Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Board of Directors has decided to postpone the Annual Leadership in Arts & Education Awards until next spring. For the last 9 years, Harding Fine Arts Academy has honored individuals, couples, and organizations for their outstanding contribution to the arts and education in Oklahoma through the Leadership in Arts & Education Awards. This event also helps the Foundation raise mission-critical funds for the Student Success Fund. These unrestricted dollars are used to purchase supplies, equipment, new technology, and for preserving our historic building.
Meet the Honorees9th Annual Leadership in Arts & Education Awards Ken and Mary Ann Fergeson John & Joy Reed Belt Award
Ken and Mary Ann have collected art all of their married life, starting with posters in college, then works on paper when they first got out of college and paintings and pottery
at arts festivals. The Fergeson’s credit their big mistake to buying a house next door to Ben Pickard. Ben started selling them art on an installment plan and they got to hang it while they paid it off. Ben really helped them develop their love of art and artists. Ken Fergeson is a community banker and Chairman of NBC Oklahoma. He was inducted into the Oklahoma Bankers Association’s 2018 Inaugural hall of Fame Class and into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 2009.He has received the 1994 and 2000 Oklahoma Governor’s Arts Award, 2019 Oklahoma Creativity Ambassador Award, and 2019 Volunteer Service Award from the Paseo Arts Association. Fergeson has served as chairman of both the American Bankers Association as well as the Oklahoma Bankers Association. Ken
created the NBC Oklahoma Artist Series, a program that champions Oklahoma artists by commissioning them to create an original piece of art. Ken then turns the art into prints, posters and postcards for bank customers as gifts. Ken has also been responsible for large-scale commissions of public art. Ken is past-chairman of the Mid-America Arts Alliance Board and Americans for the Arts. In addition, he serves on the boards of the Oklahoma Humanities Council, Oklahoma Arts Institute, the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, Oklahomans for the Arts, the Three Rivers Foundation for the Arts and Sciences, and the Oklahoma State University Postal Plaza Art Museum. Ken holds a bachelor’s degree in business and a masters in economics from Texas Tech University. Ken and Mary Ann live in Altus, Oklahoma. 9
