Nursery Rhymes Mural (1934) & Circus Mural (1934)

‍In 1934, Audre’ Yates painted the Nursery Rhymes mural in soft pastel oil colors for the Wilson Elementary kindergarten room as a Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) commission. The PWAP was the first major New Deal art program and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was instrumental in its formation in 1933 with funds from the Civil Works Administration (CWA).

The Nursery Rhymes mural portrays whimsical animals and simplified characters in fanciful costuming. Yates salary payment was $26.50 a week. She was a nineteen-year-old graduate of Central High School where she studied art with Grace Chadwick. Yates was born in Kansas City, Missouri on November 17, 1914.Wilson school principal, J. Carl Conner, faculty and patrons so loved her mural that they commissioned her to paint the Circus mural for the adjoining primary room.

Wilson children earnestly watched the young artist draw and paint the murals. Artist and art museum director Nan Sheets, representing the committee on government art work in Oklahoma, presented the murals to the school at an Open House in March of 1934.Yates later studied at the Kansas City Art Institute under Thomas Hart Benton, Ross Braught, Mildred Hammond and Robert Mayes. Other works include a design of sculptured stone panels for the Mary Golda Ross School building in Oklahoma City, and cover designs for several magazines.

Yates also did extensive work in the commercial art field. She died at the age of 91 on May 11, 2006.