Rocktown Climbing Gym

[metro]

Is Rocktown still in biz? They have a For Lease sign on the building. Looks vacant, just curious and meaning to ask.

[OKCTalker]

Bump...

...I'm curious too, but no-one's responded with info.

[Urbanized]

From DOKC:

For Immediate Release
May 9, 2013

Downtown OKC, Inc. completes funding of Silo Art Project with $10,000 surprise donation

Oklahoma City, OK – Downtown Oklahoma City, Inc., made a $10,000 donation to the Silo Art Project this afternoon to complete the fundraising for a giant mural to be painted on the Rocktown Climbing Gym.

Oklahoma artist Rick Sinnett launched a social media and online fundraising campaign via Kickstarter four days ago, stating that he needed just $16,000 to complete the project for the 12,800-square-foot mural entitled “This Land,” which features the American bison, scissortail flycatcher, Indian Paintbrush wildflowers, and wheat.

Jane Jenkins, Downtown OKC’s president and CEO, said, “We’ve been saving money in our Initiatives fund for multiple years, waiting for a project like this to come along. We all love this mural and its symbolism, and of course, are proud to help fund anything that improves the downtown community.”

Downtown OKC called Sinnett to inform him about the donation and he said, “Wow. I can’t tell you how grateful I am. This is one of the reasons I love this state. Everyone is willing to help each other out and have really stepped up to support public art. This is such a blessing.”

Downtown OKC has also offered to pay for the necessary permits needed to install the art and to help with that process.

The mural will be painted on an old grain silo on SE 4th Street which is now Rocktown Climbing Gym. The location is visible from the Oklahoma River and Interstate 40. “It’s a prime area to showcase some high-quality and meaningful art, as well as beautify the skyline,” said Jill DeLozier, Downtown OKC’s marketing director.

Downtown OKC will make its contribution to the project through its 501(c)(3), Downtown Oklahoma City Initiatives. The funds have been earmarked for downtown community improvement projects, including public art since the account was created in 2005.

###

Downtown OKC, Inc. is a non-profit organization that promotes and markets downtown Oklahoma City in conjunction with numerous downtown business and property owners, residents, government agencies, and other partners. DOKC formed in 2001, has 7 full-time staff members, manages the Business Improvement District, and holds annual events such as Downtown in December and the Downtown Dash. For additional information, visit downtownokc.com.

[betts]

That's excellent. I donated a bit to this and had been following the Kickstarter campaign. It's excited to see this fully funded.

[dontbesojumpy]

So does anyone know the whole story on the first funding for the silo from last year?

Because this whole thing is kind of shady. Maybe there is some reasonable explanation--weird thing is, Rick refuses to discuss it. After talking to him, I am convinced he used the funding from last year without producing any of the mural, and now he's being paid twice as much again to finally get it done.

Rick was funded more than $8,000 to paint the mural on the silo last early spring 2012. Actually an article I found says he was 1. fully funded in January 2012 through private donations and 2. the mural's artwork "This Land" was approved by the councils involved with okaying such public works.

According to the #siloartproject twitter feed, Rick has been working on the mural ever since he announced he was funded the 8grand in early 2012. In fact, last summer and last fall several people started asking what the deal was, since it appeared he was doing no work on the project at all. He replied several times, assuring everyone the project was on as planned. Throughout last year, up through fall he was still asking for more donations to "be a part of this project," never announcing any funding fell through or that the project was on hiatus. To the contrary, he made a point to emphasize the project was NEVER on hiatus.

Next thing you know, he's removed all the blog entries from A Massive Mural in the Heart of the USA < Silo Art Project before this new May kickstarter campaign and leading on as if the first fundraising campaign never happened. There are links out of other forums I tried to follow that related to blog posts on his site re: the status of the project from the first funding's iterations (the nature of the posts were explaining it was still on as ever planned, that he was working on behind-the-scenes stuff like mixing paint and procuring equipment and making stencils. Rick has removed all instances such as these relating to the project before, so the site looks as if this is the first time it has been funded. The links are now dead, pulling a page that says "this post has been deleted."

All of this is kind of weird.

Weirder still is the whole Womb Gallery/Wayne Coyne dust up.

Apparently Rick was pocketing money for artwork sold through womb. You can see all that here in this flobs post. you can also see that Wayne calls the silo art project "a scam" and that "rick preys on the art community" and several other negative things. Now that is something that, when added to the previous weirdness, makes the whole thing very intriguing to me.

