Jared Chastain, Arthur Dixon and Katherine Habeck had the once-in-a-lifetime experience of studying with a Star Trek star, a U.S. poet laureate and a Grammy Award-winner this summer.
The Ardmore students attended the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute at Quartz Mountain, a two-week residential academy that provides intensive training for Oklahoma high school students in the visual, literary and performing arts.
“I am very fortunate and thrilled to be attending OSAI this year,” said Habeck, an OSAI drawing and painting student from Plainview High School. Dixon and Chastain both attend Ardmore High School. Dixon is studying creative writing at OSAI and Chastain is part of the chorus.
The Ardmore students are part of an elite group of 268 students chosen for the prestigious program through competitive auditions out of a pool of more than 1,300 applicants.
OSAI students study a chosen discipline for at least six hours a day, and in the evenings attend a variety of performances, lectures and demonstrations in all of the fine arts.
At OSAI, Ardmore students learn from the nation’s finest artists. For the past 33 years, many famous artists have taught at OSAI, including recipients of the Academy, Emmy, Grammy and Tony awards.
This year’s faculty artists include actor John de Lancie, poet Billy Collins and conductor Charles Bruffy.
De Lancie is perhaps best known as the character “Q” on “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” but he is a seasoned film, television and stage actor whose credits include “The Hand that Rocks the Cradle,” “Taking Care of Business,” “Hill Street Blues,” “West Wing,” “Without a Trace,” “Judging Amy,” “The Closer,” “L.A. Law,” “The Practice,” “Touched by an Angel” and many more.
Collins is a bestselling author and former two-term U.S. poet laureate who has been called the greatest poet since Robert Frost. Bruffy is a Grammy Award-winning choral conductor in demand across the United States.
“Ardmore students are studying with world-renowned artists this year at the 2009 Summer Arts Institute,” said Julie Cohen, Oklahoma Arts Institute president. “This is an opportunity of a lifetime, and we’re thrilled to have Ardmore represented at Quartz Mountain by these students.”
In conjunction with acceptance, Ardmore students received full scholarships to OSAI.
Ardmore students’ scholarships were provided by the Oklahoma State Department of Education, John Hoyle Carlock Jr. Family Trust Scholarship Fund, McCasland Foundation Scholars Fund, Oklahoma Speaker’s Ball Inc., Gwen Taft Memorial Scholarship Fund and the Carol Daube Sutton Scholarship Fund, with additional funding provided by the Oklahoma Arts Council and the Oklahoma State Department of Tourism and Recreation.
OSAI culminated in ONSTAGE Weekend Friday and Saturday. The weekend consists of concerts, performances, film screenings and exhibitions where every OSAI student has a chance to display their work.
All events are free and open to the public and a performance schedule is available at www.oaiquartz.org or (405) 321-9000.
Ardmore is represented on the OSAI board of directors by Lee Daube and Wanda Westheimer.
