Norman Depot Pivots Programs to Accommodate the 'New Normal'

“The loss of human connection and expression through the arts hits hard and The Depot, through the pandemic, continues searching for ways to innovate and share the profound joy that binds us together through the arts,” says Depot Executive Director Shari Jackson. "Our vision is creating community through shared artistic experiences and we knew it would look different, but we determined to innovate and pivot to keep going. Our community needs us now.  Artists, musicians, and poets need a platform, and are working to continue to be that.”

The process began with the creation of Depot TV in April, an ongoing online TV show live-streaming musicians, artists, and poets to partially replace our indoor poetry readings and concerts.  (September schedule is at article end.)  

The Depot board and staff then re-imagined the community favorite Summer Breeze Concert Series which, rather than meeting in the park, became a radio show in partnership with KGOU Radio.    

The Depot is now augmenting the physical gallery with an online gallery viewable on the website, www.normandepot.org. The gallery at 200 S. Jones will begin open hours again October 1 with gallery hours Thursday through Saturday from 10 am to 2 pm and by appointment.   Masks are required and group size is limited.  Currently showing in both the physical and and online galleries are artists: Carol Armstrong, Adrienne Day, Joey Frisillo, Don Holladay, Debby Kaspari, Lauren Midgley, Brad Price, Connie Seabourn and Sue Moss Sullivan.  

Envisioning and testing new concepts for socially distanced in-person activities resulted in a scheduled screening of "The Big Lebowski" on the lawn next to the Depot, Friday, September 18, at 8pm.  Attendance is limited to 40.  Get tickets for the event on the Depot page at Facebook.com/normandepot or by calling us at 405-307-9320. Ticket holders are asked to arrive at 7:30/7:45 to be seated in socially distanced pods. Trivia will begin at 8pm with the movie to begin around 8:30. Feel free to bring a picnic blanket, chairs, and your own snack. 

Depot TV programming continues on the Norman Depot Facebook Page with the following artists upcoming:

*Wednesday, September 23, 5pm: Kierston White is an Americana singer/songwriter from Shawnee, OK who has been performing in the Norman area for over ten years. She has toured throughout the US and has released one studio album,  She is the founder of female super group The Tequila Songbirds and anticipates releasing her sophomore album, “Bad On Paper” in the next year.

*Thursday, September 24, 2020, 5pm:  Ken Hada is a poet and professor, in his 20th year of working at ECU in Ada, OK. Ken has received many awards for his poetry, including the Glenda Carlile Distinguished Service Award. He has been published in several publications including The Writer’s Almanac and has also published 8 poetry collections, the most recent of them entitled “Sunlight & Cedar.” 

*Wednesday, September 30, 5pm: Kat Lock is a Norman based singer/songwriter with a unique sound, described as everything from indie rock to music theatre punk. She got her start in music with musical theatre and in 2016 decided to channel that passion into something different when she started her first band, St. Basic. She released an EP called “You Again” in 2019 and “An Existence,” an experimental album. in 2020. 

Funding is difficult, but all the arts are finding ways to adapt and continue, and with community support, The Depot, a 501c3 arts nonprofit housed in Norman's Santa Fe Train Station, will continue to do so as well.  They are in the middle of a membership drive and anyone can become a member of the Depot for as little as $5 a month at www.normandepot.org/join.

For further information about Depot events, visit www.normandepot.org.  Depot TV is funded by a grant from the Kirkpatrick Foundation.  All events at The Depot are made possible, in part, by grants from the Norman Arts Council and the Oklahoma Arts Council, The City of Norman, and by generous corporate, individual and member donations. 

Mid-America Arts Alliance Awards $1,536,000 to United States Regional Arts Resilience Fund Grantees

Mid-America Arts Alliance (M-AAA) is pleased to announce twenty-seven grantees receiving funding from the United States Regional Arts Resilience Fund within the six-state region of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas. A program created through collaboration with our five sister US Regional Arts Organizations, Arts Midwest, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, New England Foundation for the Arts, South Arts, and Western States Arts Federation, the USRARF was funded through a $10 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and amplified in the Mid-America region through additional funding from The Windgate Foundation in Little Rock, Arkansas for visual arts organizations. The grant amounts range between $30,000 and $100,000, a significant investment supporting the resilience of small to mid-sized arts organizations that are led by or supporting communities of color, rural communities, and historically underresourced populations, in response to the impact of COVID-19.

