Speaker 1: And good morning, Welcome to Community Connection.
Speaker 2: On this rainy Monday morning.
Speaker 1: I'm Nathan Thompson, and we got some great folks from
Speaker 1: Oklahoma Wesleyan University. Jason Flick, who is the Dean of
Speaker 1: Education in Humanity it's at the university, and Christa Albertson,
Speaker 1: a graduate assistant with the School of Education and Humanities
Speaker 1: as well. Thank you both for being here.
Speaker 2: How are we this morning? Trying to stay d trying
Speaker 2: to stay right. Yeah, it is a little wet out there.
Speaker 2: We need that rain though.
Speaker 1: And man, I'm telling you, we were at Oklahoma Wesleyan
Speaker 1: this weekend on Saturday. Actually, congratulations to the Lady Eagles
Speaker 1: on their volleyball and of course we were there for
Speaker 1: the doubleheader up for basketball last night as well, or
Speaker 1: on Saturday and night as well. But there's always something
Speaker 1: going on at Oklahoma West University, right, It.
Speaker 3: Definitely feels that way.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, we have the Arts Discovery Day.
Speaker 2: Tell me about that. Yeah, So we're really excited about this.
Speaker 4: This is our first annual Arts Discovery Day and so
Speaker 4: this is something that we're putting on starting this Friday,
Speaker 4: and so we've got interested junior and senior high school
Speaker 4: students if you're interested in anything in the arts, so
Speaker 4: if it's graphic design or digital cinema, music theater, what
Speaker 4: we're doing is kind of a campus preview day that's
Speaker 4: a little bit more specific, and so they'll get to
Speaker 4: come in and they'll get to actually be a part
Speaker 4: of a graphic design class, and so they'll get a
Speaker 4: chance to use, you know, the graphic design lab that
Speaker 4: we have there to create some things. They've got an
Speaker 4: opportunity to So we also have a play coming on.
Speaker 4: I'll talk about that in just a second, but they'll
Speaker 4: have an opportunity to sit kind of through a matinee
Speaker 4: performance and then talk with the actors and the professor
Speaker 4: of that kind of get a behind the scenes look
Speaker 4: of that play as well. And then they also have
Speaker 4: an opportunity to do some music auditions. And so if
Speaker 4: you want interested in any of those things, then this
Speaker 4: is for you. This is a chance to come out
Speaker 4: and see, you know, hey, this is what oak Wood
Speaker 4: has to offer in our arts, our communications programs and
Speaker 4: things like that. One plug that I do want to
Speaker 4: say that we're interested to is if you show up
Speaker 4: as a student, you sign up, you show up, We're
Speaker 4: gonna give you a thousand dollars scholarship if you end
Speaker 4: up coming to oak Woo.
Speaker 2: Okay, thank you goodness.
Speaker 1: That is that is a huge pluget. You know, Oklahoma
Speaker 1: Westleyane is of course very well known for their art program.
Speaker 1: Believe it or not, a lot of folks whenever they
Speaker 1: think about Oklahoma Westley think about the religious studies and teachers.
Speaker 1: A lot of a lot of people who decide to
Speaker 1: go into the education. I remember whenever I was in
Speaker 1: high school science, the science courses biology specifically, we're big
Speaker 1: courses there.
Speaker 2: But you know a lot of.
Speaker 1: The time when you're dealing with science, technology, engineering, and math,
Speaker 1: the STEM thing right, Well, I'm more of a steam person. Yeah,
Speaker 1: with the arts as well, and you know that is
Speaker 1: such an important part of I think a person's education.
Speaker 1: Would you agree with me or am I just off
Speaker 1: in another world?
Speaker 2: No, you're absolutely right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the arts are very important, and that's something that
Speaker 4: we try to focus on, something we try to develop
Speaker 4: with our students, and our professors do a really good
Speaker 4: job of being successful at that and then helping our
Speaker 4: students be successful once they graduate. Yeah.
Speaker 3: And I was a part of the arts sort of
Speaker 3: starting out my freshman sophomore year, and I did not
Speaker 3: come here to be in the artistic realm. I had
Speaker 3: done stage productions in high school, but then once I
Speaker 3: got to college, I was like, I don't know if
Speaker 3: I want to continue this. But I had professors reach
Speaker 3: out and said, hey, we're starting something and it's going
Speaker 3: to be our first show in about forty years, and
Speaker 3: we want everybody's help. And so they reached out to
Speaker 3: everybody and you were able to delve back into kind
Speaker 3: of your love.
Speaker 2: For the arts.
Speaker 3: And since then, I've been a part of the productions.
