New Arts & Cultural District Coming To Downtown Stilwell, Adair County

An Arts and Cultural District will soon be coming to Downtown Stilwell and Adair County.

Organizers said they hope this will be a chance to show off the creative talents of the community.

“Any place there’s a business that wants art, we will cover the whole town in art," said Interim Director, Faith Phillips.

Phillips said her students were inspired to show off the community of Stilwell and Adair County.

The students started a podcast, took photographs and created paintings and art. Their efforts received national attention.

“I started seeing all of this incredible art and people from around the nation were coming and taking their art, back to their own cities. So we were having the art going to Chicago, New York and Austin," she said.

She said she met with community members in town and has now started the Beyond the Trail Cultural District.

The hope is that murals and pieces of art will fill downtown Stilwell and Adair County.

They will even have a headquarters downtown that will serve as the home base of the district.

“There will be a room to display photography, paintings. Also a room to teach traditional arts like basket weaving. We just have so many unique talents here in the county that we want to emphasize," she said.

Phillips said she hopes this will help with ongoing efforts to revitalize downtown Stilwell, as well as showcase the talents of Adair County.

She's thankful for the inspiration from her students.

“It was just this really positive, compared to all of the negative things that were happening, it was this positive thing to convey to the community that we define ourselves, and we will tell our own story," she said.

There will be a fundraiser in the next few months to raise money for renovations on the building. Phillips hopes the headquarters will open within the next year.

If you'd like to contribute, the mailing address is: Beyond the Trail Cultural District. P.O. Box 1282 Stilwell, OK 74960