1. Budget
2. Grants
3. Impact Numbers
4. Organizations Who Receive Fuding From The NAC
5. Norman Arts Updates
6. Programs
A. MAINSITE Contemporary Art
B. 2nd Friday Norman Art Walk
C. Norman Forward 1% for Art
D. Artist Grants
E. Arts Education Scholarships
Mural Incentive Program
7. Media
8. Staff & Board
Hotel Tax - 80% (71% in FY23)
Individual & Corporate Support - 8% (7% in FY23)
Foundation & Grant - 5% (3% in FY23)
Other - 5% (14% in FY23)
Earned - 2% (5% in FY23)
Grants to Arts
Organizations - 50% (46% in FY23)
Operating - 14% (13% in FY23)
Payroll - 24% (28% in FY23)
Programs - 12% (13% in FY23)
In 2020, the Norman Arts Council Board made a commitment to transition to a “United Arts Fund” model, meaning that the NAC would work to raise money beyond the Hotel Tax to re-grant to the arts organizations that we support. In FY22, we took a big step towards our goal of matching the Hotel Tax Funds by receiving a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for $250,000 over two years! Funding began in FY25.
In the past few years, Norman Arts has been able to significantly increase funding to Norman arts organizations!
Grants - 60% (58% in FY23)
FY24-25
TOTAL ARTS ALLOCATION: $897,500
NAC Admin - 19% (18% in FY23)
NAC Programs - 15% (18% in FY23)
Marketing - 6% (7% in FY23)
Due to our participation in the Americans for the Arts: Arts and Economic Impact Survey we know that the arts in Norman:
•Annually generate $36,000,000 in economic activity in 2022
•$24,500,000 by our audiences
•$11,624,519 by arts organizations
•Annually support 600 Full Time Equivalent Jobs
•Annually generate $6,500,000 in State and Local sales tax revenue
•Annual arts audience at Norman arts events and programs:
•750,000 people
•71% Local
•29% Non-Local
•On average, an audience member attending an arts event in Norman spends $33.09 per person in Norman Businesses!
•87% of respondents agreed that the activity or venue they were attending was “a source of neighborhood pride for the community.”
84% said they would “feel a sense of loss if that activity or venue was
Central Oklahoma Dance Company (since 2019)
Cimarron Opera (since 1984)
Cleveland County Historical Society (since 1982)
Firehouse Art Center (since 1982)
Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art (since 2000)
Healthy Living Norman (since 2023)
Jacobson House Foundation (since 1990)
Jazz in June (since 1991)
Medieval Fair (since 1990)
NAMRON Players Theatre (since 2016)
Norman Ballet Company (since 1987)
Norman Cultural Connection (since 2015)
Norman Music Festival (since 2008)
Norman Philharmonic (since 2013)
Oklahoma Youth Sing! (since 2000)
OU School of Visual Arts (since 2023)
OU School of Music (since 2023)
OU World Literature Today (since 2007)
Pioneer Library System (since 1998)
Prairie House Preservation Society (since 2023)
Resonator Institute (since 2018)
Scissortail Productions (since 2019)
Secondwind Coffee House (since 20)
Sooner Theatre (since 1982)
The Depot (Since 2000)
World Literature Today (Since 2007)
The Public Arts Committee, with support and funding from the City of Norman, launced the Mural Incentive Program. Through this program the NAC provided funding to help bring 7 new murals to Norman!
Norman Arts Council and the City of Norman wrapped up the Norman Forward 1% for Public Arts program with the installation of the 10th public art piece.
Strategic Planning consultant WEBB were hired to help the NAC develop a Strategic Plan to address the NAC’s goals for the next 5 years. The planning has begun and will be implemented in the 25/26 fiscal year!
Exhibits Since July 2024-July 2025:
May – July 2024 | Biophilia: Haley Prestofillipo, Dr. Nicholas Czaplewski, Jennifer Larsen, Lauren Rosenfelt, Hannah Harper, and Grace Potter
August – September 2024 | Constructed Emotion: Benjamin Murphy
October – November 2024 | Visions: Three Shows: Michael Givel, Angelika Tietz, and Ginna Dowling
December 2024 – February 2025 | Drawing on Narratives: Curated by Cedar Marie
March 2025 | ONE Event
April 2025 | OU MFA Thesis Exhibition
May 2025 | Seika, Japan: The 20th Anniversary of Our Sister City
June – July 2025 | Spiritual But Not Religious: Curtis Jones, and Draw
Near: Rachel Beer
August – September 2025 | Cats!: Carol Beasley, Andalusians: Richard McKown, and Held Lightly: Annie Thompson
October – November 2025 | Native American Contemporary Fashion
Exhibit curated by Amber DuBoise-Shepherd
December 2025 – February 2026 | Josh Boydston and Bridget Trowbridge
March 2026 | ONE Event
April 2026 | OU MFA Thesis Exhibition
Steven Dragan and Marcus Eakers
Hosted celebration of the 20th anniversary of Norman’s Sister City relationship with Seika, Japan with exhibit garnering over 1,200 attendees
Mounted 8 full- length exhibits
ONE Spring Night art auction featured 101 artists and over 52% of the work was sold!
