Published: April 14, 2008 10:22 pm            

Mooreland spring show a celebration of the arts

It started as a way to keep art education alive in Northwest Oklahoma.

Now thanks to Mooreland’s annual Arts and Crafts Show, art education in the area is not only alive, it is thriving.

When the show got its start 22 years ago, Mooreland art teacher Bob Beatley was afraid that he would get “riffed.”

“RIF stands for reduction in force,” he explained.

“We were in the middle of the oil bust,” Beatley said. “They were riffing people right and left.”

However, most schools in Northwest Oklahoma only had one art teacher, Beatley said, which meant if those art teachers were to get riffed, the school would lose its entire art program.

But Beatley couldn’t just stand by and allow that to happen.

So he met with his superintendent, who commented that it didn’t matter if the kids won at art shows in Oklahoma City or Tulsa, because nobody in Northwest Oklahoma knew anything about those shows.

“He told me, ‘Nobody, knows you’re around. Nobody knows you’re here,’” Beatley said.

“So I told him, ‘I’ll have a show,’” he said.

The superintendent quickly informed Beatley that the school district had no money to help sponsor the show. But that didn’t weaken Beatley’s resolve.

Instead of giving up on the idea, he decided to rent out booth spaces to area crafters, which would allow the show to support itself.

And a tradition was born.

Year after year Beatley has continued to invite both crafters and student artists throughout the region to show off their creations at the spring show.

And year after year the number of participants in both the art and the craft portions of the show has grown.

The number of craft booths has grown from 30 or so the first year to more than 70 booths this year, Beatley said. The show has grown so much that it has outgrown just one building, he said, so there will be booths in both of Mooreland’s fair barns this year.

The show started out with approximately 200 art pieces submitted by eight schools, Beatley said. This year he is expecting anywhere from 20 to 36 schools to participate, showcasing 700 or more works of art in a variety of forms.

Different schools like to focus on different types of art, Beatley said, noting that Mangum “always brings in great commercial art pieces,” Alva is “very sculptural,” and Waynoka “specializes in computer graphics,” while he tends to focus on drawing and special types of photography with his Mooreland students.

Other types of student art that will be displayed at the show include watercolor and tempera painting, oil and acrylic painting, crafts, ceramics and mixed media.

There will also be a wide variety of handmade crafts at the various crafters booths, which will include a number of jewelers, leather workers, a basket weaver and even a blacksmith, Beatley said.

The show is intended to be a “celebration of the arts,” he said, noting that they will also be celebrating the various performing arts with special live performances throughout the day.

For a number of years, the show has had a local radio station conduct live broadcasts during the show, Beatley said. However, in the past once the radio broadcast ended, there wasn’t any other entertainment for the remainder of the show.

This year he decided to invite some local performers to help provide additional entertainment. These entertainers include the Cowboy Poet, an Elvis impersonator, a country band known as Oklahoma Wind and students of the Diva School of Dance, Beatley said.

In addition, there will be a special kids area with fun activities like a cake walk and a petting zoo to keep the little ones happy, he said.

But Beatley said the three most important things that everyone should know about the Arts and Crafts Show are: 1) admission is free, 2) door prizes will be awarded every 30 minutes, and 3) there will be a variety of items, including a television and a computer, up for bid in a special silent auction.

Mooreland’s 22nd annual Arts and Crafts Show is set for April 19 and April 20. The show will be open to the public from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on April 19 and from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on April 20.

The awards ceremony, where trophies will be handed out to the winners in the various art categories as well as for Best of Show and Crafters’ Choice, is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on April 20.

        

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