“It was a shock:” Tulsans react to sudden closure of Ahha center

TULSA, Okla. — Tulsans are reacting to the sudden closure of the ahha Hardesty Arts Center.

The Arts and Huminites Council of Tulsa, known as ahha Tulsa, was founded in 1961. They opened downtown’s Hardesty Arts Center in 2012 to house art installations and resources for local artists.

Tulsans like John Howland were surprised about the closure.

“For several years, I’ve used the dark room facilities here and then the media room, which is where they have the computers setup, printers and whatnot. I use that for color photography and the dark room for black and white,” said Howland.

Howland is a retired attorney who shoots portraits and national park landscape photos in his free time. “It was a shock, although I’d seen a decline as far as operations, at least in the areas that I use, for some years,” he said.

A spokesperson with Ahha Tulsa said in a statement, “Unfortunately, it has been increasingly difficult to operate ahha in its current form due to the most challenging economic and social time in recent history. We are working closely with our partners to ensure we find a long-term future for some of our programs and do this as quickly as possible. For our artists, partners and vendors, please know we are working as quickly as possible to get in touch with you.”

FOX23 dug into ahha Tulsa’s tax records available through ProPublica for further answers. With the exception of 2018, they’ve lost money every year.

In 2019, The ended up with a negative net income of 1.2 million dollars.

Howland’s not sure where he’ll go now to develop his photos, because ahha Tulsa’s facilities were one of kind in the region.

Howland said, “My daughter lives in St. Louis, and they have nothing anywhere near comparable to this, as far as the ability for someone in the public to come in, get a membership, and use the facilities for photography that we have. And, it’s unfortunate we won’t have it.”