The 2nd Friday Art Walk continues to be one of the most popular arts events in Norman. 2nd Fridays has sustained strong attendance for this monthly tradition. A significant increase in art, maker and artisanal vendors (from 139 total in 2019 compared to 496 in the past 12 months) signals how successfully the event supports our local creative community and economy.
Arts & Non-Profits
· The Depot
· Factory Obscura
· Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art
· Firehouse Art Center
· Jacobson House
· MAINSITE Contemporary Art: Home of Norman Arts Council
· Medieval Fair
· Norman Film Festival
· Norman Music Festival
· Norman School of Ballet
· Norman Pride
· OU Fine Arts Library
· Pioneer Library System
· Resonator
· Sooner Theatre
· Uncanny Art House
· Visit Norman
· The Well
405 Brewing Aki Kin
· Benvenuti’s
· BIG Brewing Co.
· Bison Witches
· The Bluebonnet Cookie Cottage*
· Downtown Art & Frame
· DM Wealth Management
· Equity Brewing
· Forward Foods Gallery 123 Gray Owl Coffee
· Green Feather Books
· Guestroom Records
· Healthy Living Norman Human Interaction
J. Byrd’s Boutique
· Lazy Circles Brewing
· Legally Brewed
· Magic Sad Agency
· Main Street Photo-Video
Main Street Pottery
· Mango Cannabis
· Mister Robert Fine Furniture
NCom Cyberhall
Norman Regional Foundation
· Oil & Clay Studio
· Opolis
· OSC-Press
· Prohibition Red Dot Studio
· Red Stiletto Photography
· Robinson’s Repurposed
· Rusty’s Frozen Custard
· Sandalwood & Sage
SCRATCH Kitchen & Cocktails
Sea Shanty Scuba & Swim
· Sergio’s Italian Bistro
· Shevaun Williams & Associates
Studio JBerg The Standard
· STASH
· Stiles on Gray
· Studio Ink
· Up Together Venue
Yellow Dog Coffee Company
· Yoga on Main
In May of 2025, the City of Norman and the Norman Arts Council wrapped up the Norman Forwad 1% For Public Art project with a total of 12 public art pieces!
WindRose
@ Griffin Park
$110,000 project
Indianapolis, Indiana Artist team, Project ONE Studios
Revolutions
@ James GarnerFlood Roundabout
$230,000 project
Oklahoma artist Paul Bagley
Onwards
@ Senior Wellness Center
$125,000 project
Melbourne, Australia Artist team, Skunk Control
The NAC Artist Grant program awards three categories of grants for Norman artists twice per year. In 2023, we increased the amount awarded per grant by $500. Now, artists are awarded $1,500 each in three categories: Community Engagement, Education & Travel, and Creative. Through two rounds of grant applications, we awarded six artists in FY24/25.
Talia Nat’s project belonging beyond borders exhibited in the Library Gallery at MAINSITE centered on Third Culture Kids in Norman, where participants were interviewed and photographed to capture the complexities of living “in-between”. The exhibit covered how the concepts of transnationalism, diaspora, and “TCK” experiences significantly impact the meaning of identity, belonging, and culture itself, deserving exploration through artistic expression
Jenna Bryan is working with local artists and neighboring small businesses to host Downtown Norman’s first, Ink the Block Party! Taking place Friday, September 6th, it will include an arts market, live music, mural painting and dynamic woodblock printing demonstrations involving a steamroller. The goal is to reinvigorate Downtown Norman, helping its arts organizations and small businesses thrive while introducing the local arts community to incoming college students who are new to the city.
Jody Farmer was selected to give a presentation at the National Conference on Contemporary Cast Iron Art and Practices. Farmer presented about her work and research into collaborating with AI and Large Language Models.
Katherine Gaff’s grant allowed her to travel to the Sculpture and Pots workshop, a nine-day intensive educational experience focused on advanced ceramic techniques. This workshop provides a rare opportunity to learn about the application of slips, and explore innovative hand-building methods and color approaches in both functional and sculptural works.
Lauren Sonder’s project explores the mesmerizing world of flow arts from the perspective of a composer. Sonders wrote a piano composition inspired by the visual patterns of flow props in motion, and showcased the composition with a video in which flow art was performed to the composed music, exploring what it means to be an artist inspired by art.
Chase Spivey’s exhibit Reflexion is a large-scale interactive installation consisting of 6,000 slightly convex 2.5 inch circular mirrors mounted across the walls of the Library Gallery at MAINSITE Contemporary Art. The project challenges traditional expectations of gallery viewing by making the viewer's presence an essential and evolving part of the work. The creative concept explores themes of perception, identity, surveillance, and transformation.
