And good morning, Welcome to Community Connection.
On this rainy Monday morning.
I'm Nathan Thompson, and we got some great folks from Oklahoma Wesleyan University. Jason Flick, who is the Dean of Education in Humanity it's at the university, and Christa Albertson, a graduate assistant with the School of Education and Humanities as well. Thank you both for being here.
How are we this morning? Trying to stay d trying to stay right. Yeah, it is a little wet out there. We need that rain though.
And man, I'm telling you, we were at Oklahoma Wesleyan this weekend on Saturday. Actually, congratulations to the Lady Eagles on their volleyball and of course we were there for the doubleheader up for basketball last night as well, or on Saturday and night as well. But there's always something going on at Oklahoma West University, right, It.
Definitely feels that way.
Yeah.
Yeah, Well, we have the Arts Discovery Day.
Tell me about that. Yeah, So we're really excited about this.
This is our first annual Arts Discovery Day and so this is something that we're putting on starting this Friday, and so we've got interested junior and senior high school students if you're interested in anything in the arts, so if it's graphic design or digital cinema, music theater, what we're doing is kind of a campus preview day that's a little bit more specific, and so they'll get to come in and they'll get to actually be a part of a graphic design class, and so they'll get a
chance to use, you know, the graphic design lab that we have there to create some things. They've got an opportunity to So we also have a play coming on. I'll talk about that in just a second, but they'll have an opportunity to sit kind of through a matinee performance and then talk with the actors and the professor of that kind of get a behind the scenes look of that play as well. And then they also have
an opportunity to do some music auditions. And so if you want interested in any of those things, then this is for you. This is a chance to come out and see, you know, hey, this is what oak Wood has to offer in our arts, our communications programs and things like that. One plug that I do want to say that we're interested to is if you show up as a student, you sign up, you show up, We're gonna give you a thousand dollars scholarship if you end up coming to oak Woo.
Okay, thank you goodness.
That is that is a huge pluget. You know, Oklahoma Westleyane is of course very well known for their art program. Believe it or not, a lot of folks whenever they think about Oklahoma Westley think about the religious studies and teachers. A lot of a lot of people who decide to go into the education. I remember whenever I was in high school science, the science courses biology specifically, we're big courses there.
But you know a lot of.
The time when you're dealing with science, technology, engineering, and math, the STEM thing right, Well, I'm more of a steam person. Yeah, with the arts as well, and you know that is such an important part of I think a person's education. Would you agree with me or am I just off in another world?
No, you're absolutely right.
Yeah, the arts are very important, and that's something that we try to focus on, something we try to develop with our students, and our professors do a really good job of being successful at that and then helping our students be successful once they graduate. Yeah.
And I was a part of the arts sort of starting out my freshman sophomore year, and I did not come here to be in the artistic realm. I had done stage productions in high school, but then once I got to college, I was like, I don't know if I want to continue this. But I had professors reach out and said, hey, we're starting something and it's going to be our first show in about forty years, and
we want everybody's help. And so they reached out to everybody and you were able to delve back into kind of your love.
For the arts.
And since then, I've been a part of the productions. I've been a part of a different show and their movies and stuff recently, and so they don't just focus on the people of the arts, but they get everybody in. And so there's also now a minor that you can get and so if you're majoring in something else, you can minor in in stage production or in graphic design or things like that, and so it's really really a
great opportunity. But majoring in it as well is also amazing because you're able to spend so much time focusing on your artistic side rather than just I don't know, something else.
But it's amazing.
Great facilities there at oaklou as well. I think the Fine Arts Center is one of the newest buildings on campus. Am I correcting that?
Yeah?
Absolutely, And I know that our theater professor, Hardy Blackhert, they do a really good job that they actually go in and they build a bunch of different sets. And so he's been hard at work building different sets for the theater program or the theater performance that they're going to have starting this week.
Oh yeah, oh yeah, that is a lot of work. Now I never did the building of sets for the productions. I in my adulthood, I was very involved with the Bartlesville High School band program and for their field show that they do. I did all kinds of building of props for that as well.
So that's a lot of work just one guy doing all this. Well, no, he actually has the students. Yeah, he actually has the students come in and help him as well from a free student labor. Yeah.
Well, the Art Discovery Day coming up as well, And you were talking about it, Jason, this theater production that's going on right now, tell me what the show is and what's going on.
Yeah, So, like I said, they've been hard at work building sets for this and so They're actually going to start on Thursday of this week, so I'll be Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at seven o'clock is when those showings will take place. The play is the importance of being earnest and so something that maybe some people are familiar with.
It'll be good. Hardy does a really good job. I know. I'm just in connection to that.
He also is our digital film professor, and last year he did a student film Breakaway.
