Bricktown Water Taxis are now humming with tunes and splashed with color

If you have not taken a tour of Bricktown on one of our city’s well-loved water taxis, add it to your 2021 summer bucket list! Better yet, get a ticket for one of the Thursday night ArtAfloatOKC Showboat Concert Series events to enjoy an exclusive experience on one of the boats with a local musician.

The Bricktown Water Taxis have been in service for over 20 years in Oklahoma City and have carried over two million passengers during their two decades of operation. They offer a unique way to see our city from the winding Bricktown Canal, which was built in 1999. Although the boats were built new for the Bricktown Canal operation, the original design of the SeaArk boats was for the San Antonio Riverwalk.

The owner and managing member of the Bricktown Water Taxi, Chad Huntington, has been associated with the service in some capacity since its opening day in 1999. He was hired as general manager in 2002 and purchased the company from its original Florida-based ownership in 2019.

Among other things, one of his first orders of business was to update the appearance of the boats to be more reflective of its Oklahoma City location. The boats have long boasted the traditional, iconic taxi yellow since they arrived in OKC, but they are beginning to fashion new colors with the work of local visual artists.

“These boats have been on the canal for 22 years. We’re really trying to create a bit more of a truly local feel,” said Huntington. “For a long time, we’ve been looking for ideas on how to freshen them up, make them more comfortable, and give them a more authentically Oklahoma look.”

With these thoughts in mind, Huntington began working with the Oklahoma Mural Syndicate to create a gameplan for inviting local artists to repaint the water taxis with original artwork. So far, they have taken two boats out of the water to be covered in murals. One, painted by artist Kristopher Kanaly, has re-entered the canal covered with a painting titled “Giant Octopus Emerges from the Bricktown Canal.” The second boat’s mural is in the works; it was designed by local artist Dusty Gilpin and will be unveiled soon.

“We’re really trying to represent Oklahoma City’s true culture and feel with the murals on the boats. The transformation is going to happen over the next several years and will eventually be like a floating art gallery,” shared Huntington. “The art will be refreshed from time to time, and we expect the murals will be on the boats for about 2 years before we take them out to once again be completely repainted.”

The refreshing of the boats is folded in with an entire canal-improvement movement that Huntington and others have been working on, now called ArtAfloatOKC.

“We’ve realized it is not just about the boats. It’s really about the canal,” said Huntington. The project is developing into a nonprofit organization which will invest in artistic interventions throughout the canal area. “An example of what we’re trying to expand on can be seen at the Wanda Jackson bridge. There is a light and mural installation there known as ‘Poles Apart,’ which was funded through the Downtown OKC Partnership,” he added.

“Poles Apart” includes a colorful LED installation by Oklahoma artists Nathan Hendrix and Stephen Tyler, which spans the canal and ties together two murals created by artists Tiffany McKnight and Kyle Van Osdol. “While ‘Poles Apart’ wasn’t specifically an ArtAfloatOKC project, it is exactly the type of project we hope to create more of.”

Three lanes of effort coincide in working towards the nonprofit’s success: the privately-funded painting of the boats, visual artistic improvements around the canal, and a music series of intimate concerts featuring local artists.

During inaugural Showboat Series – currently held every Thursday night – Oklahoma singer-songwriters perform three sets of original music, exclusively on one of the art-covered boats, with only around 20 passengers on board for each set. The concerts begin at seven, eight, and nine o’clock and tickets can be purchased at www.ArtAfloatOKC.com.

“It’s really important for anybody in our industry to stay authentic to our city. Even tourists don’t want to visit something that’s been manufactured, everyone wants to experience something real.”

About the Bricktown Water Taxis  

Since opening day in 1999, Bricktown Water Taxi has become one of the most popular attractions in Bricktown, Downtown Oklahoma City, and the state of Oklahoma. They are open 7 days a week, weather permitting, generally operating from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Regular service departs from and returns to their main dock, which is located just below the ticket booth found next to Brickopolis, across from the Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark.

Regular Ticket - $13.00

Youth Ticket (Ages 6-12) - $10.00

Child Ticket (Ages 5 and under) - $4.00

Senior Ticket (Ages 65+) - $11.00

Active Duty Military Ticket (please present I.D. at check in) - $11.00

111 S. Mickey Mantle Drive Oklahoma City, OK 73104

https://bricktownwatertaxi.com/