The Pickup's Culture coverage is brought to you by Tulsa Artists' Coalition Gallery, 40 Years of Empowering Tulsa Artists. Visit TAC Gallery to see American Highway Revisited by VC Torneden and Melinda Harvey Green, June 5 – 27, 2026.
Offline markets. House concerts. Writing groups. Self-produced theatre. DIY creativity is surging in Tulsa right now. When resources are limited, artists find a way—and some, like Shayna Brewer of Hidden Creatives, are working to create spaces for those artists to be found.
You’ll find plenty of art in galleries across Tulsa, but being in a gallery isn’t what defines something as art, or an artist as worthy. Not every artist has access to a spot on a gallery wall, much less in a museum; not every Tulsan finds access to those places easy, either.
Enter the art studio tour, a model that’s big in other cities but scarce around here. Instead of asking people to come to a centralized spot like the Arts District to show and see art, these studio tour rambles let the art be where (and what) it is and invite us to meet it there. As Hyperallergic reported about New York’s annual Bushwick Open Studios event, now in its 20th year, “Discovering something beautiful while exploring a corner of the art world that you don’t normally see remains the central appeal of an open studios event.”
Brewer experienced Bushwick Open Studios first-hand when she lived in New York, and enjoyed a similar citywide studio tour in Austin before moving to Tulsa in 2022. “When I came here,” she said, “I was like, Tulsa seems like the kind of place that will have one, right? But when I looked them up, it was like more curated art tours. I understand the place for those, because some people, when they go, they want to know they're going to see established artists. But I want something where everybody can feel special and have the opportunity to be seen. And so I was like, that feels like a gap that Tulsa hasn't filled yet, so maybe I can fill that gap.”
Inspired by local creative initiatives like Saturday Scribe and the Artist Council, Brewer has launched the Hidden Creatives Studio Tour, which offers an adventure of discovery featuring 67 local artists showing work in home studios and host venues (from Frequency Lounge and Origin Coffee to John’s Berryhill Food Market). Over two days and 12 stops, the tour’s focus is on emerging artists who might not have had a chance to show their work in person before, in mediums ranging from pastels and fused glass to paintings and performances, including a whole musical lineup at the Tulsa Clubhouse.