OU Fine Arts News

University of Oklahoma School of Music faculty member Christina Giacona and Master of Music graduate ('13) Patrick Conlon recently had their album, “Cube of Light,” nominated for first-round consideration for the 64th Grammy Awards in the categories of Best Alternative Music Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.

Composed and recorded by Giacona and Conlon, “Cube of Light” features several current OU School of Music faculty and staff members and former students as backup musicians in a 41-minute post-classical visual album that has each of its nine sonic movements paired with a contemporary dance video.

Centered around the idea of artistic reflection and the journey of light through space, time and consciousness, the work is, according to its producers, influenced by the sounds of modern classical composition, Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories, Muse, Animal Collective, the Stranger Things soundtrack, and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.

“Christina and Patrick are wonderful musicians and colleagues, and have contributed so much to the musical life of the Norman and Oklahoma City communities over the years,” stated OU School of Music director Roland Barrett.

Giacona is a lecturer on Native American, World, and American Popular Music and also serves as an affiliate faculty member for the Department of Film and Media Studies, Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences. Conlon is a composer, violinist and the assistant director of the Academy of Contemporary Music at the University of Central Oklahoma.

The duo has co-founded the album’s producing company, Onyx Lane, a full-service music production company for media, film and live entertainment with a focus on composing, recording, producing and mixing music for film scores and classical ensembles.

“We are thrilled at their continued success and the outstanding work they are doing with Onyx Lane, and we urge everyone to take a listen to this fantastic recording", Barrett said. Listen to “Cube of Light” and learn about the project at Onyx Lane’s official webpage.

The 64th GRAMMY Awards first-round voting process, happening between Oct. 22 and Nov. 5, will determine the nominees for the annual GRAMMY Awards, which will be announced on Nov. 23. The 64th Annual GRAMMY Awards take place on Jan 31, 2022.

Aug. 10, 2021, Norman, OK—As Broadway begins its preparations for a fall reopening after over a year of waiting due to COVID-19 suspensions, several alumni of the Peggy V. Helmerich School of Drama at the University of Oklahoma are preparing to return to work in live theatre in a variety of Broadway productions.

“Broadway, as it re-emerges from the most prolonged blackout of its history, is filled with a combination of uncertainty and the promise of new beginnings,” stated Helmerich School of Drama director Seth Gordon. “And when it does re-emerge, several of these productions will have OU Drama alumni making important contributions.”

The lineup of several alumni working on Broadway, fall 2021, includes:

Adam Honoré, B.F.A. in Drama, with emphasis in Lighting Design ('15), is making his Broadway design debut as the lighting designer for the upcoming comedy production Chicken and Biscuits. Performances begin Sept. 23 at the Circle in the Square Theatre. Honoré is the first OU School of Drama alum to officially head the lighting design of a Broadway production.

Brad Gray, B.F.A. in Drama; with emphasis in Lighting Design (’12), is the moving light programmer for three of Broadway’s hit productions: The Lion King, returning to the Minskoff Theatre on Sept. 14; Jagged Little Pill, with performances starting Sept. 21 at the Broadhurst Theatre; and Moulin Rouge! The Musical, with performances returning on Sept. 24 at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre.

Michael Cole, B.F.A. in Drama, with emphasis in Lighting Design (’11), is the associate lighting designer for Caroline, or Change. The Roundabout Theatre Company revival production has its previews beginning on Oct. 8 at the Studio 54.

Kirk Fitzgerald, B.F.A. in Drama, with emphasis in Lighting Design (’11), is the assistant lighting designer for Mrs. Doubtfire, with performances currently scheduled to resume on Oct. 21 at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre. Fitzgerald will also be working on the upcoming MJ The Musical, with performances scheduled to begin on Dec. 6 at the Neil Simon Theatre.

Nate Putnam, B.F.A in Drama, with emphasis in Sound Design (’07), is the head of sound for the upcoming Diana: The Musical. With performances beginning Nov. 2 at the Longacre Theatre, Diana: The Musical will premiere as a special presentation on Netflix on Oct. 1, two months ahead of its Broadway debut.

“We are very focused on the future of the American theatre at the Helmerich School of Drama and, clearly, Broadway producers are seeing how our program is turning out students who can help them achieve their goals,” Gordon said.

Zoe Sherinian, professor of ethnomusicology and chair of the Division of Musicology, Ethnomusicology, and Music in General Studies at the University of Oklahoma School of Music, was named the recipient of the Best Oklahoma Feature Award for the documentary film Sakthi Vibrations at the deadCenter Film Festival award ceremony, held June 13 in Oklahoma City.