Norman Arts Council Arts Education Scholarships are intended to provide Norman children with the opportunity to attend arts programming that is offered outside of schools. Applicants may use funding — up to $500 — for any arts education program of their choosing beyond what local schools are able to provide.
Priority is given to low income applicants and families facing a hardship, but any student (grades K-12) who lives in Norman is eligible.
In the past year, Norman Arts has given $26,899 to 66 students!
In 2024, the Norman Arts Council launched the Mural Incentive Program, a program intended to enhance the cultural landscape of Norman, Oklahoma by providing matching funds of up to $10,000 to business and property owners who wish to invest in a mural on the exterior of their space.
The program was born out of equal parts community interest and support from The City of Norman, which provided the funding to launch the program.
Over the course of the 2024-2025 Fiscal Year, the Norman Arts Council helped bring 7 new murals to Norman through this program!
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Leslie Nottingham | Executive Director
Leslie Nottingham joined the Norman Arts Council in July of 2024. She holds a BFA in Theatre: Stage & Project Management from the California Institute of the Arts, an Arts & Its Markets Certificate from Sotheby’s London and an MA in the History of Decorative Art from Corcoran College of Art & Design/The Smithsonian Associates.
After a series of fellowships and internships from the likes of the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of American History and Hillwood Estate, she’s held positions with Christie’s Auction House, Hallmark and Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop & Farm.
Nottingham landed at the city of Ocala as the Cultural Arts Supervisor in 2020, overseeing public art projects and leading the dissemination of Request for Proposals/Request for Qualifications, panel selection, conceptualization, installation/de-installation of public works and serving as a liaison between the city, project managers, community stakeholders, artists and the public.
In early 2023, she was elevated to Cultural Arts Manager, expanding her duties to strategic planning in cooperation with the Ocala Municipal Arts Commission, City departments and City management, as well as fostering broad partnerships with local arts organizations, educational institutions, businesses and the media. Nottingham oversaw fiscal operations, promotional initiatives, networking and staff hiring/training, as well as acting as a resource for entities from across the City interested in bettering the local creative community.
Cher Duncan has been with the NAC since 2015 and believes deeply in the impact the arts have on the community. A graduate of Ardmore High School, she attended East Central University and completed her degree at the University of Oklahoma. Cher has been actively involved in local initiatives, including the Citizens Advisory Board, Norman Public Schools PTO, and currently serves on the Fostering Futures Board. She is passionate about fundraising for causes she supports and previously chaired the OU Football Coaches Luncheon. Cher and her husband, Derrek, have five children and they enjoy spending time together at the beach.
Laney Lynch began her role as Marketing and Communications Manager in September of 2024. Laney is an artist and illustrator with a love for community care and organization. She has a BFA in Graphic Design from Oklahoma State University. Her previous experience includes graphic design for a television news channel and digital communications management. Growing up in the town of Meeker, Laney has lived in Oklahoma her whole life. She is excited to serve the local arts community and public here in Norman.
As the Norman Arts Council's community arts manager, Travis loves engaging with the Norman Arts community. This includes assisting in exhibitions and events all while connecting with Artwalk vendors and visitors.
In addition to his work at NAC, Travis is pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of Oklahoma in Art History, specializing in the Art of the American West. His research focuses on 19th-century landscape art and its connection to the natural enviorment and early Enviromentalist movements.
Dace Demir joined the Norman Arts Council to manage their National Endowment for the Arts Regranting Program and to work with all of the Norman Arts organizations on gathering economic impact data for the Americans for the Arts: Arts and Economic Prosperity study. Dace is an interdisciplinary scholar, curator, and writer. She received her Ph.D. in Cultural Policy Studies from the University of Warwick (UK), M.A. in Arts Administration and Policy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (USA), and her B.A. in International Cultural Relations from Latvian Academy of Culture (Latvia). Dace’s commitment to interdisciplinary scholarship is reflected in her current work as she teaches across three colleges at the University of Oklahoma – College of International Studies, College of Fine Arts, and College of Professional and Continuing Studies.
Main areas of her research interests include comparative cultural policy and institutional development of contemporary visual arts as a distinct field of cultural production and distribution. Dace is particularly interested in the influence that changing cultural policy trends exert on current developments in cultural infrastructure, particularly in the field of contemporary visual arts, exhibition processes, and curatorial practices.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
President | Bill Hickman
President-Elect | Joyce Green
Vice-President | Haley Dennis
Treasurer | Amy Million
Secretary | Francesca Giani
Past President | Dennis Bingham
NORMAN ARTS BOARD MEMBERS
Aisha Ali
Erin Barnhart
James Briggs
Tara Burnett
Jennifer Burwell
Brian Clowers
Anthony Francisco
Keith Gaddie
Jin Jo Garton
Cody Giles
Susan Greer
Sandy Knudson
Nick Lillard
Jenny McCaleb
Shaun McGinnis
Collin Rose
Chase Spivey
EJ Sweetly
Jason Wells
