September 2024 K@P Wrap-Up

The energy going into this new year was electric. Parents of our eight returning 5th graders recounted their children gushing all summer about how excited they were to come back to our program. That excitement stretched its way to our twelve 4th graders new to the program. We are proud to have already cultivated that level of joy as we begin our 3rd full year of K@P.

This year also brings with it a new staff coordinating the program. Our new K@P Team includes Julian DeLesDernier and Hannah Summers as co-coordinators and Alyssa Hughes as our high school assistant. The new creative energy has set up the program for an exciting fresh start!

A new year can come with many new anxieties. To instill a fun, creative environment, the K@P Staff started off this year’s program with an acrylic pour mural project. Acrylic pour is a medium that many find freeing due to its lack of required drawing skills and how easily it lends itself to experimentation. Different paint colors are mixed together and then poured directly onto a surface creating interesting organic motions.

For some, acrylic pours can be a deliberate and methodical process. However, for the K@P Kids, everything was focused on the fun of the process over the end product.

“Children need to first know that it’s safe to try something without worrying about whether they will immediately succeed. Art isn’t all about quality or quantity. Most of the time it’s just about exploring.” – Julian DeLesDernier / K@P Coordinator

Each student filled their cup with a selection of colors from our wide array of craft paints. They then poured their paint onto thin sheets of plastic. Once dry, children cut out the mural into fun shapes and hung them up on the wall to create the mural.

The K@P Kids love having their collaborative art proudly displayed where many in the building pass each day.

A few weeks into the year, the K@P Studio was visited by Kim Vento, executive director of the Broken Arrow Performing Arts Center, to learn about Kristin Chenoweth. Our program was named after Chenoweth to acknowledge both the financial support from her eponymous Arts and Education Fund and the lasting impact that she has had on the Broken Arrow community.

As many native Broken Arrow residents know, Kristin Chenoweth was born and raised in our wonderful big-yet-small town. She would go on to pursue a performing arts career with heights including her Tony award winning performance in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown and her iconic turn as Glinda in Wicked to name but a few.

At the BAPAC, Kim Vento has led the charge on the Kristin Chenoweth Broadway Bootcamp for several years among many other collaborations. Their close friendship made her the perfect person to first introduce our K@P Kids to Kristin.

Vento began her presentation with a discussion of “what is art and how does it affect you?” She then played for the children a video of Chenoweth reflecting on her time revisiting Broken Arrow and how important making a difference and crafting a legacy is to her.

The presentation clearly resonated with the K@P kids. Their faces lit up at the realization that someone from the same town as them took their love for the arts to places they had never imagined.

Many children were already fans of Chenoweth from her time in “Wicked” or, more recently to them, her appearance as Maleficent in Disney’s “Descendants” film. At pickup time, parents could hardly get a word in between all of the squeals of excitement.

A recurring theme from the K@P staff is that art is something that can both enrich your life and make up your career path. Learning about Kristin Chenoweth’s career was a wonderful example of that. The children also gained a new found confidence upon learning that they were selected to be her “artists of promise” in our program.

The last big project of September was learning how to screen print their own shirts for the program. Arts@302 was graciously donated a quality screen printing press from Tiger Town Tees and the staff wanted to put it to good use.

First, the children learned how to print through a plastic stencil taped to a screen and printed a crystal design on paper. Next, they printed designs on bandanas and then moved to printing their shirts. Some children even brought in their own clothing items from home to print on.

Julian DeLesDernier, one of the coordinators, has years of experience from previously operating his own screen printing business. For interested students, he spent extra time at the press to explore finer understanding of the techniques, skills and terminology used by printers.

Children were fascinated with the process of this art form that many of them were not aware of. They particularly enjoyed the meditative nature of pushing ink across a screen with a squeegee and the satisfaction of lifting up the screen to reveal the image perfectly placed on their clothing.

The core Arts@302 staff made their way up to the K@P Studio to officially introduce themselves to the K@P Kids and to print their own shirts. It was a great way to “cap” off the first month.

The focus of this year is all about collaboration on bigger projects. Children will learn to work together and navigate the challenge of fusing individual creative ideas with others. One upcoming project that both the staff and the children are most excited about is the “Zombie Short Film” that they will create in mid-October.

In this project, children will create their own costume pieces with artist, Kirsten Morehead, workshop and learn from local film actor, Jasper Hammer, and dive into practical effects for SFX makeup and more.

We would like to give a special thanks to Broken Arrow Public Schools, Broken Arrow Neighbors, the Kristin Chenoweth Arts and Education Fund, and all other staff and parents that continue to make this program possible.