APPLICATION & SELECTION PROCESS

Eligibility Requirements

Applicants must be an Oklahoma resident. In general, applicants for OSAI 2021 must be at least 15 years old by September 1, 2021. (I.e., it is okay if you are 14 during OSAI, but you must turn 15 by September 1, 2021 to apply.)

  • The vast majority of current 9th-12th graders can apply.
  • The earliest most students are eligible to attend OSAI is the summer after their freshman year of high school.
  • Graduating seniors up to age 19 are also eligible.
  • Current freshman who will not be 15 by September 1, 2021 may still be eligible to audition. Please call our office at 405.605.7500 for more information.

How to Apply

To apply for the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute, you must submit an online application and may need to attend a Zoom interview, depending on your artistic discipline(s).
 
1. Learn the basics of OSAI and read the Frequently Asked Questions.
 
Go To FAQs
 
 
2. Read the audition requirements for your artistic discipline(s).
 
Tap or click the following links to review each discipline's audition requirements and guidelines: acting, chorus, creative writing, dance, drawing & painting, film & video, orchestra, photography.
 
 
3. Create an account and complete the online application.
 
If you have applied to OSAI before, you will log into your existing account.
 
To complete your application, you must pay the non-refundable audition fee(s) using our secure online system. The fee is $20 for the first discipline and $15 for each discipline after that. We accept credit cards, debit cards, cash, checks, and purchase orders. (Financial assistance may be available to those who qualify.)
 
 
4. Upload audition materials and (if required) schedule a Zoom interview.
 
All applicants are required to upload audition materials. Video uploads are limited to 1 GB. Image, word document, and PDF uploads are limited to 160 MB.
 
Film & video and photography applicants are required to schedule and participate in an informal Zoom interview to discuss their audition materials. Film & video Zoom interviews will take place on or before Saturday, March 13. Photography Zoom interviews will take place on or before Sunday, March 14.
 
The final deadline to submit audition materials has been extended to Friday, March 19 at noon. Students who are required to participate in a Zoom interview for their audition will need to upload their audition material at least 24 hours before their audition.

Selection Process/Judging Procedures

All applicants, whether accepted, not accepted, or selected as an alternate, will be notified via email in mid-April.

Auditions are judged by professional artists, educators, and members of the Oklahoma Arts Institute Artistic Advisory Panel. At least three judges score each discipline/instrument, and students are selected solely based on those judges’ scores.

All auditions are judged on a statewide basis. Selection is made at the conclusion of statewide auditions based on audition scores, NOT on applicants’ hometowns, or other demographic information.

Auditions for all disciplines are as blind as possible, meaning that judges will not have applicants' names, ages, hometowns, etc. Judges for acting and dance must see the applicants in order to score them, but they will have no other identifying information about the applicants. Chorus and orchestra applicants will upload video auditions, but OAI will extract the audio from those files before sending them to judges, so they will not see applicants when scoring them. Film & video auditions are partially blind, in that the interviewer has information about the applicant, but the judges who score their work do not. Interviewers are not judges. Photography auditions are also partially blind, in that the interviewer will collect certain information about each applicant's photography background and will assign them each a technical knowledge score. The judges who score the photography portfolio submissions will not have access to applicant names, ages, hometowns, etc.

Please keep in mind that OSAI is extremely competitive. Each year, approximately 1,000 students audition for about 270 spots. If you are not accepted this year, please try again next year. Many of our alumni were not accepted the first time they auditioned. Thank you for auditioning and good luck!

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