Late silver screen legend Katharine Hepburn once reportedly reminisced, “What you see before you, my friend, is the result of a lifetime of chocolate.” Well, February 1 at the National Center of Employee Development (NCED), Norman’s Firehouse Art Center produces the chocolate feast of a lifetime.
The 32nd Annual Chocolate Festival is almost here and 21 of Oklahoma’s tastiest vendors, including La Baguette and Legend’s, will be on-site to offer patrons a diverse assortment of chocolate delights. In recent years the event has accommodated up to an estimated 5,000 people and has even been mentioned by the Food Network, Bon Appetit and Southern Living magazines.
NCED’s doors open at 10:30 a.m. and the event starts by offering hungry sponsors a full hour of sampling. Five half-hour sessions providing ticketholders with 10 samples apiece will follow.
The Firehouse Arts Center is an award-winning non-profit organization that annually educates more than one-thousand people of all ages around the greater Norman community in visual arts. Whether it be the children’s murals at Lions Park or the rubber duck statues on local playgrounds, chances are you’ve seen the Firehouse’s impact if you’ve been in Norman recently.
When Operations Assistant Alexis Rodgers was asked what the link between visual arts and chocolate is, she thought for a moment and then responded, “Who doesn’t love chocolate?” The Chocolate Festival is the Arts Center’s only annual fundraiser and tickets are on sale now.
The Oklahoma History Center opens an African-American Exhibit entitled “Realizing the Dream” Saturday, February 1st at 6 p.m.
The grand opening will be celebrated with dancing and live music and a rendition of the historic radio play “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” by the Loving St. James Baptist Church Praise Team. Following the play, the All-Funk Radio Show offers two hours of live R&B.
For more live music, associate professor of flute Emily Butterfield at the University of Central Oklahoma School of Musicperforms live, at 7:30 p.m. on February 4 in the UCO Jazz Lab.
Butterfield’s performance is a part of the Faculty Artist Concert Series, a yearlong performance series that highlights the talents of Central music faculty members. All performances take place on Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. in the UCO Jazz Lab. Proceeds support scholarships and the UCO School of Music.
“With my concert being in February this year, I decided to choose music that inspires love, romance and imagination,” Butterfield said in a January press release.
For more ways to fill the 168 hours of your week, visit the calendar page.
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