FAOTW

I WASN’T MUCH OF A JOINER. Look back through my high school yearbook and you won't find me pictured with the FFA, FBLA, 4H, Speech Club, Drama Club or any other organization that started with "Future" or ended with "Club". It wasn't that I was completely anti-social or opposed to things with a motto and secret handshake. Nor was I completely aimless, but it did seem to be quite a commitment to say in 8th grade, "My future is in farming!" Actually, I did make a test run with the FFA, but before we could order a blue jacket we had to cross a couple of hurdles: 1.) Learn the basics of Roberts Rules of Order. CHECK. 2.) Assist in castrating a few sheep. MY FUTURE IS NOT IN FARMING.

Being a drummer in a traveling rock band seemed practical and doable at the time but there wasn't a club for FDIATRB. I also had aspirations of being a radio DJ. I loved to spin platters and found when practicing in my bedroom I had good banter and interesting facts about the next song coming up after the commercial break. Again, no club for that.

I was a member of several bands: jazz, symphonic, orchestra, rock, marching and concert. I even did a stint in high school playing in musicals for a dinner theatre.

Today, if I were a revolutionary high school leader I would strive to gather creatives together and form the FUTURE ARTISTS OF THE WORLD club. We would meet regularly--maybe in a drum circle, or listening to the poets in our club share their haikus, sonnets and free verse. We would celebrate the work of our own visual artists and trek to galleries, concerts, coffeehouses, etc. We would be a bit subversive, maybe creating an alternative cover for the football program or reimagining the school mascot. Someone in authority might say, "I sure hope that's just tempera paint dripping in a rainbow of colors out of the lockers of the members of the FAOTW!" Given some artistic license, the Senior Prom decorations would be remembered always as would the tattoos given at the after-prom party.

My last official work with students was in a wonderful community called Hinton. Hinton sits in an area that is rich with agricultural resources: wheat, peanuts, cotton, peppers, and more. In the schools of communities like Hinton, FFA is more than a club. It's education, inspiration, and practice. It is key to the passing on of values, methods, lessons-learned, and a way of life.

Let me say with all sincerity that the arts are just as important to a community. I know how important STEM is, I also know how unlivable our communities would become with the arts. I know that it doesn't take a club like my silly FAOTW to promote, to support, to teach, to sustain and protect the arts, but it does take at least awareness and occasional celebration. And, going forward, someone is going to have to speak up for the arts in our schools or they will be stripped away.

I know of many gifted creatives who have come through the Hinton school system. I want to talk about two of them. Sterling Hayes and Corey Fuller. These two former Comets have been on my mind lately. One of them is my son and the other I feel a kinship to because she and her mom and dad have allowed us to be a part of watching her artistic journey.

The reason I'm mentioning them is to celebrate their commitment to the arts and the work they do; particularly right now, and particularly in the area of public art. Public art is so incredible and vital right now and Sterling and Corey are doing great work in this area.

Sterling is the Director of Art in Public Places for the Oklahoma Arts Council. She oversees the opportunities for public art in capital improvement projects across our state. Current projects include a project called, "Power In Pop" at the Oklahoma Pop Museum in Tulsa and in the renovation of our state capital building, which will include several public art installations.

Not only is Sterling an advocate, organizer and curator in the arts, she is a gifted artist too. We are proud to have one of her paintings and a few of her pottery pieces in our own collection. You can see photos of her work on Instagram: @sterlingpottery

Corey is Chair of the School of Art and Design at Oklahoma Baptist University and Professor of Graphic Design. His public art can be seen if you travel westbound along Route 66 and I-40 just west of Weatherford, Oklahoma, and in an exhibit at the train depot gallery in Norman, and in a recent project--a mural on the art annex on the OBU campus, a collaborative effort with students, former students and Bryan Alexis a muralist/public artist/graphic design professor at University of Arkansas in Fort Smith.

Sterling and Corey are just two of what I will call Ambassador's for the Arts from Hinton, Oklahoma. If there is a club for former Hinton residents who want to be patrons and promoters of the arts, sign me up! And, let's include current resident artists in the club. I nominate Jim McCain as Chairperson and move that nominations cease and Jim be elected by acclamation! (I still remember a few of Robert’s Rules.)

Only a few weeks left before we see Jim's latest public art installation: a retro giant slide at the Hinton Fair!

FAOTW UNITE!