That's one that was really great.
It's completely student produced, student directed, student actors and things like that, and it was sent to several film festivals. I think they won nine different awards or something like that. So just based on his experience there, I can tell you this theater production is going to be really good.
Wow. Now, Krista, do you have a.
Part in I am unfortunately not able to be a part of it, but I will be there helping out with ticketing and with ushering, and so I'll be there and to help out with the arts discovery day. You'll see my face and I'll be greeting people and providing snacks and all that, so I'll be the person you want to meet.
But yeah, it made the mention of tickets. What is the cause for admission to the performance?
Yeah, so I want to say that for adults it's about twelve dollars, for students it's ten, and then if you're child, I think it's five six and under, it's completely free.
Wow, can't beat down. I know.
Some world class entertainment theater production. Importance of being earnest at Oklahoma wesley And University says Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
What time is a curtain call? Seven o'clock, seven o'clock, curtains up, and we're just go buy a box officer to get the tickets, or can ye get advanced tickets?
So I want to say you can get them online. You can go to the website oku dot eed you find it through there, and you can order them online. If not, you can show up in person. That's totally fine and talk with the ticketing person.
So there you go, There you go. Well, incredible things always going on at the Oklahoma Wesleyan University. Again the Arts Discovery Day and again one thousand dollars scholarship.
Yeah yeah, yeah, absolutely, just for showing up. One other thing that's part of that Arts Discovery day that I forgot to mention is there's opportunity for more scholarships as well. So you know you've got students that are interested in graphic design, maybe you've.
Got a portfolio that you've created.
You also have an opportunity to present that portfolio to our graphics design professor. In the top portfolio, we'll get
additional scholarships. We're thinking maybe another thousand dollars. We also have music auditions for those that are interested, not necessarily in a music degree, but you're interested, Hey, I want to be in the choir or I want to be on the worship team at oak WOO when you're here in college, they're going to have auditions for that, and again they're going to give another scholarship on top of that.
So a thousand dollars for showing up and possibility of other scholarships for those that those top performers in those different areas.
Now is this my appointment or can they just come if they want to come?
Yeah, that's a good question. So actually there's a way to register online, so oak WU dot edu. Under the events section, you'll have an opportunity to see kind of the detailed itinerary and then there's a place where you can register, so free to register, just to give us a heads up.
That way we know how much food to order for lunch.
There you go. That's another good A question I should ask is is there limit as to how many students you can have or I mean, if all seventy hundred kids at Bartsville High School want to.
Come, well we'll we'll make room for them. How about that? There you go? You go.
Well, such really really cool things. You have digital cinema going on as well, and brought you mentioned a little bit about that that film award, So going a little bit more into what OKWU offers for digital cinema.
Yeah, So one of the things that's really cool is that it's kind of a year long program is so you have a script writing class usually that students will take in the fall, and so they'll have an opportunity to write different scripts and things like that, and then they have kind of a contest to see write what script is the best and that's the script that we're
going to use for the film in the spring. And so they've got the film in the spring that they'll start based on that script that these students have wrote.
Are written and then they have.
Whoever has won, and then they have an opportunity to They're always looking for actors for that as well. So we've got students that are on campus. But then if you don't want to be in the film, you can be a part of the back behind the scenes stuff where you can be you know, running the camera or working on the production or you know, working on cutting scenes and adding new usic and things like that.
Wow. Incredible, and all of this is done right here in Bartlesville. Yeah, at Oklahoma Westley University. Great program. You know Okloo has been how many years is it used to be Bartlesville wesleyn College?
Yeah?
How many years totals has the college been here?
Do you know?
At the top of your guest, So, I know, I mean, if you're way back kind of we've got early nineteen hundreds where we had you know, antecedent schools that were here before Oklahoma Wesleyan some that kind of combined as well, do.
You have I know it all started in nineteen oh five, that's when we were kind of born from Bartlesville Wesleyan and then it just kind of moved on. I want to say, the early two thousands, maybe late nineteen hundreds was when Oklahoma Wesleyan University became what it is, And just since then we've grown. We've got so many more numbers of students coming in, undergrad students, online students this year,
more than probably we've ever seen. And so we're just growing and growing and growing, and this Arts Discovery Day is only going to help us grow even more.
So.
Absolutely absolutely Arts Discovery Day coming up on Friday on the campus of Oklahoma Western University. Again, give us a website where students can.
Go and register.
Yeah, OKLU dot edu, and then if you find the events tab there, you'll be able to register under that.
There you go, easy enough, all right, well, Jason Flick Krista Albertson with Oklahoma Western University, thank you for spending some time with us today.
All right, thank you.
You're very welcome.