Published: October 10, 2008 05:25 pm      

Becky Clinton to receive Governor's arts award

Oklahoma City — Becky Clinton, Norman, will be honored by Governor Brad Henry at the 33rd Annual Governor’s Arts Awards. Clinton will receive an Arts & Education Award which recognizes an individual organization, school, educator or group for their outstanding leadership and service in the arts benefitting youth and/or arts in education.

Sponsored by the Oklahoma Arts Council, 15 individuals and three organizations will be honored for their contributions to the arts in their communities or throughout the state. The ceremony is scheduled for 4 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 23rd in the fourth Floor Rotunda of the State Capitol and is open to the public. Presiding at the ceremony will be Council Chair Jim Tolbert and Oklahoma Arts Council Executive Director Suzanne Tate. A reception on the first floor of the Capitol will follow the 4 p.m. ceremony.

As the founder and Executive Director Children’s Arts Network, Becky Clinton has worked tirelessly on behalf of arts education and students throughout central Oklahoma for the past 22 years. Under her leadership, the Children’s Arts Network has created two significant programs that have benefitted more than 5,000 students in arts education over the past few years. She co-founded the Norman Children’s Chorus in 1992 and serves as founding director of Artworks, a multi-discipline arts day camp at Stage Center in Oklahoma City.

After graduating from East Central Oklahoma State University, she began her arts administrative experience as an assistant for the Oklahoma Youth Orchestra in 1987 and was soon named Executive Director of the Harrison Academy for the Performing Arts. After that position, she recruited a board of directors and incorporated the Children’s Arts Network, which serves as an umbrella organization for arts programs for children in central Oklahoma. She also founded and directed the First Baptist Norman Fine Arts Academy in 1990 and continued in that capacity until 1997.

She earned administrative training certificates from Arts Management in Community Institutions in Boston (a program of National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts) and from Chorus America in Philadelphia where she was a recipient of a merit scholarship from the Pugh Charitable Trust. She has worked with several agencies and non-profit groups in helping to organize, create governing constitutions, and set up appropriate financial structures. She has presented workshops on arts management to groups such as the Oklahoma Music Educators Association and local community groups.

Active as a community volunteer, she was recognized as 2006 Volunteer of the Year for service to youth and education in Norman. She is a member of Sooner Rotary of Norman and is a past chair for family selection for Cleveland County Habitat for Humanity. In addition to her civic involvement, she has held professional memberships with Chorus America, National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts and American Choral Directors Association. An active member of First Christian Church of Norman, she has served as deacon and elder.

A complete list of Governor’s Arts Awards recipients and their photos are available at www.arts.ok.gov. For more information about the Governor’s Arts Awards, contact Ann Dee Lee at (405) 521-2931 or at anndee@arts.ok.gov.