The 21st edition of the annual deadCenter Film Festival, Oklahoma’s largest and most celebrated film festival, featured a record-breaking slate of 180 films from around the world. The winners of each of the 16 categories were chosen by an independent jury of film industry professionals, including highly regarded producers, directors, writers and actors.

“Sakthi Vibrations was selected for the Festival because it is a beautifully crafted film with an incredible story and message,” stated Sara Thompson, director of programming at deadCenter Film. “Dr. Zoe Sherinian has done a wonderful job sharing the story of the Sakthi Centre and we were beyond thrilled at the opportunity to share it with our audiences.”

Sherinian’s award-winning ethnomusicological documentary seeks to reveal and analyze the outstanding model used by the Sakthi Folk Cultural Centre for Dalit (outcastes or untouchables) women’s development that integrates folk art performance with social analysis, micro-economic sustainability, leadership and community development.

“We are delighted to congratulate Dr. Zoe Sherinian on the receipt of the Best Oklahoma Feature Award for Documentary Film at deadCenter Film Festival,” said Mary Margaret Holt, dean of the Weitzenhoffer Family College of Fine Arts. “Dr. Sherinian is a respected educator, writer and researcher, and her work to shine a bright light on the Dalits who utilize folk arts, drumming and dancing to transform themselves and the lives of others is of great significance to all in the struggle against caste and gender oppression.” 

The Sakthi Centre, led by two progressive Tamil Catholic nuns, reclaims the devalued parai frame drum (associated with pollution and untouchability) to re-humanize and empower these young women through the physical embodiment of confidence in performance, and renewed cultural identity in a complex campaign against gender, class and caste subjugation.

The film, directed and produced by Sherinian and edited by Jeffrey Palmer, Kiowa filmmaker, OU alumnus and current assistant professor in Cornell University’s Department of Performing and Media Arts, experimentally weaves together interviews, performance and development activities, such as tailoring and basket making, along with footage shot by the students themselves as they actively define their process of growth and contribute to this participatory documentary.

Narrated by the women looking directly into the camera, the film confronts the audience with the reality of their oppressed yet transforming lives, telling their collective story of transformation from their first day struggling to walk and clap in time, to their final public festival and academic graduation from high school.

“My goal is to impact the broader audience with the message that, although caste still exists in India, Dalits are using the folk arts, drumming and dancing to transform and empower themselves, creating hopeful futures and fighting internalized caste and gender oppression,” stated Sherinian, who plans to give all profits from the film back to the Sakthi Centre.

With this film, which has also been accepted to several noteworthy international festivals, including ARTSxSDGS, United Nation’s NGO CSW65 Forum, Paris Ethnografilm Festival, Toronto International Women’s Festival and Bangkok International Documentary Festival (nominated for best music film), Sherinian aims to impact the world of ethnographic filmmaking with an activist participatory, ethnomusicological film that effectively pays attention to sound.

Paul Moore, artist-in-residence, and professor of figurative sculpture at the University of Oklahoma, is the recipient of the nation’s most prestigious award for sculpture in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the art form.

The National Sculpture Society presented Moore its Special Medal of Honor at its 2021 annual conference. Throughout the society’s 127-year history, only 45 special honor awards have been given to accomplished artists, architects, historians, and philanthropists. Moore will be the 28^th artist to receive this award, joining past recipients such as Daniel Chester French, who created the statue of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., and Paul Manship, renowned for his sculpture of Prometheus in New York's Rockefeller Center.

“For decades, Paul Moore has brought our state’s history to life through his breathtaking bronze works of art.” said OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. “At OU, he has immortalized some of our university’s most iconic figures, which will stand sentinel on our campus grounds for generations to come. He is incredibly deserving of this prestigious honor.”

Over the past four decades Moore has produced awe-inspiring bronze sculptures that stand gracefully and thoughtfully in museums; in private, international, and corporate collections; and at universities and memorials around the world.

As OU artist-in-residence, Moore has sculpted many prominent works across the university, including the sculpture of President George Lynn Cross in front of Evans Hall and the Seed Sower statues featured on all three of OU’s campuses.

Outside the university, Moore’s Achievements culminated in the completion of his 20-year masterpiece project, the Oklahoma Centennial Land Run Monument.

The Oklahoma Centennial Land Run Monument was finished in 2019 and commissioned by the State of Oklahoma, the federal government in the City of Oklahoma City, the monument commemorates the 1889 opening of unassigned lands in Oklahoma territory. One of the largest free-standing sculptures in the world, the action-packed composition creates a theatrical sense of drama that depicts the settlers racing across the land, through water, to forge their future on the prairie. The immense scope of work, with spectacular detail, stands 365 feet long with 45 bronze life-and-a-half-size elements in Bricktown in Oklahoma City.

