserve slowness. I want to bring up a site that has been inspiring to both of us, and that’s Harlem. For me, the whole history of Harlem is a living Blackness, right? It’s a testament to the passion of Black life and the resilience of Black life. When I reflect on the study of Blackness, it intersects deeply with my father who was born and raised in Harlem and was a photographer. It allows for me to think about the model of representation in the work that he did, as someone who spent a lifetime documenting Black people. I know Harlem also means so much to you in terms of your history.

CASTEEL: I can’t help but think of Harlem as being one of my homes. Making a practice that is centered around the people who give me a sense of home and belonging, it feels like giving them their flowers. As a Black woman, I can also speak to the experience of oftentimes feeling invisible, or forced into a certain invisibility. I’m reckoning with my own feeling of invisibility and wanting to give visibility to others—giving me a place to feel seen, and I want to reciprocate that. And I will forever be grateful to Harlem for that. I’m curious, Legacy, when you enter Harlem, do you feel your father’s presence? Do you feel that those photographs, the aliveness of them, reflect on your own relationship to Harlem?

RUSSELL: It’s a wild thing. My father was a Black artist who struggled. I think it’s important to think about the significance of that and who we do this work for and in service to. I lived intimately in adoration with my father as a producer of so many gorgeous and amazing works that live on in his archive, but that in his lifetime were immensely difficult to produce because they were works that really championed Black life in a moment where he himself felt so unsupported as a Black living artist. He made a document of that, that was dense and ecstatic and urgent and necessary, and honored all facets of his growing upward and outward in Harlem, and then as he moved downtown to the East Village later in his life. It’s interesting to ask who we are in dialogue with across the course of our careers. I certainly think I am in dialogue with my father even though he’s no longer in the room with me. His work as a photographer has shaped much of what I have thought about in relationship to this idea of representation. I grew up as a digital native who came of age in an era where so much of our ways of seeing ourselves were reflected back through the electric mirror of our machines. So to be exposed to those images created through the manual processing of photography, which was a physical process, developing the film and going through the contact sheets, all of that—

CASTEEL: The slowness of that.

RUSSELL: Yes, the slowness of the whole process and really reflecting on how you do that work well. Because those images were intended to live on far beyond any of us, with the great hope that someone will see them and care for them. That idea has continued to resonate with me. So when I’m doing my writing and inside my curatorial practice, and my leadership at The Kitchen, I’m constantly thinking about to whom and in what service. Because my audience is not always folks who have been welcomed into these rooms. The mission of the work is about how to expand those points of visibility so that folks feel like they have a sense of belonging, and also, that there is a record of them having been there.

CASTEEL: So that there is an archive.

RUSSELL: Yes. And that goes back to the way you produce your work and the archives inside of archives, and your different relationships to technologies as well as individual people.

CASTEEL: In so many ways, we are a product of the environment in which we are raised. And when I think about my time in Harlem and making work that engages with that community, it is one hundred percent about not only me telling my story and documenting my archive of my life, but also documenting and archiving for other people as well. And so much of that is a conversation not only about what I imagine and experience of somebody, but the way that they imagine themselves. I think the Black imagination is about allowing for our own recognition of our vision and imagination, within the context of somebody else’s.

RUSSELL: Absolutely. I feel like it’s a unique and incredible experience when someone is able to see themselves in a work in a way that changes their view of the world. And maybe then folks will seek out different models of their presence simply because you have presented them with that vision. I also love that Glenn Ligon saying, “Went looking for the art, and we were the art.” That this notion of a Blackness that is decorative, and that is aestheticized, and that is flattened, versus this idea of what is exalted, and celebrated, and centered in its capacity to expand our worldviews—that actually those things have a historic point of being made antagonistic to one another. In fact, I think so much of the notion of Blackness is shaping a cultural view: Blackness as a sort of sticky subject that is intended to change or transform the ways in which we think about what is decorative, rather than thinking about the substance of it as being mapped to real and sustained lived experiences. I’m curious about your foray into landscape and flowers. I wonder if nature can be a different way of expressing a figure when the figure is maybe not in the frame?

