OUTART cancelled

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(Posted 2-7-01)

PRESS RELEASE

From: The Gay and Lesbian Arts Festival of Oklahoma
Date: February 1, 2001

OUTART board announced it has canceled plans for the festival in October 2001.

At the end of the year board meeting, the OUTART board decided to cancel all future plans for the film and arts festival due to lack of interest and support from the gay and lesbian community. A spokesperson said “the number of people supporting OUTART this year was lower than last year even though there were more events to enjoy and it was spread out over more days. We feel the community sent a clear message that this is not the type of activity they want to participate in. Those that did attend the art, films, theater and music had nothing but rave reviews for what they saw. However due to the high cost of putting on such a festival it is not viable to stage the event for a few enthusiasts.”

The biggest disappointment was the lack of moviegoers. The puzzle for organizers was the fact that two movies were premiers and attracted only a handful of people. These movies have since played to sold out crowds at other gay and lesbian film festivals. “We can now understand why film distributors are reluctant to bring gay and lesbian theme movies to the Oklahoma City area,” the spokesperson said.

The board wishes to extend a large thank you to the press and business community that turned out in force to support the festival. We can’t believe how supportive the straight community has been. Having been warned how homophobic Oklahoma is, it was a pleasant surprise to find small business, theaters, the art community and individuals excited and wanting to help make the festival a success. The Daily Oklahoman did the largest coverage of any gay and lesbian event both years and in several editions. Publicity for the event both years was exceptional The Gayly did large a spread in several issues and the Gazette always ran a feature article. Two news channels also covered the event. There was also publicity on various web sites including GayOKC.com. “Everyone was talking about the event therefore publicity was not the issue, in fact the OUTART web site was taking a huge amount of hits before the event”, according to a board member. With the event costing more than $14,000 in 2000 it was just not feasible to continue running at a loss. A donation of $3,900 from an individual and $1000 from the Cimarron Alliance Foundation allowed the weekend to break even. The only profitable part of the festival was the Theater which made a little money to offset other losses.

Due to the fact that the OUTART festival will not be produced in the future the board voted to disband and cancel it’s website, email, mailing address and phone line, only the registered name will be held. Board members ended the meeting on a high note with several saying it was a triumph in the way they had been able to work together in harmony and achieve an event both they and their sponsors could be proud of.

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