Gallery | Season Three

Gallery #408

Crazy Love

Love can be crazy.  Audiences have been seeing just how crazy for the last year at Oklahoma City’s newest live stage venue.   The Skyline Theatre is a comedy theatre much different from a comedy club.   The productions are family friendly, no smoking, no smut and no alcohol. We’ll go behind the scenes of the latest production, “Crazy Love”. 

A Bend in the River

Pat Lane has doe all sorts of things during her life and now she’s finally doing the one thing she wanted to all along, sculpting.   She took classes a few years ago and now her works are in galleries around the region and back east, but one thing that hasn’t changed in her life is where she lives.  Hometown roots run deep in the lower bend of Seminole County.  A story of heart, home and amazing artistry.

Airdate: 6/3/04

gallery #407

Spanish Blood  " The Guitar of Edgar Cruz"

A man and his guitar, you’ve seen them around the state and others have heard them perform around the world.  Oklahoma City’s Edgar Cruz may be more famous internationally as a fingerstyle guitarist than even here at home. We thought it was time you learned more about the man who is quickly becoming a legend.  Come with us on an extraordinary journey of exploration as Gallery goes behind the guitar and into the soul of Edgar Cruz.

Airdate: 5/6/04

Gallery #406

Zat’s Art

More and more school districts are cutting back arts education programs because of continued budget problems.  It’s increasingly difficult for smaller district to make ends meet if they hire specialized teachers, so many educators are having ot teach classes they’re not totally qualified to teach.  Four people in Ada are working on creating a way to solve the problem.  They’re producing instructional videos on the arts for students to watch.  The videos are shot with a home movie camera in a basement studio and edited on a personal computer. They may not look at professional as some, but they get the point across and the students and teachers love them.

A Tiny Tara

Well, not that tiny.   At 400 square feet the replica of the home made famous in Gone With The Wind is quite a sight, especially since it’s sitting in the backyard of a home in Sand Springs.  We’ll meet the couple who built it and put together an incredible collection of movie memorabilia.

Hometown Art

After sitting vacant for several years Ada’s old Oklahoma State Bank building has a new life as an art gallery.   Local artists got together, bought the building, refurbished it and stocked it with works of art.

Airdate:4/1/04

gallery # 405

A National Treasure 

The father of our country is on the road.   The most famous painting of George Washington is taking a rare trip out to the frontier.   Oklahoma City’s Museum of Art is hosting this landmark event.  We go behind the scenes of the exhibit to find out what it takes to put something like this together.  The director of the National Portrait Gallery says no museum in the country has done a better job of showcasing the painting than Oklahoma City.

Something Old and Something New

We go to school in Jenks, but not just any school.  It’s a classroom setting like no other anywhere in the country.  Students learn about life from those who’ve lived it the longest.   The owner of Grace Living Centers built two complete classrooms into his Jenks nursing home. The residents are involved in helping students read and in class projects.  It has been a huge success.  80 percent of the children in the Grace Living Center pre-K and Kindergarten classrooms read at a 3rd grade level, a much higher percentage than at Jenks’ other pre-K and Kindergarten classes.

Art at The Elms

We also take a trip to Oklahoma City’s Paseo District where art and history come together in a special exhibition honoring some Oklahoma masters and teachers.  The works of ten famous native Oklahoma painters are on display.

Airdate: 2/5/04

Gallery #404

The Sky Is Not the Limit

He dreamed about the stars and made it all the way to the moon.  Retired Air Force Lt. General Tom Stafford takes time to talk about his incredible journeys.  He’s an Oklahoma original and one of the first with “The Right Stuff”.  We’ll tour his museum in his hometown of Weatherford.  It started with a couple of model airplanes and through his efforts has become a fantastic facility dedicated to the history of flight.

Happy Trails

A century before rocket ships blasted off into the last frontier of space, cowboys and covered wagons explored another foreboding territory and now the descendants of those who blazed one of our state’s great cattle trails are making sure this road less traveled is never forgotten.  From the Red River to the Kansas border they’re planting marking posts along the trail as a special reminder of who and what went before.   Every summer a cattle drive up part of the trail is reenacted.

Chisholm Trail Heritage

The Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum in Duncan has come a long way in a short time. When it opened just six years ago it occupied a spac3e of about 35-hundred square feet.  From the beginning it was too small.  An ambitious plan was put together and money was raised.   Today, a 5-million dollar renovation is complete and the museum now has a new 14-thousand square foot home including a state of the art interactive theatre.

Airdate:1/8/04

Gallery #403

La Puerta de Oro

It means The Golden Door and this converted school on Oklahoma City’s south side is the only Spanish speaking senior citizens center in Oklahoma.  The grandparents and great grandparents who come here spend their days singing songs, making crafts and cooking food for festivals. It is also a place where, believe it or not, the older can actually get younger.

Centennial Sensation

World renown sculptor Paul Moore is creating a masterpiece on the prairie.   The Centennial Land Run Monument will be 365 feet long and feature 45 elements, the largest bronze sculpture ever created.   Five pieces are already in place near the South Canadian River near Oklahoma City’s Bricktown.  Others will be set up every April between now and Oklahoma’s Centennial in 2007.

Keeper of the Past

The natural gourd rattle is one of the most sacred symbols of Native American culture. Only a handful of artists still craft the gourds into rattles. Ruth Cole of Wagoner, Oklahoma is one of them.  The gourds provide a canvas for her art. Each one is designed and painted with images from the past.

Airdate:11/7/03

Gallery #402

Painting The Town

Have paint, will travel.  Dr. Bob Palmer and the students in his mural painting program at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond have left their marks all across Oklahoma.  UCO is one of only three universities in the country that offer courses designed specifically for mural painting within their art departments.  UCO’s’ muralists are hired by towns across the state and region for community art projects. The funds help sustain the program at UCO.

Just Off Broadway

They are business people, housewives and husbands. Teachers and lawyers.  But on certain weekends they are stars. When the lights come on and the curtain goes up at Drumright’s Boomtown Theatre some fo the town’s most talented residents become singers, dancers and actors.

Fairgrounds Fun

The Oklahoma City Arts Center on the State Fairgrounds is a year round treasure trove for children and adults.  During the summer and other times when area schools are not in session, city Arts offers a wide range of programs for children.   Adults aren’t left out.  Arts education opportunities for older generations are scheduled each month.  

Airdate: 10/7//03