Last Updated on July 13, 2023, 9:18 PM | Published: July 13, 2023
OKLAHOMA CITY (Free Press) — A nearly four-decade News Year’s Eve tradition in downtown Oklahoma City will not continue. As well, the Oklahoma City Arts Festival will move from being a six-day event to a four-day event.
Angela Cozby, the new executive director of Arts Council Oklahoma City, made the announcement Wednesday. She took the helm of the organization in 2022 as Peter Dolese chose to retire after 40 years of being a volunteer and then a long-serving executive director.
Opening Night
For 37 years Opening Night has been a unique downtown event where visitors could catch local entertainment acts in different venues downtown.
Thirty-seven years ago, hardly anything was going on in downtown OKC and the early years of the New Years Eve event saw throngs of people taking over the streets and crowding into various lobbies of buildings.
It was touted as a family-friendly night that gave families and children a chance to come out and enjoy the music and countdown to the new year.
But, the groups that were seen downtown, especially in the first half of the 37 years, were not only families.
On one of the most challenging nights of the entire year for those who are in recovery from chemical addictions, Opening Night was a celebration that was attended by AA and NA clubs from across the state for safe fun, loving support, and camaraderie.
The energy of those early years drew more attention to downtown on New Years yielding even bigger concerts. A series of iconic New Years concerts by The Flaming Lips that filled the (then) Myriad Convention Center have now become a part of the city’s entertainment lore.
Cozby pointed out that now the Oklahoma City Thunder have a home game on New Year’s Eve, Plus, many more establishments offer live entertainment that competes with the Opening Night.
The growth and change Cozby sees as a positive calling for change to meet new needs of the city.
“Given this phenomenal growth in family-friendly options, we’ve made the decision to close out Opening Night’s historic run and refocus our people and financial resources on the expansion of our broader arts offerings,” said the Facebook post. “Moving away from Opening Night allows us to greatly enhance programs like Art Moves and All Access Arts.”
Program expansion
Arts Council Oklahoma City will now be putting more of its resources into “Art Moves” which is free pop-up art displays across Oklahoma City in a number of locations.
Also, “All Access Arts” provides free art education to:
- Underserved communities.
- Schools.
- Recreation centers.
- Senior living facilities.
Arts Festival changes
The beloved Festival of the Arts in OKC is being reconfigured to a four-day event after “decades” of Festival artists asking for the change. The new schedule is in closer harmony to the length of most other festivals, especially in this region of the U.S.
The six-day Festival was “one of the longest, most rigorous festivals in the country” according to the Arts Council statement.
The time commitment of six days meant that the ever-unpredictable weather could seriously disrupt income for the artists because of surrendering more time out of the studio and because of spending so many days paying for a hotel while seeing reduced earnings from the smaller crowds.
Just as the ending of Opening Night is freeing up volunteer and financial resources for other emerging programs, the shorter Arts Festival will allow more energy/resources to flow into two programs:
- “Emerging Artists” — an artist mentorship program, allowing aspiring artists to partner with a Festival artist to learn the ins and outs of selling their work professionally. A separate section at the festival will showcase the work of emerging artists.
- “Fresh Paint Mural Project” — Originally a part of Opening Night, will now move to the Festival of the Arts giving it more exposure to a wider audience. The project partners professional muralists to coach local BIPOC artists as they produce 8’X8′ murals.
Founder, publisher, and editor of Oklahoma City Free Press. Brett continues to contribute reports and photography to this site as he runs the business.
