The Cowboy Announces Three Days of Western Enjoyable for Memorial Day Weekend

Boley Rodeo Day and thirty fifth Annual Chuck Wagon Festival

Boley Rodeo Day and the thirty fifth Annual Chuck Wagon Festival, offered by Dogwood Foundation, carry rodeo historical past, chuck wagon cooking, dwell music, artwork, storytelling and household actions to the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum May 22-24.

The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum will host three days of family-friendly Western experiences Memorial Day weekend. The weekend begins Friday, May 22, with Boley Rodeo Day, a particular one-day celebration of Black rodeo historical past and the legacy of the Boley Rodeo.

The celebration leads into the Museum’s signature Memorial Day weekend occasion, the thirty fifth Annual Chuck Wagon Festival, offered by Dogwood Foundation, which returns Saturday, May 23, and Sunday, May 24.

Together, the occasions will provide a weekend stuffed with artwork, historical past, dwell music, storytelling, meals samples, demonstrations, household actions and interactive experiences celebrating the legacy of the American West.

Boley Rodeo Day

• Friday, May 22, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
• Free with Museum admission or membership

Boley Rodeo Day brings the spirit of Boley to The Cowboy with a full day celebrating Black rodeo historical past, artwork, music and storytelling. For in the future solely, Prosperity Junction will turn into Boley Main Street, bringing the story of one among Oklahoma’s most necessary Black cities to life contained in the Museum’s turn-of-the-century Western city by means of historic imagery, self-guided stops, QR-code storytelling, artist shows and a photograph exhibition that includes work by Garrett Augustus, Brian Edwards, Eyakem Gulilat, Leondre Lattimore, Jakian Parks, Nicol Ragland and Seth Stern.

Guests additionally might be among the many first to view “Like Father, Like Son,” by photographer Seth Stern. Unveiled throughout Boley Rodeo Day within the Atherton Gallery, the work will turn into a everlasting a part of the Museum’s assortment.

From 12:30 to three p.m., acclaimed Western artist Thomas Blackshear II will current a dwell portray demonstration within the Annie Oakley Center. Blackshear obtained the 2024 Ann Noble Brown Prix de West Purchase Award on the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum for his oil portray, “A Much Needed Break,” inserting his work within the Museum’s everlasting assortment.

The day additionally will embrace a roping demonstration with IPRA World Champion Danell Tipton and can shut with a high-energy outside Cowboy Concert from Grammy Award-winning artist, singer, songwriter and producer Tony Williams.

Known professionally as The WRLDFMS Tony Williams, the Oklahoma City-born artist’s music bridges gospel, soul, R&B, hip-hop, funk and pop. He will carry out with a five-piece brass band, two keyboards and a 30-member choir.

For extra data, go to thecowboy.org/boley-rodeo-day.

Boley Rodeo Day Schedule

• 10 a.m. to three:15 p.m. – Boley Main Street in Prosperity Junction
• 10:30 a.m. – Unveiling of “Like Father, Like Son” by Seth Stern, Atherton Gallery
• 12:30 to three p.m. – Painting Demonstration with Thomas Blackshear II, Annie Oakley Center
• 1 to three:15 p.m. – Roping Demonstration with IPRA World Champion Danell Tipton, Arena/Gardens
• 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. – Cowboy Concert with Grammy Award-Winning Artist Tony Williams, Western States Plaza

The live performance is made attainable by the Oklahoma Arts Council in partnership with Project 2020 Foundation and the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.

thirty fifth Annual Chuck Wagon Festival

• Saturday, May 23, and Sunday, May 24, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
  
• $25 prematurely, $30 on the door
• Free for Museum members and youngsters below 12
  

The thirty fifth Annual Chuck Wagon Festival will carry a full weekend of Western and Native American historical past, artwork and delicacies to the Museum. The competition will embrace seven chuck wagons, one Indigenous meals station, 10 demonstrating artists, 5 interpreters and storytellers, three levels with 12 performances and 15 exercise stations serving roughly 7,000 individuals throughout Memorial Day weekend.

Families can get pleasure from chuck wagon meals samples, Indigenous meals samples, crafts, music, artist demonstrations, storytelling, historical past interpreters and hands-on actions all through the Museum grounds. Activities embrace bandana design, leather-based stamping, rope making, watercolors, archery, mural coloring and sarsaparilla samples. Guests also can deal with themselves to snowcones, pony rides, and facepainting, for a further cost.

Guests also can expertise dwell demonstrations in sculpture, portray, basket weaving, leather-based working, quilting, pottery, beading and flint knapping. History interpreters will carry figures and tales of the West to life, together with Stagecoach Mary, a Seminole trapper, a Buffalo Soldier and Bill Pickett.

John R. Erickson, writer of the favored “Hank the Cowdog” kids’s guide sequence, may also seem Saturday, May 23, for talks and guide signings.

For the total schedule and to buy advance tickets, go to thecowboy.org/chuckwagon.