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For Art's Sake

To say that Greater Omaha supports the arts is like saying Warren Buffett has a little money stashed away.

The world’s third-richest man likely would be among the first to tell you that few metropolitan cities offer the support or reap the rewards as do Omaha and its arts and performing arts communities.

From the many displays of public art and sculpture to the private collections of our museums, Omahans are able to appreciate art on a very personal basis. In turn, those who paint, sculpt, make music, sing, act and dance enjoy the support of mentors and patrons who take a genuine interest in promoting the arts.

In Omaha, creativity makes its home not in one isolated area but weaves itself throughout the fabric of the community.

The Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts attracts creative minds from around the world to its residency programs in the heart of the Old Market historic area downtown. The few artists accepted from the hundreds of applicants get a place to live and work, monthly stipends and the freedom to experiment.

Nearby, internationally-acclaimed artist Jun Kaneko crafts his massive ceramic sculptures and paintings in his private warehouse studio, a space where he also designed the visually spectacular sets and costumes for the Opera Omaha production of Madama Butterfly.

“The last 20 years, the art scene in Omaha has changed a great deal,” Kaneko says. “The mixture of international support and the local community creates a very interesting thing. I think Omaha will keep on growing in a very healthy way in contemporary art.”

The Old Market artists’ colony is but one aspect of this city’s ongoing, conscious effort to attract and cultivate artistic creativity. The results extend north several blocks to the innovative Hot Shops Art Center, with its collection of forges, kilns, studios and showrooms.

The Hot Shops is in a complex that formerly housed the Serta Mattress Co. factory. It was purchased in 1999 and converted into artist studios, anchor shops, three galleries and a small café. The center also has an artist residency program.

Public art is proving immensely popular. Sculptures adorn the grounds of Qwest Center Omaha, while the fountains that surround the First National Bank of Omaha’s sculpture garden “Spirit of Nebraska’s Wilderness” reflect a series of 58 bronze and stainless steel Canada geese in flight. Other public art projects include the Monument to Labor at the riverfront walk, Dreamland Plaza in North Omaha, the impressive sculptures of the Cancer Survivors Park in west Omaha and the statue of Martin Luther King Jr. at Civic Center Plaza downtown.

The O! Public Art Project, built around the city’s O! symbol, is sponsored by Alegent Health in partnership with the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, the Bemis Center and Omaha’s O! Campaign. It unites art with an emphasis on health and community spirit to beautify and celebrate the city through the creation of 22 three-dimensional, O! sculptures designed by commissioned area artists.

Nature’s beauty can be appreciated at the Gerald R. Ford birth site and gardens, the rose garden at Memorial Park, the unique flowerbeds at Lauritzen Gardens – Omaha’s Botanical Center and the Sunpu Gate, a gift from Omaha’s sister city, Shizuoka, Japan; the wooded trails of Neale Woods Nature Center and Fontenelle Forest; and in Iowa at the Western Historic Trails Center and Loess Hills Scenic Byways.

Indoors, historic displays complement the marvelous art deco styling of the Durham Western Heritage Museum, while the walls and open spaces of the Joslyn Art Museum feature the works of classic artists and the ominous, 33-foot-tall glass and steel sculpture by Dale Chihuly “Inside & Out.” The Joslyn this spring featured an exhibit of 12 Impressionism masterpieces by painters including Claude Monet, Edgar Degas and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. In North Omaha, Love’s Jazz and Arts Center celebrates the area’s rich musical history. In South Omaha, El Museo Latino is the first Latino art, education and history museum in the Midwest.

The performing arts also enjoy strong community support.

Actors take the stage at the Omaha Community Playhouse – where Henry Fonda took his first bow – America’s largest community theater measured by attendance, staff size and budget. Recent productions include “Give ‘Em Hell, Harry!” and “Ragtime: The Musical,” while the annual production of “A Christmas Carol” is a holiday delight. The playhouse education and outreach department has developed a series of student workshops based on the two productions.

