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Arts and Attractions

When it comes to arts and attractions, variety is more than the spice of life, it’s the way of life in Greater Omaha.

The city and the region are recognized as fertile ground for artists, musicians and creativity in all forms. We’re making headlines, from The New York Times (Travel, March 25, 2007) and United Airlines’ Hemispheres magazine (May 2006) to Money magazine, which rated Omaha No. 7 on its 2006 list of the “Best Big Cities.”

The downtown and riverfront areas are alive with condominium, loft apartment and townhome projects, as well as some of the best places to eat in a city that boasts more than 1,500 restaurants. A bustling Midtown Omaha, the historic neighborhoods of North Omaha, Benson, Florence and Dundee; and the spice added by a vibrant Latino community in South Omaha are adding to the menu of living, entertainment and dining options.

The Old Market historic area has a thriving artists’ community. Internationally-known artist and sculptor Jun Kaneko has a massive studio here and is planning a $22 million, non-profit “center for creativity” he hopes will attract artists, poets, philosophers and scientists. Each year, hundreds of artists from around the world submit their work and ideas to the highly-regarded residency program of the nearby Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts – and fewer than three dozen are chosen.

The Omaha Symphony, under the musical direction of Thomas Wilkins, who also serves as resident conductor of the Detroit Symphony, enjoys the stunning acoustics of the Holland Performing Arts Center. According to a recent Omaha World-Herald article, Wilkins and his family are also enjoying a new home. They decided to switch their primary residence from Detroit to Omaha. It was Omaha’s quality of life that drove the decision.

A short stroll from the Holland, big-name acts including The Rolling Stones, Justin Timberlake, Kenny Chesney, Billy Joel and U2 play before packed audiences at Qwest Center Omaha, which ranks among the top twenty venues in the world for ticket sales. The renewed Orpheum Theater sets the stage for Opera Omaha, which has presented seven world premier productions, including this year’s “Wakonda’s Dream.”

Independence is more than a concept here. The Omaha Community Playhouse leads a star-studded roster of imaginative community theater venues. Independent films have found a home in the two-screen Film Streams cinema, the Ruth Sokolof Theater, part of the Saddle Creek Records project in the North Downtown mixed-use development near Creighton University. Saddle Creek is the label of choice for “indie” artists Conor Oberst and Bright Eyes, the Faint, Cursive and Azure Ray, bands whose members live and play here. Sokol Hall, the Sokol Underground and local taverns are where many of the next wave of talented indie musicians start rocking the walls.

In the summertime, free outdoor events include the annual Playing With Fire music series at Lewis and Clark Landing along the Missouri River. Jazz on the Green draws quite a crowd to the Joslyn Art Museum lawn on Thursday evenings. In May, the Cinco de Mayo parade fills the streets in South Omaha, while in late September, the River City Roundup Heritage Parade ropes ‘em in downtown.

Sports fans are guaranteed to jam the city each June for the NCAA Men’s College World Series at Rosenblatt Stadium, the Cox Classic each summer at Champions Run Golf Club, and the coming NCAA championship contests and U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials set for Qwest Center Omaha in 2008.

Longtime attractions like Girls and Boys Town, the Omaha Children’s Museum, the Strategic Air and Space Museum and world-renowned Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo draw crowds, as do the collections of the Joslyn and the Durham Western Heritage museums, whose buildings themselves are works of art.

Still not enough? We’ve got rivers and lakes, parks and playgrounds, summertime farmers’ markets and arts festivals, pumpkin patches in the fall, holiday lights and every retail store imaginable at spacious indoor and innovative open-air shopping centers.

Greater Omaha. It isn’t just one thing that sets us apart.

It’s everything.

Saddle Creek Records Invests for Future

Jason Kulbel, 33
Label Manager
Saddle Creek Records

Saddle Creek Records is one of the most widely-recognized and respected recording labels for today’s independent “indie” musicians including Omahan Conor Oberst and his band Bright Eyes, The Faint, Cursive and Broken Spindles.

In 2006, Bright Eyes won Song of the Year for “When the President Talks to God” and Artist of the Year at the PLUG Independent Music Awards in New York.

Named for an Omaha street and one-time actual creek, Saddle Creek Records is one of the first tenants in the new North Downtown development, with a $10 million investment that includes the company’s offices and its 10,000-square-foot “Slowdown” rock bar, which opened in June.

A second building holds retail space and apartments. That’s where Label Manager Jason Kulbel plans to live. “I checked in about mid-May and will probably check out in a decade,” he says.

Kulbel grew up in Sioux Falls, S.D., and earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1996. At the time, he was running a Blockbuster music store in Lincoln. That’s where he met Robb Nansel, who co-founded Lumberjack Records, today known as Saddle Creek Records.

When the Lincoln music store closed, Kulbel moved to Omaha – and turned his friendship with Nansel into a job with the recording label.

He says he stays in Omaha because, well, it’s comfortable here.

“I was in San Francisco last week and I must have been asked that same question five times,” Kulbel says. “Omaha is an ideal place for us to run our business. The bands are here, we’re all here and we’re comfortable here.”

He admits it can take some convincing to get others to consider Omaha. “More than anything else, I’d like to make that task easier. That’s why we’re building something appealing.”

Kulbel says the city provides an ideal environment for musicians and artists.

“It does take a certain kind of person to live here because of the slower pace. It isn’t in your face 24 hours a day like some cities. But as far as a place to be creative, if you’ve got that in you, Omaha is a good place to get it done. It can thrive here if you let it.

“You just need to get here and experience it for yourself.”