Tickets are on sale now for the Firehouse Art Center’s 28th Annual Chocolate Festival. The event will take place on January 30, 2010 from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at The Forum Building at the University of Oklahoma, located at 1704 Asp Avenue (at Asp and Timberdell).

Tickets are available by calling the Firehouse Art Center at 329-4523 or online at www.normanfirehouse.com. Tickets can also be ordered in person at the Firehouse Art Center, 444 S. Flood in Norman, and will be mailed prior to the event, and also at the door.

“We want to make sure people get their tickets early this year. Since the event is moved up one week from last year, we don’t want anyone to forget to buy their tickets, thinking they have extra time,” said Carla Chew, Operations Coordinator.

There will be chocolate tasting sessions at 11:30 a.m., noon, 12:30 p.m., 1 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. Tickets are $18 for members of the Firehouse Art Center and $20 for non-members, and include 10 chocolate samples. A premiere, one-hour tasting session will be from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., and includes 15 chocolate samples, a container to take home leftovers and a complimentary drink. Premiere tickets are $27 for members and $30 for non-members.

“If you want to get Premiere tickets, you need to hurry, because those always sell out fast,” said Chew.

This popular event features approximately 40 chocolate vendors each year, and is the primary fundraiser for the Firehouse Art Center. The Chocolate Festival typically draws a crowd of around 3,000 each year. The Firehouse Art Center’s Chocolate Festival was ranked third among food festivals in the United States by the Food Network, has been featured in Southern Living Magazine, and won this year’s Frontier Country Grand Award for Outstanding Food Festival in Central Oklahoma.

The Chocolate Festival will provide free child-friendly activities that promote art education. Firehouse instructors will be on-hand to give live demonstrations of the types of art education one could expect to receive at the Firehouse Art Center. For the third year, children will again be encouraged to create a Children’s Art Wall, which will be displayed in Lions Park, just north of the Firehouse Art Center. Children judged to have created the best painted panel on the art wall will receive scholarships to the Firehouse Art Center’s after school art program.

“The Firehouse Art Center is committed to making sure that children have access to classes in the visual arts,” said Douglas Shaw Elder, Executive Director.

Memberships to the Firehouse Art Center are available by calling 329-4523. The Firehouse Art Center is funded in part by select grants from the Oklahoma Art Council, Norman Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, and the City of Norman Parks and Recreation Department, as well as a corporate sponsorship from Republic Bank and Trust. However, a significant amount of the annual income comes from FAC memberships and revenue from the Chocolate Festival.

All proceeds of the 28th Annual Firehouse Art Center’s Chocolate Festival will help support visual arts education, exhibits and programs offered by the Firehouse Art Center. For additional information on the Chocolate Festival, contact Carla Chew at the Firehouse Art Center at 329-4523 or visit www.normanfirehouse.com.

ABOUT THE NORMAN FIREHOUSE ART CENTER – The Norman Firehouse Art Center, Inc. is a non-profit organization that serves Norman and surrounding communities by offering visual art classes for students of all ages, as well as gallery exhibitions of the highest quality.