Apparently there is a secondary non-factor aspect of Rick moving to Austin with his girlfriend and leaving his wife and kids here in Okc (hence the deadbeat dad accusations. This is none of anyone's business and a low blow to tweet out, i think). Rick later filed for divorce in the latter part of 2012 (the dust up was early summer).

The familial part doesn't interest me, nor do I consider it a testament to his character--tho if Rick really was living in Austin last summer, it's odd he was pretending on his twitter feed to be working on the silo mural as he claimed.

So.

What do we make of all this?

I know--how about let's ask Rick himself.

I did just that. Rick was very prompt to reply to ALL my emails, but the only answer he was willing to give about the first funding was this: "the silo art project was to be funded by a corporate sponsor of which I was going to paint logos but the certain people did not want sponsor logos so they yanked the funding"

Correct me if I am wrong, but that reads as if Rick had agreed to and planned to have logos in the artwork from the beginning, does it not?

This only confused me more. This article says it was PRIVATELY funded as of Jan 2012, the only mention of corporate anything was donations by H.I.S., who is still involved, so clearly they can't be the corporate problem. And Rick announced his funding well after January and claimed the project was full-tilt on after that. What's more is the same artwork--THIS LAND--was then approved by the arts council for public display, same as now--nothing ever shows a single altered image that contains additional logos. Furthermore, the CITY had to approve the art PRIOR to his announcement it was funded, so if it really was funded by a singular financier corporation, they agreed to the "THIS LAND" concept art well before agreeing to fund it. So it seems unlikely there was some deal-breaking logo aspect to this project. He claims to be painting the silo blue back in early last Spring--so that means he was approved, funded, went paint-to-the-wall actually doing the mural, and way into it at some point after work started, this "corporation" up and says "oh btw now you're putting our logos in it." that makes no sense.

If I am off base, Rick could have explained it to me. He replied, but would not talk about any details. This can be corroborated if it's true, so if anyone of you know the scoop, I'd love to hear it.

So I asked him: Who was this corporate sponsor? What did they want to add into the artwork? When did the project go on hiatus? Why did you maintain you were working on the project this whole time if it was actually tabled and unfunded? Was any of the money for the first funding crowd sourced?--that one is important, because I distinctly recall him asking for donations on the siloartproject.com site and I saw it was funded a bit over what he was asking. Also, even now, you can go back through his facebook and twitter and see his appeals for public donations, so I am positive some of the first iteration of funding was crowdsourced.
I asked him if that was the case, and if it was, was any of that money refunded.

Rick wrote back refusing to answer.

I explained I was just curious where the money went, because he never announced anything went awry with the first funding. I also explained that I was positive there was a simple answer--which could easily be corroborated if he'd just tell me who this corporation was and what they wanted, and when the project went off the rails, and why he never mentioned it, and why Wayne called the silo project a big scam.

Rick could have said he used some/all of the first funding to work on it, but he needed more because it wasn't enough. Rick could have said he never received any of the money in the first place. Rick could have said he Received the money but when problems arose he refunded it. Rick could have announced whatever the case is to people following the project since 2011.

Instead, he again replied to my email, again refusing to answer any of these corroboratable questions, only saying something along the lines of "I should call him because all the important people he was with would like to talk to me on speaker phone" or something douchy like that.

I wrote him one last email explaining my position--that the allegations were he stole money, bilking art patrons from the Womb (from which he was publicly fired) and that his silo money begging from last year was a scam...and that it really looks like he pocketed the first 8 grand and is trying to pretend it never happened, asking for twice as much again and is well over that amount at this point.
I said that was the picture he was painting (pun intended) but that he could very simply clear the air by just explaining where the money came from and where it went.

Rick has still refused to address these questions.

So, I am not sure what to think. Thing of it is, this simply can't be some secret mystery. Someone involved knows what happened to the first funding--with the details of the company involved, when it was called off and why.
Unless there never was any logo snafu at all.

It's odd Rick removed every previous entry on his site pertaining to last year's funding. It's not incriminating, but it's odd. It's odd this story isn't "the project is back on track," it's odd he is playing it as if this is whole thing. It's odd there is no available information about where the money went, if he ever got it, if he spent any of it, or if it was refunded.

What's worse is i don't think anyone cares but me.

It's odd he said he could paint it for 8 grand last year, was funded the 8 grand, then nearly exactly a year later he needs twice as much to do it. Basically he's been funded 3 times over at this point.


Now he claims he "won't make a cent."

How's that now? The paint is free, the equipment is donated, and restaurants have all agreed to feed him and his crew for free for the duration of the mural. But he won't make a cent?

Like I said--there's a simple answer here--but Rick is unwilling to say what that answer is. Someone has to know--but until I hear a satisfactory answer with some details, I'm leaning towards the "it was a scam" thing. Sure, I think he intends to paint it this time--but he's also pocketing 24,000 and counting to finally do it...with free food and free supplies.

So while I do think Rick intends to paint the silo--and more than likely will this time--I also think he has a reputation for mismanaging money (by his own admission, even, pertaining to the El Reno Mural) and has a bad reputation for taking money and not doing what he claims to do. Even if some large portion of the first funding was a single entity's donation, what about all the private donations? Where did that money go? And why wouldn't he just explain all this so it's out in the open?

[hoya]

I went to this place once with a girl. It was against my better judgment, as I am afraid of heights. But she was really hot and I thought I could tough it out. I was wrong. I got about 8 feet off the ground and froze in place. I did not score after that date.

[Urbanized]

So why the in-depth seemingly investigative reply on this subject as your first-ever post on this forum? There's plenty of weirdness to go around on this project. At this point I'm just hoping that it happens as advertised, as the work seems to be happening, the design is without question cool and striking, and good people have stepped up with serious money. *fingers crossed*

[Steve]

OK, I'm going to provide what I know on this... and hope I don't get beaten up again like I did on the transit thread.
First: Wayne Coyne and Sinnett were once friends. They operated the Womb together. And then they weren't friends. Coyne threw out some vague accusations, but refused to get specific with me when I inquired a year ago. Sinnett and Mary Beth Babcock also were less than helpful in explaining what was up. But here's the thing to know: the artistic community is .... artistic. They're not always cool headed, they're certainly emotional, and tempers can flare.
I've been privy to emails sent back and forth between Don't Be So Jumpy and one of Sinnett's major current supporters. It looks like Sinnett may or may not have had full funding in early 2012 - maybe he lost some of it during the split with Coyne. It's a long, complicated thread, but here is how Don't Be So Jumpy concluded it with me:

"Here is a sent/reply/sent chain from Rocktown. I feel fairly satisfied with their answers, tho I did reply to clarify where the confusion was born.



I feel content to drop it as far as any questions I have. It appears the project was never funded but there was speculation it very nearly could be and a lot of it was blown out of proportion. Maybe Rick (and people around him) said it was funded in a sort of cart-before-the-horse way.



I still wish Rick could have clarified the way this person has. "

[dontbesojumpy]

So why the in-depth seemingly investigative reply on this subject as your first-ever post on this forum?

simply because googling "rick sinnett" yields the top hit of this thread on this forum. a lot of people said things about knowing rick personally and whatever, so i was hoping someone might have answers. i wouldn't call it "in depth," as the bulk of information has come from following Rick's various blogs/twitter/facebook and from what he said and what the downtown inc person said, as well as a handful of forum posts.

like i said, i tried talking to rick directly but he would only say things like he wanted me to come ask these question on camera or that i should call so he could put me on speaker phone with the downtown association--which come on. those are very weird answers. made me even more skeptical. when i asked if he ever had the money, he could have just said "no." that could have been the end of my curiosity.

after my first post here, sunday evening i received a very informative and lengthy email from rocktown. a lot of things were clarified--and as Steve already said, it's enough for me to stop prodding around for better answers. like i said, all i ever wanted were some answers that made a little more sense than what i was getting from Rick.

that said, i'm not entirely straightened out on the issue, i just don't know how i could ever get any clearer answers, so what's left to do but just drop it?
for example, RT says the project was never ever funded at all. so i 'm not sure why i was told so, not sure why rick alluded to it being "on" through his social media, nor why other people believed it to be funded. what's more, RT says the "corporate sponsor logo" thing was simply one of any amount of pitched ideas, and the implication was it was no more or less confirm as literally ANY possible plan. i was told that could have happened or not just as ANYTHING could happen or not, and to that end, they declined to give any details at all because it was so much of a non-factor in the whole scheme of the project. apparently it was just one of many ideas kicked around and it was very far from materializing.