Speaker 3: I've been a part of a different show and their
Speaker 3: movies and stuff recently, and so they don't just focus
Speaker 3: on the people of the arts, but they get everybody in.
Speaker 3: And so there's also now a minor that you can
Speaker 3: get and so if you're majoring in something else, you
Speaker 3: can minor in in stage production or in graphic design
Speaker 3: or things like that, and so it's really really a
Speaker 3: great opportunity. But majoring in it as well is also
Speaker 3: amazing because you're able to spend so much time focusing
Speaker 3: on your artistic side rather than just I don't know,
Speaker 3: something else.
Speaker 2: But it's amazing.
Speaker 1: Great facilities there at oaklou as well. I think the
Speaker 1: Fine Arts Center is one of the newest buildings on campus.
Speaker 1: Am I correcting that?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Absolutely, And I know that our theater professor, Hardy Blackhert,
Speaker 4: they do a really good job that they actually go
Speaker 4: in and they build a bunch of different sets. And
Speaker 4: so he's been hard at work building different sets for
Speaker 4: the theater program or the theater performance that they're going
Speaker 4: to have starting this week.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, oh yeah, that is a lot of work.
Speaker 1: Now I never did the building of sets for the productions.
Speaker 1: I in my adulthood, I was very involved with the
Speaker 1: Bartlesville High School band program and for their field show
Speaker 1: that they do. I did all kinds of building of
Speaker 1: props for that as well.
Speaker 2: So that's a lot of work just one guy doing
Speaker 2: all this. Well, no, he actually has the students. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he actually has the students come in and help him
Speaker 2: as well from a free student labor. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, the Art Discovery Day coming up as well, And
Speaker 1: you were talking about it, Jason, this theater production that's
Speaker 1: going on right now, tell me what the show is
Speaker 1: and what's going on.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So, like I said, they've been hard at work
Speaker 4: building sets for this and so They're actually going to
Speaker 4: start on Thursday of this week, so I'll be Thursday, Friday,
Speaker 4: and Saturday at seven o'clock is when those showings will
Speaker 4: take place. The play is the importance of being earnest
Speaker 4: and so something that maybe some people are familiar with.
Speaker 2: It'll be good. Hardy does a really good job. I know.
Speaker 2: I'm just in connection to that.
Speaker 4: He also is our digital film professor, and last year
Speaker 4: he did a student film Breakaway.
Speaker 2: That's one that was really great.
Speaker 4: It's completely student produced, student directed, student actors and things
Speaker 4: like that, and it was sent to several film festivals.
Speaker 4: I think they won nine different awards or something like that.
Speaker 4: So just based on his experience there, I can tell
Speaker 4: you this theater production is going to be really good.
Speaker 1: Wow. Now, Krista, do you have a.
Speaker 3: Part in I am unfortunately not able to be a
Speaker 3: part of it, but I will be there helping out
Speaker 3: with ticketing and with ushering, and so I'll be there
Speaker 3: and to help out with the arts discovery day. You'll
Speaker 3: see my face and I'll be greeting people and providing
Speaker 3: snacks and all that, so I'll be the person you
Speaker 3: want to meet.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it made the mention of tickets. What is
Speaker 1: the cause for admission to the performance?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I want to say that for adults it's
Speaker 3: about twelve dollars, for students it's ten, and then if
Speaker 3: you're child, I think it's five six and under, it's
Speaker 3: completely free.
Speaker 2: Wow, can't beat down. I know.
Speaker 1: Some world class entertainment theater production. Importance of being earnest
Speaker 1: at Oklahoma wesley And University says Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Speaker 2: Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Speaker 1: What time is a curtain call? Seven o'clock, seven o'clock,
Speaker 1: curtains up, and we're just go buy a box officer
Speaker 1: to get the tickets, or can ye get advanced tickets?
Speaker 3: So I want to say you can get them online.
Speaker 3: You can go to the website oku dot eed you
Speaker 3: find it through there, and you can order them online.
Speaker 3: If not, you can show up in person. That's totally
Speaker 3: fine and talk with the ticketing person.
Speaker 1: So there you go, There you go. Well, incredible things
Speaker 1: always going on at the Oklahoma Wesleyan University. Again the
Speaker 1: Arts Discovery Day and again one thousand dollars scholarship.
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, yeah, absolutely, just for showing up. One other
Speaker 4: thing that's part of that Arts Discovery day that I
Speaker 4: forgot to mention is there's opportunity for more scholarships as well.
Speaker 4: So you know you've got students that are interested in
Speaker 4: graphic design, maybe you've.
Speaker 2: Got a portfolio that you've created.
