ALVA—Since 1971, the Nescatunga Arts and Humanities Council has been bringing artists together and focusing on humanitarian endeavors in the Alva area.
Prior to the birth of the council, there was a thirst for showcasing art in Alva in the 1960s on the courthouse lawn and in the windows of local merchants.
Talmadge Stands, a well-known arts educator and theatre advocate who was serving as Oklahoma Arts and Humanities Council’s arts program director at the time, brought this to the attention to a group known as Alvans during a luncheon in September 1971 at which Alva artist Jack Hayward was present.
According to an article published in the Alva Review-Courier, Stands told those gathered that “No group in the world has more fun than a group with an interest in art … we need high goals for Oklahoma in order to add dimensions and effectiveness for the state in the fields of education and the arts—anything that enriches our lives.”
She encouraged the group to establish their own council as a branch of the Oklahoma Arts and Humanities Council, which had been created in 1965 by Gov. Henry Bellmon in response to a national movement to make the arts accessible to all Americans. Establishing the Oklahoma Arts and Humanities Council had allowed Oklahoma to receive federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts to support arts activities across the state.
By starting its own arts council in Alva, Stands said, the town would help “nurture the seeds of talent in the present and shape the careers of those on their way up.”
The audience at the luncheon enthusiastically embraced Stands’ idea and organized Nescatunga Arts and Humanities Council on the spot with Hayward selected as the council’s first president. Northwestern State College (later known as NWOSU) art instructor Don Bellah, who also attended the luncheon, later helped coordinate student art exhibits in conjunction with the council as part of the activities committee.
The name Nescatunga is an Osage word meaning “big salt water” and Osage Nation used this name for the Salt Fork of the Arkansas River, which flows through the Great Salt Plains in the nearby Alfalfa County, so it seemed like a natural choice to name the council that too since Alva is also located on the Salt Fork River.
At the council’s inaugural meeting that met at Hayward Art Studio, the members declared the purpose of the council was to promote all the aspects of the arts and humanities and would include painting, sculpture, drama, literature, creative writing, dance, music, history, and supporting local museums.
In February 1972, as reported by the Daily Oklahoman, Nescatunga Arts and Humanities Council received its first grant from the Oklahoma Arts and Humanities Council as one of 24 arts programs approved for financial assistance that spring.
The council’s plan was to host an art show with more than 50 artists which eventually evolved into the annual two-day Nescatunga Arts Festival now held each June.
A place to call home
The Nescatunga Arts and Humanities Council didn’t really have a place to call home until then-council president Dale Brown intervened. She was in downtown Alva one day in 1997 when she overheard some men discussing bulldozing the old historic hotel on the corner to make way for an ambulance bay.
Charla Parker, who served as president of Nescatunga Arts and Humanities Council from 2003 to 2019, recalled Brown saying, “I don’t think so!”
Brown rallied the council as she felt the derelict building was worth saving. The Nescatunga Arts and Humanities Council purchased the Runnymede in 1998. Brown organized the restoration committee to gather grants and private donations in an effort for it to be restored to its former glory.
The Runnymede Hotel was built in 1889 in Runnymede, Kan., an English colony that briefly existed just northeast of Harper, Kan. (which is 30 minutes north of Manchester, Okla.). The hotel made a nearly impossible journey of 80 miles over unimproved roads, at least three rivers, and other streams southwest into the newly platted township of Alva in 1893.
The original attic and peaked roof were removed and the building was rolled on logs using mules, oxen, and horses to location in downtown Alva where it remains today. The building actively served as a hotel until the mid-1960s when Joe Denner, owner of the adjacent Gold Crust Bakery, bought it and leased it to several businesses and organizations including ETC Shoppe, Mar-Vin’s Dance Studio, and Alcoholics Anonymous.
By the 1990s, the old hotel fell into disrepair and was sorely dilapidated. Denner died and the building went up for sale in 1997. At that time, Brown, who had grown up in New Jersey and viewed old buildings as something to be treasured, had a vision for the old hotel as a cultural center for the Alva community.
She unfortunately never saw her vision come to fruition; Brown passed in 1999. Another council member, Barbara Gordon, stepped up as council president in her stead before Parker assumed the position in 2003.
Beginning in 2004, Parker oversaw the hotel construction that was paid for in part by grants from Morton Share Trust and foundations Glenn W. Peel, Sarkeys, Zarrow, and Inasmuch.
The Runnymede opened the fall of 2005 with a new modern kitchen, restrooms, an elevator for ADA compliance, and a storage area—all to accommodate public gatherings such as First Friday art shows and private parties including wedding receptions, graduation celebrations, and more in addition to serving as Nescatunga Arts and Humanities Council headquarters.
The next generation of art
Parker, who moved to Alva with her husband Larry in 1971 and taught music in the public schools, first got involved with the council in the 1980s.
“I was in favor (of the council) and interested in helping any way I could,” she said. “I think this community is very interested in the arts. Alva wants art.”
Not only does the town of 5,000 boast dozens of public murals much like Enid, it supports the student arts through events or exhibits, First Friday Artwalk, and the annual arts festival.
Right before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019, Erin Davis took over for Parker as council president. She made the heartbreaking decision for safety reasons to cancel the festival in 2020 and 2021.
The Nescatunga Arts Festival resumed in 2022, and Davis set out to change up the format so as to appeal to more individuals and engage more age groups.
“The arts festival has continued to bring growth and excitement within the Alva community … and to embrace history and culture,” Davis told the Enid News & Eagle in February 2023.
There’s fun for the whole family each June at the festival, which has previously been held in downtown Alva and on the campus of Northwestern Oklahoma State University.
Starting two years ago, under current council president Heather Penner, the festival relocated to the newly constructed Alva Recreation Complex on the south side of town near the Woods County Fairgrounds and not far off U.S. 281 in cooperation with the Alva Chamber of Commerce and the City of Alva as part of a tourism push.
More than 40 fine artists, handmade crafters, and authors have registered for a combined 52 booth spaces for this year’s Nescatunga Arts Festival. All the booths and festival activities including entertainment and food trucks plus quilt show will be inside and outside the Pete and Ruth Leslie Fieldhouse at the Alva Recreation Complex.
Among the arts featured are glass and wood art, jewelry, computer-generated artwork, quilts, weaving, baskets, knitting, crocheting, pencil or pen and ink drawings, mixed media pieces, paintings, photography, pottery, and sculptures.
The 55th annual Nescatunga Arts Festival is June 5-6 at the Alva Recreation Complex, 1887 Goldbug Blvd, Alva. Festival hours are Friday from 5-8 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more info, go to nescatunga.org. Admission into the festival is free; fees at the individual booths and food trucks vary.
Membership to Nescatunga Arts and Humanities Council is open to anyone who would like to support the arts. The $25 annual membership funds the annual arts festival, First Friday Artwalk events, student scholarships, and more.