“We are honored to provide this critical support to these extraordinary arts organizations within the Mid-America region,” said Mid-America Arts Alliance President and CEO Todd Stein. “In focusing on organizations led by or supporting communities of color and rural communities, we reinforce the importance of these organizations and their vital role within our arts ecosystems. The arts have the power to unite, uplift, and propel our region forward, and it is a crucial need to fund these organizations that are often overlooked and historically underresourced.”

The United States Regional Arts Resilience Fund provides non-matching grants to arts and cultural organizations across the US that face economic hardships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The fund targets rural and urban organizations that have statewide, regional, or national impact. These grants support small and mid-sized arts organizations of all artistic disciplines, especially those that are historically underresourced, and those representing underresourced populations, communities, and art forms. The grants support expenses associated with general operations, immediate response activities, future scenario planning, support for new media needs, help with the costs of collaborations, and costs associated with helping organizations reimagine their work and increase their resilience. M-AAA acknowledges

the close collaborative partnership with the Arkansas Arts Council, Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission, Missouri Arts Council, Nebraska Arts Council, Oklahoma Arts Council, and the Texas Commission on the Arts and their advocacy for and understanding of the importance of these crucial funds to support rural and underresourced organizations across the region.

Here are the Mid-America Arts Alliance United States Regional Arts Resilience Fund grant recipients.

American Jazz Museum, Kansas City, Missouri; $50,000

Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas, Pine Bluff, Arkansas; $75,000

The Black Archives of Mid-America, Inc. - Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri; $30,000

Black Liberated Arts Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; $30,000

Cara Mia Theatre, Dallas, Texas; $65,000

Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Dallas, Texas; $85,000

Dance of Asian America, Houston, Texas; $40,000

DeltaARTS, West Memphis, Arkansas; $50,000

El Museo Latino, Omaha, Nebraska; $50,000

The Ensemble Theatre Houston, Houston, Texas; $75,000

Greenwood Cultural Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma; $100,000

InterUrban ArtHouse, Overland Park, Kansas; $65,115

TKAAM - The Kansas African American Museum, Wichita, Kansas; $40,000

Mexic-Arte Museum, Austin, Texas; $75,000

Mid-America All-Indian Museum, Wichita, Kansas; $30,000

National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures, San Antonio, Texas; $65,000

National Blues Museum, St. Louis, Missouri; $65,000

Nebraska Writers Collective, Omaha, Nebraska; $40,000

Norman Arts Council, Norman, Oklahoma; $65,000

Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition - OVAC, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; $50,000

Prison Performing Arts, St. Louis, Missouri; $33,375

Project Row Houses, Houston, Texas; $85,000

Salina Art Center, Salina, Kansas; $40,000

SAY Sí, San Antonio, Texas; $63,900

St. Louis ArtWorks, St. Louis, Missouri; $63,610

Teatro Dallas, Dallas, Texas; $30,000

The Union for Contemporary Art, Omaha, Nebraska; $75,000

Join Us Online for an Artist Talk with Douglas Shaw Elder, Richard McKown

Join Norman Arts for a virtual artist talk with Douglas Shaw Elder and Richard McKown, discussing their exhibitions OKecoSCAPES and Fauxballes, which remains on display at MAINSITE Contemporary Art through Friday, October 9.

Though the artist talk will be broadcast on Facebook, patrons are invited to see the exhibit in person during open hours from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. Masks are required of all guests, and capacity is limited to no more than 25 patrons at a time.

Douglas Shaw Elder’s SCAPES takes an abstract perspective, observing the cycles of nature that inevitably direct and influence all life forms. The series contemplates specific transformative forces in nature, principally creation and growth and their counterparts, destruction, and erosion. Organic and dark in character, SCAPES conveys the sense of the raw, unalterable power of nature – its splendor, its force, and its sheer magnitude.

Fauxballes is a multi-disciplinary project from the creative mind of Richard McKown and his daughter, Olivia. At the base of the project is a full-length screen play written by McKown. From the screenplay, McKown has selected characters and specific moments of action that are recreated in drawings and displayed in “arenas” in the gallery, guiding the viewer through the story – allowing the viewer to be embedded in a storyboard for a film. The full screen play is also displayed as part of the installation. Many local Normanites make appearances as the physical inspiration for many of the characters in the installation. With close attention one may also note the art historical references and inspirations within the images.

A Letter from Norman Arts Ahead of GO Bond Vote

The Arts are a huge part of what makes Norman, uniquely, Norman. In these unprecedented times, the Arts have been extremely affected by the repercussions of this pandemic. The major funding for the Arts in Norman comes from 25% of the hotel motel tax collected. This number was projected to be $420,000 for the Arts this fiscal year. As we all know, the Travel and Tourism industry has seen some of the worst impacts. Currently, the Arts portion of this year’s hotel tax collection is a deficit of $80,000. 

