BIOS:
The Governor’s Award
Holbrook Lawson has dedicated countless hours over decades serving in volunteer leadership roles for local, state, and regional arts and cultural organizations. In addition to roles on the boards of arts nonprofits such as Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa Arts Commission, Oklahoma Arts Institute, and others, Lawson was key in developing Tulsa’s first municipal art grant program. She also helped originate the Urban Core Arts Project, one of many creative placemaking and public art ventures she has championed.
Ann Ong has been a ubiquitous presence and driving force in the arts in Muskogee for more than 40 years. Arts and cultural institutions city-wide, including Muskogee Little Theatre, Bacone College, and Bare Bones International Film Festival, have benefited from her faithful contributions of time, energy, funding, and resources.
Business in the Awards Award
American Fidelity, a fourth-generation family-run business based in Oklahoma City, has demonstrated a longstanding, deeply rooted commitment to community investment through the arts. Over four decades, the company has donated nearly $1 million in central Oklahoma’s cultural landscape.
LEAP Coffee Roasters exemplifies the role small businesses can play in uniquely serving the needs of local artists. Owners Eric and Kari Starkey have built a business model that, from start to finish, is a true collaboration with artists. LEAP empowers artists to develop blends that honor their personal brands and creative visions, and it provides participating artists with intangible visibility and a stable source of revenue.
Arts in Education Award
DWe Williams has spent decades using storytelling, music, and dance as immersive educational tools and powerful means for inspiring students of all ages and abilities. Through her versatile talents as a teaching artist and playwright, she has enriched the lives of many Oklahomans, leading programs in libraries, parks, schools, daycares, senior facilities, and more.
Jana Telford has inspired a love of music and an enthusiasm for the arts among two generations of students who have grown up in the community of Chandler. With a legacy spanning forty years, she is credited with having influenced music education for residents more than any other individual.
Marcelle Sharron Ahtone Harjo (Kiowa) has dedicated a lifetime of work to reviving and ensuring through education the continuation of the practice of ledger art, a narrative pictorial style of painting on paper or muslin. Inseparable from her pursuits as an artist, Ahtone Harjo is a longtime arts educator, having taught at the Concho Indian Boarding School before taking a position in Edmond Public Schools.
Penny McGill has built a reputation for employing her trademark enthusiasm in giving students meaningful, often life-changing, experiences in the arts. A drama teacher at Muskogee High School who annually organizes and presents the all-school musical among other duties, McGill has inspired countless students, many of whom had no background or interest in theater, finding ways for students to connect to the craft on stage or behind the scenes.
Trey Hays has been an arts educator in rural southcentral Oklahoma for nearly 20 years where he has drawn from his passion and creative spirit to inspire hundreds of students in the classroom and to arrange unforgettable experiences in communities. Among his recent efforts, Hays has written grants to bring in teaching artists to create and present original productions with students.
Community Service Award
Darcy Reeves has served as executive director of the Chisholm Trail Arts Council (CTAC) in Duncan for more than a decade, where she has been a transformative leader for the organization and community. Under Reeves’ direction, CTAC has experienced considerable growth in its programs, membership, and reach, originating with her foresight to move CTAC to a new location to expand its visibility and provide space for additional classes and exhibitions.
Selby Minner of Rentiesville has worked throughout Oklahoma, endeavoring to preserve blues music as a traditional American art form. She operates the Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame in Rentiesville where she holds the annual Dusk Til Dawn Blues Festival, drawing thousands of svisitors to this rural area of Oklahoma. She has also provided music education for classrooms and community centers.
Susan E. Brackett has been an avid proponent of dance and arts education in central Oklahoma for more than 30 years. Her volunteer service and her generous philanthropic interests have registered enduring legacies at the Oklahoma City Ballet and University of Oklahoma School of Dance. In 2016, Oklahoma City Ballet moved into a new world-class facility made possible through gifts from Brackett and her husband, Gregg Wadley.
Suzanne Boles brought community theater to her rural northeastern town of Grove nearly three decades ago. She has produced nearly 150 plays, created a youth theater program with Grove Public Schools, and spearheaded the creation of the Grove Springs Cultural District and the Grove Area Creative Alliance.
Media in the Arts Award
Ryan LaCroix launched a website in 2003 that began as a volunteer passion project listing concerts by local musicians and resulted in the creation of an array of internet and radio programs through which more than 300,000 people are exposed to Oklahoma musicians each month. LaCroix’s Oklahoma Rock Show is now broadcast statewide, while his collaborative work with National Public Radio (NPR) has brought national exposure to Oklahoma performing artists.
Public Service in the Arts Award
State Senator Kevin Matthews has been committed to arts and culture’s role in fostering shared purpose since his election in 2012. Under Matthews’ guidance as chair the Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission, the arts were key to uniting the community through Commission-related initiatives such as the Greenwood Art Project, a significant undertaking that featured the production of public art, performance art, creative writing, short films, and more. Through the Commission, Matthews spearheaded the fundraising of more than $30 million for the Greenwood Rising history and community center, a cornerstone of his vision to boost cultural tourism and economic development in the Greenwood District.
State Representative Mark McBride has been a steadfast proponent of bolstering arts education in schools and strengthening communities through the arts during his time in office. Among his roles in the Legislature, McBride served on the Oklahoma State Capitol Expenditure Oversight Committee, where he successfully sought investment in proper climate control and LED lighting systems necessary to protect the priceless Capitol art collections for future generations. During the restoration of the Capitol, he was integral to ensuring the relocation of the Betty Price Gallery to a heavily trafficked area, and he oversaw the commissioning of numerous works of public art for the newly restored building.
Special Recognition Award
Commemorating 50 years of service to the state’s arts sector, both Mid-America Arts Alliance and Oklahoma Museums Association have been selected for Special Recognition Awards. Mid-America Arts Alliance awards funding to artists and arts organizations and works collaboratively with the Oklahoma Arts Council and other art sector institutions to ensure Oklahomans have access to the arts in their communities. Over five decades, they have invested nearly $3.8 million in funding and services in Oklahoma, assisted more than 20,000 Oklahoma artists, and made possible programming reaching nearly 2.5 million adults and children across the state. Oklahoma Museums Association has been a backbone organization serving the needs of museums across the state for more than 50 years. Representing the interest of more than 500 museums in 200 communities, the association provides museum staff, volunteers, and board members with advocacy and promotion, encouragement of best practices and strong ethics, and opportunities for training and resources.
