Oklahoma City Community College’s (OCCC) Visual and Performing Arts Center (VPAC) has secured its slate of sponsors for the 2021 hybrid season, presented by Ad Astra Foundation. This season features both in-person and online viewing options, which has added to technology and licensing costs, and will face significant in-person capacity limitations due to COVID-19. The sponsors ensure the season can proceed without compromise, fulfilling the VPAC’s mission of bringing exceptional visual and performing arts to South Oklahoma City, the OCCC student body, and the community as a whole.
“Life without the arts has been devastating for patrons and performers alike,†said OCCC’s Cultural Programs Director Lemuel Bardeguez. “We need institutions like the VPAC and others in our market to bring that spark of creativity to our lives. It’s very important that we’re back, and we’re rooting for other performing arts centers in our community to safely return as soon as possible, too.”
This season, presented by Ad Astra Foundation, was supported in part by the Oklahoma Arts Council, which received support from the State of Oklahoma and the National Endowment for the Arts. The presentation of Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble Presents: Four Journeys was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Patron sponsors Equinox/CPRDE (Chickasaw Nation), INSURICA, WEOKIE Federal Credit Union, Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores, and BancFirst round out the slate of sponsorships for the 2021 season.
“In an era of lost seasons due to COVID-19, we are grateful, yet again, to have found ours,†said Bardeguez.
The Visual and Performing Arts Center is a 1,049-seat, state-of-the-art theater space located on the campus of Oklahoma City Community College. Its mission, fulfilled since 2014, is to increase access to world-class cultural programs and performances for underserved populations.
The Oklahoma Arts Council is the official state agency for the support and development of the arts. The agency’s mission is to lead in the advancement of Oklahoma’s thriving arts industry. The Oklahoma Arts Council provides more than 400 grants to nearly 225 organizations in communities statewide each year, organizes professional development opportunities for the state’s arts and cultural industry and manages works of art in the Oklahoma Public Art Collection and the public spaces of the state Capitol. Additional information is available at arts.ok.gov.
For specific performance details and updates, and to purchase tickets, visit tickets.occc.edu.
