Karl Jones is an interdisciplinary artist, curator and storyteller living and working in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Jones is currently completing his third year as an integration grant awardee within the Tulsa Artist Fellowship, a cultural initiative of the George Kaiser Family Foundation. Before returning to his hometown, Jones lived in Brooklyn and worked as a children’s books editor for Penguin Random House publishing award-winning and New York Times best-selling artists including Alok Vaid-Menon, Kimberly Drew, and Justin Elizabeth Sayre. Prior to his decade-long stint in publishing, Jones lived and worked in Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, D.C. curating public programming at the Walters Art Museum and hosting a series of queer performance and community events featuring artists Taylor Mac, Lesbians on Ecstasy and Dynasty Handbag.
While in Baltimore, Jones created an interactive puppet show and workshop series known as the Karl Marks Children’s Hour, which now features a collection of over 1,600 paper bag and construction paper puppets depicting historic figures and contemporary artists and activists. After returning to Tulsa Jones created and is co-directing the fourth year of Goff Fest, an architecture festival reimagining the life and legacy of 20th c. queer architect, Bruce Goff. His continued interest in underappreciated figures from the 2SLGBTQ+ Great Plains history led to the creation of the Center for Queer Prairie Studies, a parafiction exhibition, art collective and 501c(3) non-profit organization.
Introduced by Lucas Ondak, CCS Bard Graduate Student.
CCS Bard Speaker Series Each semester CCS Bard hosts a program of lectures by leading artists, curators, art historians, and critics, situating the school and museum’s concerns within the larger context of contemporary art production and discourse. Speakers are selected primarily by second-year graduate students and also by faculty and staff. All lectures are free and open, and are documented through audio recordings that reside in the CCS Bard Library & Archives and online here.
Accessibility for Public Programs
Recordings
All our programs are recorded through audio recordings that reside in the CCS Bard Library & Archives and online here. To inquire about a recording, please contact CCSVisits@bard.edu.
American Sign Language Interpretation
ASL-English interpretation is available for public programs upon request with two weeks advance notice. To place a request, please contact CCSVisits@bard.edu. Relay and voice calls welcome.
Verbal Description
Verbal description is available for public programs upon request with two weeks advance notice. To place a request, please contact CCSVisits@bard.edu. Relay and voice calls welcome.
Captioning
When public programs are held over Zoom, live transcription is available .