BEGINNINGS

In the summer of 2001, Bryon Test, chairman of the OPSU art department, interrupted a staff meeting at KKBS Radio.  Test had always told Marsha Strong: “If I have an idea, you’re the one who’ll follow through and make it happen.”  Test had told how the art department had finally, and during that previous year, outgrown the agriculture department.  This was, in the Test’s word: “an anomaly that should not be ignored.”  What would happen once these artists graduated from an AG school?  Would they move away?  How long would we stand by and let youth retention vanish?   What could an art influence do in our community?  There was, at that time, no outlet for local artists.   Strong shared that the current buzz word in our state was: “incubators.” 

After asking for help from government agencies, months going by, Strong decided to make an incubator- not for profit organization happen herself.  She hired her attorney to first incorporate Artist Incubation as a state non-profit organization, then local accountant Steve Smith to help get an FEI number from the IRS. 

In the fall of 2002, KKBS’ landlord Farm Credit agreed to donate foyer space for an opening, and Artist Incubation was established as an organization.  In the spring of 2002 a building in downtown Guymon was purchased with principles Bryon Test and Marsha Strong signing a mortgage at City National Bank.  A five member board was formed and work on a 501 C3 application had begun.

In the spring of 2003, an additional location for Artist Incubation, called Soaring Eagle Gallery was opened on a consignment agreement at 1106 N. Main in Guymon.  All events took place at both gallery locations for approx. 1.5 years, affording Artist Incubation the kind of exposure needed to create and carry out the mission statement: “To create a new economy and culture based on art, which includes the students at Oklahoma Panhandle State University and other local artists.”