CASTEEL: When I think really explicitly about how the landscape has played a part within the context of my practice, it has always been about the situation of us as Black people in relation to the environment. Where do you feel the most safe? And where I am currently experiencing life at its most vibrant and satisfying is my garden. So the landscape is my own full-circle way of acknowledging my own presence within the work very explicitly, even in my absence as a physical form within the work. I feel that a lot of my works that are without a figure are the deepest, most satisfying reflections of self I’ve probably done to date. I’m finding a sense of real peace and joy in allowing myself to sit within the paintings.

RUSSELL: I love that. I guess the last thing I’ll say is that, the fact that we can sustain those aspects of being in one’s garden or being ordinary and slow allows for us to think differently about what we’re due in terms of a culture that should love us and allows for methods of that care to be expanded and manifested with a new language—including the ways in which we shape the images around us. So yeah, just ending on that thought. I’m really grateful to you and have immense admiration for your ongoing work and vision.

CASTEEL: It’s so mutual. It is your vision that even brings us here today, and your ability to see and articulate the way that we are creating, and it starts with your ability to see the slowness of your father’s process in the studio and archiving that. You’re archiving it for all of us. So, thank you.

RUSSELL: I’m going to stop recording.

———

Hair: Andrita Renee.

Makeup: Rose Grace using Kylie Cosmetics at Forward Artists.

Nails: Nori using Chanel Le Vernis at SEE Management.

Photography Assistant: Jordan Hundelt.

Fashion Assistant: Meekal Tedros.

Production Assistant: Kiernan Francis.

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

French interior designer Margaux Lafond established her New York–based studio in 2020 after years of working Stateside with top talents, like ASH and Rafael de Cárdenas. As a solo act, her very first job was for friends of friends in Paris. “They reached out for my help renovating a bathroom and a study,” she says of the smallish project, which she happily took on.

Fast forward two years: Friends of those clients called Lafond desperately in need of a designer who could manage the decoration of an entire five-story town house as soon as possible. “That’s why you have to say yes to everything,” she smiles. Coincidentally, Lafond’s new (also French) clients Thérèse M’Boungoubaya and Martin Mignot live with the very same “just say yes” zeal. Or is it joie de vivre?

“I only visited New York once before [we moved here],” admits M’Boungoubaya, founder of Koba Skincare. When the couple received word that Mignot would be heading up the new New York office of his venture capital firm, they began viewing apartments from their home in London. “​​We never saw the house in person,” M’Boungoubaya remembers. “The decision was based on photos and a FaceTime walkthrough.”

M’Boungoubaya and Mignot signed a lease for the West Village town house in the spring, with plans to relocate over the summer and settle before school started for their two young daughters. Due to the constrained timeline, Lafond tackled the project in two phases—first outfitting the home with essentials and rental furniture (“almost like an Airbnb,” she says), and then completing the design and installation once the family had arrived. “Basically, they said, ‘We’re getting our visas on this date and our fight is on that date.’ So, I had six weeks to make it happen,” Lafond recalls. Happily, the two-pronged approach worked: “We ended up designing something that matches how we actually live,” M’Boungoubaya affirms.

“The interior architecture features this very nice, but very early-2000s aesthetic,” Lafond observes. Vintage furniture from the family’s collection helped to create a more timeless feel. The designer purchased additional vintage pieces—a pair of Camaleonda lounge chairs, a Pierre Paulin oyster chair and ottoman, plus others—avoiding lead-time issues and investing in quality items the clients can cherish. “These are going to follow us for the rest of our lives,” M’Boungoubaya says. “They’re part of the family.”

As a nod to her Congolese heritage, M’Boungoubaya asked Lafond to source new decorative items from African and African American artists and artisans. “It’s part of who I am,” she emphasizes. Much of the art and textiles throughout are a result of this effort. “I use my house as a bit of a showroom. When people go into the kitchen, they are astonished by the art,” she says, referencing the striking work by South African artist Lindokuhle Khumalo, commissioned by Mignot. Entertaining on the first floor, where there’s an eat-in-kitchen with a wood-burning pizza oven and generous dining room, gives M’Boungoubaya a chance to hype up-and-coming artists. “It’s also a good ice breaker,” she says. “If I can help [draw attention to an artist], I’m very happy about it.”