Typically, these funds support programs like 2nd Friday, Norman Music Festival, Jazz in June, performances at the Sooner Theatre, arts education in schools, and programs at over 20 arts organizations. As of today – NONE of these organizations expect to receive funding from the hotel tax this year. We are facing the reality some of these programs may never return. However, they and NAC will fight to survive and continue serving the community!

The Norman Arts Council is asking you to join in this fight and vote August 25th for the General Obligation Bond. Norman elections have historically had low voter turn-out, but we would like to stress these four issues affect the quality of life of everyone in our community. Additionally, we would like to share why two of the propositions are of importance to the Arts in Norman. 

Proposition-1 increases the budgets of the remaining Norman Forward projects. This would also increase the budgets for public art for these projects. If passed, this proposition will allow an estimated $800,000 in additional funding for public art. We have already delivered world-class public art to the community as a part of Norman Forward with Splash at the Westwood Swim Complex, Prairie Wind at the East Branch Library, and Unbound at the Central Branch Library. We are currently hard at work on public art projects for Ruby Grant Park and Andrews Park. Imagine the possibilities for public art, accessible for free to everyone in Norman and drawing visitors to Norman, with an additional $800,000 for projects at the new Community Sports Complex in northeast Norman and at Reaves Park, Griffin Park, and the Multi-Sport/Indoor Aquatic Facility!

Proposition-4 would provide $5 million dollars in economic recovery in Norman and could potentially help the Arts due to the lost hotel tax revenues discussed above. While this proposition does not explicitly state which businesses and entities qualify for relief – the Arts are a prime candidate for support considering the decimation of our funding due to COVID-19 and, if eligible, we will apply for relief.

We have experienced Norman without the Music Festival, 2nd Friday, the Medieval Fair, and Jazz in June – the Spring and Summer of 2020 were colorless, the streets of Norman have been without music, and our children’s voices have not projected off of our stages  – we CANNOT accept a future for Norman where this is normal. We ALL must vote to keep the arts alive!

Sincerely, the Board and Staff of Norman Arts Council

Exhibitions from Douglas Shaw Elder, Richard McKown Open at MAINSITE in August

Longtime creative collaborators and studio mates Douglas Shaw Elder and Richard McKown will split MAINSITE Contemporary Art with two solo exhibitions that will open to the public on Wednesday, August 19 with a virtual opening included in the Friday, August 14 2nd Friday Norman Art Walk livestream broadcast through Facebook. 

The exhibition will run through Saturday, September 12. Public exhibition receptions have been suspended until Norman Arts Council has deemed it safe to resume them, but the gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday at this time. Masks are required for all visitors. Exhibitions are free and open to the public.    

Elder’s OKecoSCAPES is the most recent in his SCAPES series of sculptures and drawings. SCAPES takes an abstract perspective, observing the cycles of nature that inevitably direct and influence all life forms. The series contemplates specific transformative forces in nature, principally creation and growth and their counterparts, destruction, and erosion. Organic and dark in character, SCAPES conveys the sense of the raw, unalterable power of nature – its splendor, its force, and its sheer magnitude.

SCAPES began as large relief sculptures carved from layered polychrome plywood and have evolved to include two series of drawings, one made using frottage printmaking techniques, and the other, most recent series, made using water-based inks on petroleum-based paper.

The past few years, the focus of the series shifted to an exploration of Oklahoma’s unique ecosystems with OKecoSCAPES, specifically depicting the diverse visual landscapes Oklahoma has to offer. All of the works in the series are influenced by forces of nature, contemplated through experiential art-making, and result in raw, organic finished carvings and drawings.

Douglas Shaw Elder is a working artist whose drawings and sculpture have been exhibited nationally and internationally. He has been the Executive Director of the Firehouse Art Center in Norman, Oklahoma since 2007. Elder, a U.S. Army veteran, received his MFA from Boston University. He is an arts educator and visual arts advocate and ambassador serving the Norman community and state of Oklahoma.

Fauxballes is a multi-disciplinary project from the creative mind of Richard McKown and his daughter, Olivia. At the base of the project is a full-length screen play written by McKown. From the screenplay, McKown has selected characters and specific moments of action that are recreated in drawings and displayed in “arenas” in the gallery, guiding the viewer through the story – allowing the viewer to be embedded in a storyboard for a film. The full screen play is also displayed as part of the installation.

Many local Normanites make appearances as the physical inspiration for many of the characters in the installation. With close attention one may also note the art historical references and inspirations within the images.