Speaker 4: You also have an opportunity to present that portfolio to
Speaker 4: our graphics design professor. In the top portfolio, we'll get
Speaker 4: additional scholarships. We're thinking maybe another thousand dollars. We also
Speaker 4: have music auditions for those that are interested, not necessarily
Speaker 4: in a music degree, but you're interested, Hey, I want
Speaker 4: to be in the choir or I want to be
Speaker 4: on the worship team at oak WOO when you're here
Speaker 4: in college, they're going to have auditions for that, and
Speaker 4: again they're going to give another scholarship on top of that.
Speaker 4: So a thousand dollars for showing up and possibility of
Speaker 4: other scholarships for those that those top performers in those
Speaker 4: different areas.
Speaker 1: Now is this my appointment or can they just come
Speaker 1: if they want to come?
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a good question. So actually there's a way
Speaker 4: to register online, so oak WU dot edu. Under the
Speaker 4: events section, you'll have an opportunity to see kind of
Speaker 4: the detailed itinerary and then there's a place where you
Speaker 4: can register, so free to register, just to give us
Speaker 4: a heads up.
Speaker 2: That way we know how much food to order for lunch.
Speaker 1: There you go. That's another good A question I should
Speaker 1: ask is is there limit as to how many students
Speaker 1: you can have or I mean, if all seventy hundred
Speaker 1: kids at Bartsville High School want to.
Speaker 2: Come, well we'll we'll make room for them. How about that?
Speaker 2: There you go? You go.
Speaker 1: Well, such really really cool things. You have digital cinema
Speaker 1: going on as well, and brought you mentioned a little
Speaker 1: bit about that that film award, So going a little
Speaker 1: bit more into what OKWU offers for digital cinema.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So one of the things that's really cool is
Speaker 4: that it's kind of a year long program is so
Speaker 4: you have a script writing class usually that students will
Speaker 4: take in the fall, and so they'll have an opportunity
Speaker 4: to write different scripts and things like that, and then
Speaker 4: they have kind of a contest to see write what
Speaker 4: script is the best and that's the script that we're
Speaker 4: going to use for the film in the spring. And
Speaker 4: so they've got the film in the spring that they'll
Speaker 4: start based on that script that these students have wrote.
Speaker 2: Are written and then they have.
Speaker 4: Whoever has won, and then they have an opportunity to
Speaker 4: They're always looking for actors for that as well. So
Speaker 4: we've got students that are on campus. But then if
Speaker 4: you don't want to be in the film, you can
Speaker 4: be a part of the back behind the scenes stuff
Speaker 4: where you can be you know, running the camera or
Speaker 4: working on the production or you know, working on cutting
Speaker 4: scenes and adding new usic and things like that.
Speaker 1: Wow. Incredible, and all of this is done right here
Speaker 1: in Bartlesville. Yeah, at Oklahoma Westley University. Great program. You
Speaker 1: know Okloo has been how many years is it used
Speaker 1: to be Bartlesville wesleyn College?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: How many years totals has the college been here?
Speaker 2: Do you know?
Speaker 4: At the top of your guest, So, I know, I mean,
Speaker 4: if you're way back kind of we've got early nineteen
Speaker 4: hundreds where we had you know, antecedent schools that were
Speaker 4: here before Oklahoma Wesleyan some that kind of combined as well, do.
Speaker 3: You have I know it all started in nineteen oh five,
Speaker 3: that's when we were kind of born from Bartlesville Wesleyan
Speaker 3: and then it just kind of moved on. I want
Speaker 3: to say, the early two thousands, maybe late nineteen hundreds
Speaker 3: was when Oklahoma Wesleyan University became what it is, And
Speaker 3: just since then we've grown. We've got so many more
Speaker 3: numbers of students coming in, undergrad students, online students this year,
Speaker 3: more than probably we've ever seen. And so we're just
Speaker 3: growing and growing and growing, and this Arts Discovery Day
Speaker 3: is only going to help us grow even more.
Speaker 4: So.
Speaker 1: Absolutely absolutely Arts Discovery Day coming up on Friday on
Speaker 1: the campus of Oklahoma Western University. Again, give us a
Speaker 1: website where students can.
Speaker 2: Go and register.
Speaker 4: Yeah, OKLU dot edu, and then if you find the
Speaker 4: events tab there, you'll be able to register under that.
Speaker 1: There you go, easy enough, all right, well, Jason Flick
Speaker 1: Krista Albertson with Oklahoma Western University, thank you for spending
Speaker 1: some time with us today.
Speaker 2: All right, thank you.
Speaker 1: You're very welcome.