USAO’s DWPAS awarded $5,000 Mid-America Arts Alliance grant
The University of Science & Arts of Oklahoma’s Davis-Waldorf Performing Arts Series has been awarded $5,000, the maximum amount offered, from the Mid-America Arts Alliance’s Regional Touring Program for 2024-2025. This funding will cover half of the artist fee for FLY Dance Company’s performance, which is scheduled for February 13, 2025. When this group last performed at USAO in 2018, the Te Ata Memorial Auditorium was being renovated, and the group played to a sold-out crowd in the Davis Hall Little Theatre.
“I am thrilled to be able to apply for and receive support from regional arts organizations for our Artist Series,” says Katie Davis, Professor of Theatre and Executive Director of the DWPAS. “Our series mission and the mission of the Mid-America Arts Alliance align perfectly. We serve a rural region that is under-served by professional arts events. We have been providing affordable access to high-quality arts education and performance for twenty-four seasons. Being able to support the work of professional artists from our region by hosting them in the series is a joy!”
Hailing from Houston, Texas, FLY Dance Company, known as “The Gentlemen of Hip Hop,” is celebrated for their unique fusion of street dance and classical music. Their performances incorporate acting, b-boy style, and a variety of musical genres that captivate audiences of all ages. The company’s appearance at USAO will feature both a live performance and a dance workshop open to the community, campus and local dance schools.
The Mid-America Arts Alliance serves the six-state region of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas. As part of their mission to strengthen the arts, cultural organizations, and communities, this organization provides grants for artists, organizations, and presenters, support for exhibitions, and professional development training for organizations and artists. In past seasons, M-AAA grants to the USAO Foundation have supported DWPAS performances by the Nebraska Ballet, Missouri Contemporary Ballet, and Dallas String Quartet.
The mission of the Davis-Waldorf Performing Arts Series is to regularly present professional performing arts events, to facilitate student attendance at these shows as an important part of a liberal arts education, to provide affordable entertainment for our college family and our community, and to lead local arts education by creating access to high-quality, relevant, culturally diverse programming that broadens the aesthetic of each audience member. For more than two decades, the series has brought world-class performers from a range of styles to the USAO campus.
For more information and to purchase tickets, visit usao.edu/dwpas.
About the University of Science & Arts of Oklahoma
As Oklahoma’s liberal arts college, the University of Science & Arts of Oklahoma provides a distinctive education in the liberal arts and sciences, supporting both its interdisciplinary core curriculum and major fields of study with superior teaching. USAO fosters diversity of thought and practice to help students realize meaningful, purposeful and productive lives as global citizens in a rapidly-changing world.