One flight down, Lafond transformed the dark ground-floor nook into a cozy den with plush, family-friendly furniture. Upstairs, the girls have their own haven—a combined playroom-bedroom. In the bedrooms, the designer installed a series of floor-to-ceiling curtains on tracks, creating flexible rooms within the rental’s existing floor plan and providing sufficient darkness for sleep. On the top floor, M’Boungoubaya and Mignot’s retreat features an airy reading nook, a cocooned bedroom and bath, plus separate walk-in closets.

The town house, which once felt like a mere collection of rooms in a real estate listing, now tells the story of a family’s journey across continents, a designer’s vision, and a commitment to cultural legacy. From the basement den to the tranquil top floor, every corner is infused with intention and identity, a testament to the power of ‘yes’—and the magic of a space that doesn’t just house a family, but reflects them.

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

It’s graduation season in Stillwater.

In three short weeks, students clad in their graduation regalia will walk across the stage and into the next chapter of their lives. 

Before our graduates take their last final, snap their last grad photo or hit The Strip for a night of reviling, there are a few things to cross off the OSU bucket list.

Seniors, here are a few things to do before you graduate.

Cowboy Baseball

Day or night during the spring semester, O’Brate Stadium is the place to be. Food, friends and a Cowboy victory make for a perfect day. Tickets range between $10-$15, depending on demand, but entry is free if you have an All-Sports Pass. The next home game is Thursday at 6 p.m. and tickets are $10. 

Calf Fry

Dust off your boots, and grab your cowboy hat. It’s Calf Fry! Stillwater’s biggest country music festival is May 2-4 at Tumbleweed Dance Hall & Concert Venue. If you can pull yourself away from studying, head out for all three days, or only one, and experience a summer send-off fit for a Cowboy.

Concert on Washington Street 

Coney’s on The Strip isn’t a place only for good food and drinks. Next to the Stillwater favorite sits a stage where local and student bands make a name for themselves. The concerts are free and a great way to spend a night out. 

Release Rader, a student-run music club on campus, is hosting a music festival from 4 p.m. to midnight on May 3. The festival will feature more than 10 student bands and is free. 

Eskimo Joe’s 

People, you have four weeks left, and not eating at Joe’s is a crime. Go to Joe’s before you graduate.

It’s that simple. 

OSU Museum of Art 

The OSU Museum of Art on Husband Street is home to many wonderful works, including the current exhibit titled, “Memories & Inspiration,” Kerry and C. Betty Davis Collection of African American Art. The Museum is open from 11 a.m.-4 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday. 

Theatre Production

If you have yet to go to one of the many productions of the OSU Theatre Department, there is one show left this semester. Students work tirelessly to bring drama and fun productions to the OSU stage. The next production is titled “May We All,” a country-themed performance with shows Friday-Sunday.

The Lakes: Boomer and Carl Blackwell 

Lakes with walking trails. Need I say more? To make your final weeks in Stilly fun, you need only a picnic blanket and a nice day. 

The Ranchers Club

Ranchers promises a fancy atmosphere and some fine dining options for Cowboys. If you have the funds and want to treat yourself, it’s a great place to have a nice meal to celebrate graduation. 

Taylor’s Restaurant 

Taylor’s is a student-run eating option on campus. From 11 a.m.-1:15 p.m., Tuesday-Friday, you can enjoy a meal your fellow students prepared with a new weekly menu. Check it out in Nancy Randolph Davis and make a reservation online.

Theta Pond 

The end of the year is always a mixture of stress and anticipation. If you need to take a break, claim a bench at Theta Pond. Do not leave campus without spending an afternoon chilling at the quaint pond. (Throwing the goalpost in during Homecoming does not count as a visit.)   

Graduation Pictures

Many graduates are out taking pictures, but you don’t need a professional to do it. Grab a friend and go for a photoshoot. Have fun and capture memories you will remember forever.

Enjoy these last few weeks, Cowboys.

news.ed@ocolly.com

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment