Editor's note: This story is featured in OU Daily's Best of Norman Guide, which will be available in print beginning Sept. 10. Racks can be found around Norman and campus. Check out the other featured stories at the bottom of this article.
Nonprofit art and music venue Resonator Institute provides a home for Norman’s creatives, aiming to be a space for all art forms to flourish.
Co-founded by Curtis and Tammy Gordon Jones, Resonator opened in 2016. The Jones’ moved from Oakland, California, to Norman in 2005, where Curtis Jones began his role as a print-making professor at OU.
While in Oakland, Jones said he was surrounded by independent art spaces. After moving to Norman, he said he noticed a creative energy in the city that needed a home.
Jones said during his first couple years at OU, his students would often throw house parties where they would hang their artwork and have their friends’ bands perform.
“It was a chance to see their work in a public space,” Jones said. “All we need to do is create a space for the idea.”
In 2014, Jones and his wife assisted his recently graduated students in opening an art venue on Crawford Avenue called Dope Chapel.
After Dope Chapel closed in 2015, Jones and his wife partnered with the students to open Resonator, which was located in a warehouse on University Avenue. In August 2018, the venue moved to its current location on Main Street.
“When we moved from there to Main Street, that's when the community at large started to know we exist, and artists that didn't know we were out there started to find us,” Jones said.
According to Jones, Resonator offers classes such as art theory and criticism and craft making to children and adults while also holding workshops for screen printing, glass fusing, soldering and more.
Jones said Resonator supports various art forms, acting as a venue for groups to host art showcases, theater productions, dance showcases and live music. It also partners with the monthly 2nd Friday Art Walk and the annual Norman Music Festival held in April.
“The idea is for us to be supporting all forms of creativity,” Jones said. “We're not just a band building (or) just a place to have an art show once a month”
Art installation at Resonator Institute on Aug. 21.
Jones said Resonator aims to be an approachable and comfortable space for visitors.
“A lot of the complaints we heard in the beginning about art spaces is that a lot of people don't feel welcome when they walk into an art gallery,” Jones said.
Fine arts senior and Resonator intern Madison Pixley said the venue provides a space for students to socialize outside of OU. With her father in the military, Pixley spent her childhood moving from place to place. Coming to Norman, Pixley said Resonator helped her branch out.
“I think it's just a really, like, super relaxed community-building space for people who have a common interest,” Pixley said. “Coming here from out of town, it can be really intimidating and really easy to stay on campus and not really participate in community events.”
Wall art at Resonator Institute on Aug. 21.
Pixley said Resonator is a place that helps artists who are starting out find a home for their artwork and get it out for the community to see.
“They give such a good spotlight to smaller artists and local artists and people who might find it harder to have their work shown elsewhere,” Pixley said.
According to Jones, Resonator’s art shows are currently booked two years in advance, with a four-month-long wait for musicians.
Resonator Institute is at 323 E. Main St., with hours depending on what events and programs are taking place.
This story was edited by Shelby Emery and Peggy Dodd. Matthew Moore, Sophie Hemker, Grace Rhodes and Mary Ann Livingood copy edited this story.
