Oklahoma Arts Institute

The oklahoma fall arts institute (ofai) was established in 1983 in response to requests from educators across the state for continuing education of the same high caliber as osai. Ofai consists of a series of intense, hands-on weekend workshops in the literary, visual, and performing arts for adults. In addition to providing arts instruction for all ability levels, ofai is designed to offer resources for public school educators. Based on participant evaluations, it is estimated that the arts institute indirectly serves over 50,000 elementary, middle school, and high school students through their teachers' participation in ofai. Participants enhance their own artistic and professional skills and broaden their intellectual horizons, providing a wonderful resource for their students by enriching the classroom learning experience. Every year, approximately 300 teachers and community artists attend ofai, including over 275 public school educators from 200 school sites statewide. Expected outcomes of ofai include: 1) participants will enhance their own artistic, intellectual, and professional skills and learn new techniques in their chosen field of study; 2) educators will return to their classrooms eager to share what they have learned with their students and peers, and they will become better educators, arts advocates, and civic leaders within their communities; 3) educators will receive take-home curriculum materials that will help them to integrate new ideas into their daily classroom activities, thus providing additional arts education opportunities for oklahoma's k-12 students at a time in which arts funding in the schools is suffering; 4) public educators will receive professional development credit for participating in ofai. Oai is committed to raising full scholarships for all public school educators who attend ofai.