Kristin Chenoweth returned to Oklahoma for one day. She left with a new title

The day after she returned to New York's iconic Carnegie Hall for the first time since the COVID-19 outbreak, Kristin Chenoweth made a big entrance in another meaningful venue.

Home.

The stage, movie and television star accepted the mantle of Oklahoma Cultural Ambassador Tuesday during the 44th Governor's Arts Awards at the state Capitol.

"I was highly emotional, and I didn't expect it," Chenoweth told The Oklahoman after the ceremony, during which she alternated between laughing and dabbing at tears. "I never get to be at home ... and I'm leaving in the morning to continue to work. But I've loved it. Tonight was very special."

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A Broken Arrow native, Chenoweth, 53, became just the seventh Oklahoman named a state Cultural Ambassador. U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo, 70, of Tulsa, was designated the 14th Oklahoma Cultural Treasure during the ceremony, which honored artists and art supporters from around the state.

"We truly have a really rich history of art here in Oklahoma," Gov. Kevin Stitt said. "The arts, we believe, play such an important role in quality of life and economic development."

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Tuesday's ceremony marked the first Governor's Arts Awards since the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the first since the Oklahoma Arts Council shifted to a biennial, rather than annual, schedule for the event.

"We have learned so much about the arts in our lives and the power of the arts to better the health of our communities and our state. We've learned that the inherent hope that is fundamental to the arts and the important work of our honorees today are indispensable," Oklahoma Arts Council Executive Director Amber Sharples said.

Honorees ranged from Barbara Smith, the driving force behind the restoration of Miami's historic Coleman Theatre, and Dian Jordan, a Broken Bow professor who has preserved the legacy of Oklahoma artist and Andy Warhol mentor Harold Stevenson, to "Dr. Bob" Blackburn, the recently retired longtime executive director of the Oklahoma Historical Society, and Harvey Pratt, the Guthrie-based Cheyenne-Arapaho artist who designed the new National Native American Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

"Seeing everybody else who I know are the unsung, that's what really made me emotional ... and then Madam Poet Laureate really brought me there, too," Chenoweth told The Oklahoman.

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Harjo honored as Cultural Treasure

The first Native American to serve as U.S. Poet Laureate, Harjo, a Muscogee Nation citizen, recently started a rare third term as the nation's official poet and gains a rare status as the new state Cultural Treasure.

"I mean, what do you say to that? It's a lot of responsibility. I'm very thrilled. My story is essentially linked with the story of Oklahoma ... Oklahoma was only 44 years old when I was born; we have grown together," said Harjo, a native Tulsan whose family's presence in the state goes back six generations.

"Being named as an Oklahoma Cultural Treasure is one of the highest honors that can be bestowed upon an Oklahoma citizen in the arts. I accept this honor with gratitude to all those in my path who encouraged and challenged me. I accept it on behalf of those who came before me and kept walking despite hardship and heartbreak."

The first Oklahoman to receive the designation since 2018 honoree Wanda Jackson — who attended Tuesday's ceremony — Harjo joins the ranks of Te Ata, Ed Ruscha and the Native American ballerinas dubbed the "Five Moons."

"When I grew up in Oklahoma, it was the arts that fed me. ... I left home as a teenager to attend the Institute of American Indian Arts," Harjo said. "I returned home after graduating and touring as a member of one of the first all-Native drama and dance troupes to a rough life as a teenage mother with a young son in the Cherokee Nation in Tahlequah. I was viewed as a failure, a statistic, yet I knew I was carrying something larger than me, something I would have to find a way to tend, even if it appeared impossible."

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Chenoweth joins the ranks of James Garner and Alfre Woodard

The poet laureate finished her inspiring speech Tuesday with a poem from her new memoir "Poet Warrior," and Chenoweth praised Harjo for her poem "The Last Song" in her uproarious comments.

"'Oklahoma will be the last song I’ll ever sing' is exactly what I feel. You know, 'roses are red, violets are blue, you're a genius, I'm not,' OK?" Chenoweth said with a self-deprecating grin.

"The arts ... they have the power to change lives. I was a little, tiny — still am — girl from Broken Arrow, and I didn't really fit into a lot of things. My voice sounded funny, but the one place that I felt at home was on stage — which is why I'm in therapy. But I do love it there."

The first Oklahoman to be designated a state Cultural Ambassador since opera soprano Leona Mitchell in 2003, Chenoweth shared the front row at the ceremony with her new fiance, Josh Bryant; parents, Junie and Jerry Chenoweth; and friend, Jack Wallace, along with Harjo and her husband, Owen Sapulpa.

"Given the number of years it has been since our last designation, it was essential for us to consider an individual who truly personifies the genuine passion and pride Oklahomans have for their home state. As someone whose love for Oklahoma is as omnipresent as she is, Kristin Chenoweth is deserving," Sharples said before presenting her the honor for native Oklahomans who have achieved national and international acclaim in the arts.

The famously busy Tony- and Emmy-winning performer joins actors Alfre Woodard and James Garner, Native American visual artists Allan Houser and W. Richard West and opera baritone Stephen Dickson as previous state Cultural Ambassadors.

Fittingly, Chenoweth marked the moment by singing a few lines from "For Good," her signature song from the musical "Wicked."

"'Who can say if I've been changed for the better? But because I knew you, I have been changed for good,'" she sang. "For good. That's art, that's life, for me."

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Kristin Chenoweth takes on new role as Oklahoma Cultural Ambassador