Festivals Galore!

The past month has flown by in such a pace that I could barely keep up. I had my last class meeting with the Oklahoma Arts Council's Leadership Arts program and I have to say that I love my classmates. They were a huge encouragement to me and helped inspire me to keep truckin. I feel like I have friends all over the state that are on the same page about promoting the importance of the arts in our state and I now feel like I have the tools to advocate for what I believe our state needs. Most importantly, I am grateful and honored to be included in a group with any of them. They are superstars in my book!

The day after our meeting concluded here in OKC, I helped to get the Paseo Arts Festival set up. This was my last year as the music chair for the festival and while the last three years have been such a great learning experience for me, I am excited about working at 612 during next year's festival. I want to give my energy to my baby!

The Paseo's Gayle Curry created the artwork for this year's festival and I love it!

This year's fest was great. We had wonderful art, food and music. My only real goals were to enjoy as much of it as I could, to try to solve problems with a clear head, and to get along with James. Ha! That can all be hard to accomplish during a festival, because of long work hours and heat. Although the weather took a break on us this year, we didn't suffer a lack of challenges. The biggest difference this year was in how I chose to respond to those challenges. I'm finding that I have more confidence in myself so I don't need to fly off of the handle when injustices happen...especially after all of the recent loss we have experienced in our state due to the tornadoes and rough weather. It kind of puts things in perspective.

I was so impressed with the musicians that performed at the festival. Almost all of them gave their tips to the relief effort. They raised $1,190.84, to be split evenly between the Red Cross and the Regional Food Bank. These musicians were already playing for free to begin with! I'm so grateful for their generosity. It made all of the challenges we faced so small.

After a quick getaway trip to Broken Bow with my friend Preston, I'm back in OKC and getting ready for deadCENTER Film Festival. It starts on Thursday and I'm in charge of the opening night rooftop party at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. I think it's going to be a lot of fun and I can't wait to see the films.

I love Oklahoma City. We're lucky to live in such a great place with so many wonderful things going on all the time. There's no time to be bored! The best thing about Oklahoma, though, is the people. We make these things happen and I'm so honored to be a part of it.

Shameless Plug: If you haven't gotten your passes for deadCENTER, click HERE now and join us this weekend. It's going to be fun!