Contributing: Web Editor Nicole Waltman
OCU students will take over LIVE! on the Plaza on Jan. 12.
LIVE! on the Plaza is hosted in the Plaza District on the second Friday of every month. It is an art walk with live entertainment, shopping, and other activities and events. Local businesses stay open late for the event.
The event is from 6-10 p.m. in the Plaza District on Northwest 16th Street.
There will be music and theater acts, a live science demonstration and other activities for people of all ages, said Cary Pirrong, director of alumni engagement. Pirrong is also the vice president of the Plaza District Association and will be the president next year.
“I’d like to encourage students, faculty, staff and alumni to support the businesses in the Plaza,” Pirrong said. “Many of the businesses are alumni-owned.”
Faculty from Petree College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Visual Arts, admissions, and athletics also will participate.
OCU’s film department will host a high school film festival at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 12 at The Venue, 1757 N.W. 16th St., in the Plaza District.
“It will be our first time hosting a high school film festival. We’re looking forward to seeing what kinds of work high schoolers are making,” said Bryan Cardinale-Powell, chairman of the film department.
Cardinale-Powell said the films were selected by a jury of OCU alumni, and he expects the program to last 45 minutes to an hour.
Top entries are given a $5,000 a year scholarship to OCU, and one winner will receive a $500 cash prize presented by Nathan Gardocki Films. Nathan Gardocki is an alumnus of OCU.
Cardinale-Powell said he looks forward to connecting the film students with the rest of the school while increasing the presence of the programs to high school students in Oklahoma and surrounding states.
“Being in the middle of the country, it’s easy to be overlooked as a destination for studying film, but I think we have a lot to offer,” he said.
Cardinale-Powell said he encourages OCU students to attend while they’re participating in other things at the takeover.
Film and art students are helping run the event.
“It’s nice to know, as a student, that I can be involved in the creative process,” said Meredith Funkhouser, film production senior. “I never made anything like this in high school, so I love the fact that we are setting up a showcase to see the talent the high schoolers have.”
Interested students must be enrolled in ninth through 12th grades in Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, or Texas.
All genres were accepted, including narrative, documentary, animation, and experimental, but they were required to be less than 10 minutes. Out of more than 125 entries, officials narrowed it down to 15, which will all be screened at the festival.
An awards ceremony will follow immediately after Friday night’s screening.
To get involved with the OCU Plaza District takeover, student organizations can email Pirrong at cpirrong@okcu.edu or Marianne Hosler, coordinator of alumni relations, at mhosler@okcu.edu. Each organization should let them know what kind of activity they’d like to host after which they can be put on the schedule.
For more information about LIVE! on the Plaza, visit plazadistrict.org/home-1.
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