Young and older thespians step into the spotlight at the historic Rose Theater, which draws more than 200,000 children and adults each year into a magical world of stage performances geared toward young people. The Rose is home to the Omaha Theater Company, which features one of the country’s largest national tours.

Sprinkled throughout the city, nearly a dozen traditional and experimental theater groups welcome audiences and aspiring actors of all ages. Accomplished television and film actor John Beasley calls Omaha home – and directs the plays staged at the community theater that bears his name.

In the summer, the stage moves outdoors as Shakespeare on the Green presents two plays free of charge at an open-air theater in Elmwood Park.

Opera lovers take pride in the productions of Opera Omaha. In 1998, Opera Omaha returned to its development of new works with Libby Larsen’s “Eric Hermannson’s Soul,” based on a story by Nebraska author Willa Cather. A new opera, titled “Wakonda’s Dream,” by acclaimed composer Anthony Davis and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and librettist Yusef Komunyakaa, premiered in March.

For dance, the Omaha Theater Ballet professional company, another resident company of the Rose Theater, stages several productions during the season, including “The Nutcracker” at the Orpheum Theater. CHOMARI Ballet Folklorico Mexicano is the resident dance company of El Museo Latino.

The list of famous Omaha musicians includes Chip Davis, the founder and composer of the Grammy-award-winning group, Mannheim Steamroller, which performs here every Christmas season; and Conor Oberst of the indie band, Bright Eyes, one of many indie acts featured on the Saddle Creek Records label. The company’s investment in the community includes a $10 million mixed-use development in the North Downtown area, new buildings that hold apartments, retail shops, offices, the music club Slowdown, and the two-screen Film Streams independent cinema, the Ruth Sokolof Theater.

On Thursday evenings in the summer, Jazz on the Green attracts thousands to the sun-drenched lawn outside the Joslyn Art Museum. The annual Riverfront Jazz and Blues Festival and Playing With Fire blues concerts bring crowds to the Lewis and Clark Landing along the Missouri.

Two family-friendly festivals have become a tradition. The Omaha Summer Arts Festival kicks off summer with three days of music, activities, stage performances and impressive selections of art offered at the nationally recognized Artists’ Market. The best of winter is celebrated during the Holiday Lights Festival. The six weeks of the festival includes ice shows, public skating, a Holiday Market and an ice sculpture display. Thanksgiving evening marks the festival’s official opening ceremony with the lighting of more than a million lights that adorn downtown streets and buildings. The ConAgra Foods Fireworks show tops off the festival.

The Omaha Symphony Orchestra performs at the grand Holland Performing Arts Center. The stately Orpheum Theater, which is celebrating its 80th birthday, hosts Opera Omaha and other productions, including a five-week run of Disney’s “The Lion King” earlier this year. Both facilities are managed by Omaha Performing Arts, a non-profit organization active in education and community enrichment programs that encourage young people and adults to more fully appreciate and participate in the performing arts.

The $94 million Holland Performing Arts Center has been well received since its debut in the fall of 2005. “The breadth and quality of programming, including national and international touring artists as well as local organizations, has been met with impressive attendance and support from the Omaha community and beyond,” says Joan Squires, president of Omaha Performing Arts.

The Holland’s 2,000-seat Peter Kiewit Concert Hall is unequaled in its attention to acoustics. Each of the 7,000 hand-cast plaster tiles on the walls, for example, has a varying series of dimples to carry every note and lyric throughout the room.

Thomas Wilkins, musical director for the symphony, also serves as resident conductor of the Detroit Symphony. “To me, the building of the Holland is the strongest indicator of how Omaha feels about the performing arts and art in general,” he says. “Omahans already had a world-class museum in the Joslyn. Now they’ve built a world-class concert hall for acoustic music. It’s a thrill to perform there.”

And that is music to our ears.