His statues can also be seen throughout the state, including the state capitol. Nationally, his work may be seen in the U.S. Capitol Collection, the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, Brookgreen Gardens Collection, and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, to name a few.

A fifth-generation Oklahoman, Moore has created an astounding 155 commissions to date honoring Native American people, military and service leaders, great artists, and historic events. His work is in constant demand for portrait and monumental commissions.

Moore began sculpting in high school. His inspiration for Western art derived from a visit to the Western Heritage and Cowboy Museum of Art and the book Bronzes of the American West.

At age 20, he began sculpting professionally. In his early years as a budding artist, he knew working with the process of creating a bronze sculpture would make him a better artist. He worked for foundries in Montana and Santa Fe, New Mexico, to learn the highly technical multifaceted process of taking a clay sculpture and turning it into the final bronze art. This vital knowledge gave Moore the ability to complete many of the steps in-house to create not only a bronze sculpture, but an expensive monument, something very few sculpture artists do.

His heroes were his teachers and they pushed him to excel. American artists that inspired Moore are Chuck Jones, creator of the Warner Bros. Cartoons on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts; Neil Estern; and George Carlson. To honor Jones, Paul created a portrait of Jones with his characters, which now resides in the Smithsonian's permanent collection.

Moore’s studio is part working area and part collection/memorabilia. Located in Norman, Oklahoma, the studio houses some of his award-winning sculptures, including The Buffalo Jump, The Stickball Game, Losing the Topknot and The Ghost Wrestler. There are maquettes, initial sculptures that demonstrate the beginning story; mementos from other famous sculptors; historical relics and a collection of books on American Western art, famous sculptures in history of the American West.

For over 40 years, at times working 14 to 16 hours a day for seven days, Moore strove to complete commissioned pieces. In each bronze sculpture, a surprising amount of human handwork is involved. The process itself involves many painstaking hours sculpting on, under and over a vision, laying on clay, adding texture and dimension, telling this story.

One of Moore's masterpieces is the commissioned monument On the Chisolm Trail. With the dedication and enthusiasm of a master sculptor, Moore worked tirelessly for two years to create the massive and realistic image honoring the spirit of a bygone era. Standing at the entrance of the Chisholm Trail Heritage Center in Duncan, Oklahoma, this impressive work of art stands nearly 15 feet high atop an immense base and stretches 35 feet across. The monument is a tribute to the American cowboy, a pioneer, as Moore is himself; the sculpture is a “relief to fully dimensional” style work of art that has become his trademark.

As artist-in-residence at the OU School of Visual Arts, Moore teaches a course in figurative sculpture. In addition, he connects students to professional artists with similar styles. Moore said, “Having a mentor helps a budding artist tremendously.”

Throughout his career, Moore has won numerous awards, including four Anne Marion Best of Show Awards, four Gold Medals for Sculpture, five Silver Medals for Sculpture, the Stetson Award and two Ray Swanson Memorial Awards at the annual Cowboy Artists of America Show. He also has won the Gold and Silver Medals for Sculpture, the Leonard J. Meiselman Award, the Margaret Hexter Prize, and the Fine Art Connoisseur Award at the Annual National Sculpture Society Exhibition. In 2020 he won the Briscoe Western Art Museum’s Purchase Award and the James Bowie Best-in-Show Sculpture Award.

2019 was a monumental year of recognition for Moore. At the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum's Prix de West Invitational Art Exhibition, Moore won the Robert Lougheed Memorial Award for best display of three or more works and the Prix de West 2019 Purchase Award. The Lougheed Award is voted on by other artists in the exhibition. His submission of bronze art included The Procession, Yaqui Deer Dancer, Navajo Country, and The Wood Gatherers. Moore also won the top prize, the Prix de West 2019 Purchase Award, for his bronze The Procession, a large bronze relief of a Pueblo religious Christian procession. This honored sculpture is part of the museum’s permanent collection. In addition, he received the Governor’s Commendation by Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt for the completion of the Oklahoma Land Run Monument.

Oklahoma City mayor David Holt designated Feb. 18 as “Paul Moore Day,” a recognition that will continue annually.

Other honors and recognition highlights include an Emmy Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for his documentary “Paul Moore: Monument Man” that aired on PBS/OETA, and in 2013 he was the recipient of the Oklahoma Governor’s Arts Award.

His current work includes an art altar piece titled The Holy Trinity, composed of polymer, wood and paint.

Not planning to slow down anytime soon, Moore will exhibit new work in four upcoming shows in 2021. In the future, he would like to create a monument honoring the Native Americans’ “Trail of Tears” journey.

Grand sculptures created by Moore have touched the lives of thousands, honored Native Americans, veterans, U.S. residents, and state and national leaders. He has told important stories of historical events.