so why did the DTI person cite that as the fall-through for the funding if it was never true? who knows.
why did they tell me it was previously funded? dunno.
why did rick cite the corp logo thing as the reason it didn't happen last year? who knows.

baffling that i asked "wasn't this funded already?" and Rick said "was going to be but this logo snafu." RT says it was never ever off the ground, not even close to it, not even close to funded.

baffling.

another thing is, in a second reply late last night, RT said the logos weren't per se ever going to be in mural, that perhaps they might have been painted on a different wall by themselves or, "maybe not even put up at all" since it was all just talk.

so again, why was that cited as the deal breaker? hopefully you can understand how i might be confused.

finally, RT said the deal has never really been anything but a idea until last week when it was finally funded.
so why did rick say it was on? again, no one knows. why the implication he was working on through last year? not sure.

no one knows why people said things like in the above thread along the lines of "i heard the project was off" or even above in this thread where someone said something similar. it can't be off it was never on.

that's why i commented it might just be a case of cart before horse.

who knows.

the Wayne thing...i'm starting to suspect there was some personal animosity at play there. calling it "a scam" when there's already a hurricane of misinformation around the project really shoves it into the realm of skepticism.

i, like everyone else, just hope it really happens and i hope there's nothing underhanding involved in getting it done. rick obviously deserves to make some money for such a large job and i have no problems if it's a massive amount of money--so long as it's entirely honestly procured. i can't stand the idea someone might bilk the art community so i just wanted to clarify that was not the case.

not trying to be a rabblerouser--just trying to sort through the briary tangle of conflicting information.

[OKCisOK4me]

I went to this place once with a girl. It was against my better judgment, as I am afraid of heights. But she was really hot and I thought I could tough it out. I was wrong. I got about 8 feet off the ground and froze in place. I did not score after that date.

If she's the girl from the Not OCURA thread then that's probably a good thing, lol.

[hoya]

If she's the girl from the Not OCURA thread then that's probably a good thing, lol.

Not the same one.

[Praedura]

Rick Sinnett has posted a brief video of his hanging-in-the-air work on the silo:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=614490421908187



I gotta say... that's not a job I would really want.

[Pete]

Progress! (from https://twitter.com/DowntownOKCInc):

[Bullbear]

Thank goodness!.. finally some visible progress!

[catch22]

About time! While my donation was most likely insignificant, I was getting nervous that this would not be completed.

Still haven't gotten my T-Shirt and bumper sticker and other little gifts he promised in return for donation -- but I rather have it completed than everyone get their token gifts. (I wouldn't mind both though since that is what was promised).

[Snowman]

whooo, I had begun to wonder if something in the plan had fallen through after it had started.

[Bellaboo]

I was as skeptical as could be, nice to be proven wrong.

[Pete]

They are moving fast now; from https://www.facebook.com/downtownokc:

[soonerguru]

Killer.

[jccouger]

Looks amazing. I was told that nothing will be painted on either the south, west or east sides. Kind of a bummer, but maybe they will eventually plan something. This is going to look amazing, though I kind of wish the state flag was still there & they would've painted this mural on the south side facing I40.

[LocoAko]

Looks amazing. I was told that nothing will be painted on either the south, west or east sides. Kind of a bummer, but maybe they will eventually plan something. This is going to look amazing, though I kind of wish the state flag was still there & they would've painted this mural on the south side facing I40.

Yeah, I really wish this were facing I-40. It looks fantastic.

[OkieBerto]

Looks amazing. I was told that nothing will be painted on either the south, west or east sides. Kind of a bummer, but maybe they will eventually plan something. This is going to look amazing, though I kind of wish the state flag was still there & they would've painted this mural on the south side facing I40.

It is a bummer. It would be cool if an artist was able to paint the buffalo-skin shield on the south side.

[Mr. Cotter]

Yeah, I really wish this were facing I-40. It looks fantastic.

Not me! I can see it from my office.

[soonerguru]

Yeah, I really wish this were facing I-40. It looks fantastic.

It's not? Wow, that really sucks. I thought this would make such a cool entry into OKC from I-40, instead of a rusty old grain elevator.

[Bullbear]

I thought they were putting on both sides? That would be nice. Looks good tho