The Hideaway is celebrating its 50th Anniversary in 2007, so we have been around for half of Oklahoma's statehood!  Our first restaurant in Stillwater featured an entire wall of interesting collage art reflecting events happening in the world and fascinating visual images for viewers.  We want to help define the first 100 years of Oklahoma's membership in the Union with this unique and visual collage project, to be viewed for years to come!

            Each collage and the project as a whole will offer perspectives of our state's origins and values from many points of view. The Oklahoma Collage Project is creating an accessible time capsule for future generations of Oklahomans to view and admire.

            The Hideaway and OKLAHOMA TODAY and the Oklahoma History Center have all played a part in the eight year history of The Oklahoma Collage Project, having provided the funding, judges, display areas, endorsements and manpower for the project.  Collaborators from the beginning, and now officially co-sponsoring the project, all three organizations have direct ties to Okahoma’s past and future.

            With the final award ceremony in April 2007, Oklahoma Today publisher Joan Henderson, OHS executive director Bob Blackburn, and Janie Harris of Hideaway Pizza lamented the end of the highly successful project celebrating Oklahoma’s uniqueness and history. The three agreed to continue the project with each agency or company providing sponsorship in different areas.

            Henderson, a past judge for the Oklahoma Collage Project, explained their reason for partnering with the project. “Oklahoma Today has been around as long as the Hideaway,” she says. “Our images have been used on the collage walls of the original Hideaway in Stillwater. We have provided back issues to people entering this project since inception. Our involvement just makes sense. We are the people’s magazine, the history center is the people’s museum, and this project is the people’s project.”
           
            Oklahoma Today, the state’s official magazine, is a division of the Oklahoma Tourism & Recreation Department.

            Blackburn also viewed the partnership as a natural fit. “First, this project does for the state of Oklahoma what the history center does for the state: It creates a sense of community and reflects something about who we are as a state and a people. Second, the OHC is a resource for the people, with more than 7,000 photographs and 2,000 artifacts on exhibit reflecting the history of Oklahoma. We are a deep well of resources for the people working on this project each year.”

            Blackburn’s support for the project began with the original Hideaway contest celebrating the millennium, when 120 four-by-six-foot collages decorated the lawn of the Oklahoma Historical Society building on Lincoln Boulevard and State Capitol Park. When the Oklahoma Centennial Commission approached the Hideaway about continuing the project through 2007, Blackburn agreed to endorse the project, providing judges each year.

            Henderson and Louisa McCune-Elmore, editor in chief of Oklahoma Today, alternately served as judges and saw the tremendous value in the work created by students and individuals from all corners of the state.

            “We didn’t want this to end,” Henderson says. “To see kids really stop and think about the state with this project enhances the way they perceive where they live. It’s a pride builder. Oklahoma Today touches every county and community in Oklahoma, and this project has, too.”

Second Place, Elementary Division
Ft. Cobb-Broxton Elementary Gifted Class