Sunni Mercer, MFA, CIP

Sunni Mercer is an NEA Regional Fellow with experience in the area of communications, interpretive art and design. Her art work is archived at the Smithsonian Institution and she is certified with the National Parks Service in Interpretive Planning. Sunni is the former Director of the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition. She also served as the Director of the Oklahoma City National Memorial Center overseeing the design phase of the museum. She coordinated staff, volunteers and worked with the National Parks Service, design team, family members, survivors and rescue workers to develop an exhibit design approved by a very large Oklahoma City constituency.

She taught Art History at the University of Central Oklahoma for twelve years and has been a visiting lecturer and presenter at numerous Universities, businesses and conferences including the American Association of Museums National Conference.

Sunni has extensive experience in the area of community and multi-interest collaborative projects, and was selected for the National Endowment for the Arts, "Artists & Communities / America Creates for the Millennium-National Registry." Among her noted community collaborations is the The Living Room, a three-year project with the Wichita Art Museum. The final installation consisted of furniture assemblages celebrating nonprofit organizations throughout Wichita, Kansas.

The Allegiance Credit Union (formally the Federal Employees Credit Union) features an interpretive garden Sunni designed in honor of employees lost during the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing in Oklahoma City. Sunni has received numerous awards and grants including a National Award for Interpretive Design for her design of the Federal Employees Credit Union Remembrance Garden.

Sunni's sculptures, interpretive design and installation work have been the subject of over 100 articles in a variety of national periodicals and publications. She organized the collaborative project, The Measure of My Strength to create awareness and support for women dealing with the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Swaziland, Africa. The resulting exhibit and book of the same title includes her sculptures, poetry and stories of the women in Swaziland. This work is now held in permanent collection by Southern Nazarene University.

Another sculpture series entitled Lament: A Congregation of Sojourners, which showcased sculptures and poetry, traveled for two years prior to being permanently installed at the Global Ministry Center in Lenexa, Kansas.

In addition to her studio, Sunni owns Mercer Associates, Inc. Established in 2001, Mercer Associates is a consulting business specializing in interpretive and strategic planning for museums and exhibits. Sunni served as the interpretive planner during the conceptual design phase of the Cherokee History museum, and she designed the Chickasaw Nation Historic Capitol Museum and Council House exhibits. Sunni is currently consulting with Chickasaw Nation's Department of Culture and Humanities. She is also contracted as the Interpretive Planner/Writer for the Arkansas Museum of African American Heritage at Mosaic Templars in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Sunni Mercer resides in Bethany, Oklahoma with her husband, Gary. They have two children, Josh and Danica and four grandchildren.



Q & A

Please describe how you feel about exhibiting at the Gaylord-Pickens Museum, home of the Oklahoma Hall of Fame?

I am thrilled to have been offered the opportunity to exhibit at the Gaylord-Pickens Museum. I have lived and worked in Oklahoma for the last thirty years. I am acquainted with the stories behind many of the people whose lives, strength of character and contributions have helped shape our state; Oklahoma's trail blazers. I could not be more honored than to have my work displayed in proximity to the legendary individuals celebrated within these halls.

It is the mission of the Oklahoma Hall of Fame to tell Oklahoma's story through its people. How does your art help tell Oklahoma's story?

From its very beginnings, my signature work has involved the gathering of found objects. I refer to these reclaimed materials as borrowed bits of history. I have collected materials from old barns and homesteads, yard sales, antique stores and flea markets. I have even gathered materials from ball fields, neighborhood parks, school playgrounds and parking lots, all across the state of Oklahoma. My work is intrinsic to Oklahoma by the very nature of the fact that these Oklahoma found objects make up the work. I find the distressed objects I use remarkably beautiful. Overall, the materials, denote the ruggedness of the land, and the resolute uniqueness of the people of Oklahoma. Lately, I have also spent a great deal of time studying the flora and fauna of Oklahoma. The results of this research have lent to the creation of a design standard for my most current figurative work.

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