“The Bemis [Center] is a remarkable place. I haven’t seen anything like it in this country, and I have been to over one hundred communities. I suggest you get down there, because it’s a very special place in the United States today.”
-Jane Alexander, Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts, 1993–1997
Exhibition Program
The Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts is dedicated to providing the community with the absolute best in contemporary art. We host regularly scheduled exhibitions, and each gallery space occupies an impressive 2,500 square feet. The Graham Slam Gallery exhibits contemporary art donated to the Bemis Center over the past quarter of a century through its internationally-renowned Artist-in-Residency program. One of the few requirements for a residency is that artists donate one piece of artwork created during their time at the Bemis Center. For this reason, the Graham Slam Gallery offers the community the opportunity to experience significant works created by some of today’s most talented contemporary artists. Gallery 2 brings group and solo exhibitions of regional, national and international significance to the local community, while Gallery 3 showcases works created by former Bemis Center residents as well as those by community artists in solo or small group exhibitions. All our exhibitions are free and open to the public.
ArtTalks, Gallery Talks & Open Studios
Our Artists-in-Residence are happy to share their art as well as their creative perspectives with the community. The first Thursday of every month, the community can attend hour-long ArtTalks given by current artists-in-residence. These casual lectures provide the perfect format for learning about contemporary art and the various techniques employed in creating works across the artistic spectrum. Our Gallery Talks provide in-depth tours through current exhibitions and allow the artists on view to comment on and reflect upon their own exhibitions. The community can experience an even more in-depth perspective by attending our Open Studios, offered several times a year. During Open Studios, visitors are encouraged to engage the artists in discussions regarding their art, and this event allows for more intimate interactions between the community and our Artists-in-Residence. Special programs such as Slide Jam also provide local artists with the opportunity to showcase their work to the community in a fun and wildly popular format. All these events give the community a window into what is occurring in the contemporary arts world right now, and they are all free and open to the public.
The bemisUNDERGROUND
The BemisUNDERGROUND is an innovative curatorial residency program that provides community-based artists with the rare opportunity to curate exhibitions of their own design. The 3,000-square-foot gallery space is ideally suited to the presentation of experimental and cutting-edge contemporary art that includes -but is by no means limited to - visual, audio and performance art.
UNDERGROUND exhibitions run for five weeks, and curators receive a stipend to execute their projects as well as administrative mentoring and assistance in promoting their shows. The BemisUNDERGROUND program is unique not just to Omaha and to the Midwest, but to the entire country and serves as a model for engaging local artists with their communities. A jury of art professionals chooses a new group of six curators each spring, and the next deadline for 2008 curatorial applications is June 24, 5:00 p.m.
The BemisUNDERGROUND is a non-profit 501 (c) (3) organization.
Art 4 Omaha
The Bemis Center also brings contemporary art directly to public spaces through our ambitious Art for Omaha projects. In its first two phases, Art 4 Omaha created public art for Qwest Center Omaha. Project 1 produced six original, medium-size outdoor sculptures, while Project 2 resulted in “Omaha’s Cultural Quilt,” a giant 40-foot-wide by seventy-five-foot-tall fabric banner featuring image “tiles” created by school, community and neighborhood groups.
Art 4 Omaha Project 3, the Bancroft Elementary Banner Series, was a five-part project taking place throughout the 2005–2006 school year. Bancroft Elementary School students created the artwork featured on project sponsor Bill Seidler, Jr.'s community visual arts facility, located on the corner of 10th & Bancroft Streets. The middle-school students created themed art work that touches on their community, such as banners celebrating zoo animals, the College World Series and Cinco de Mayo.
Art 4 Omaha Project 4, “Together Everyone Achieves More” (TEAM) was a community-wide, collaborative partnership with area high schools, area artists and public library branches. TEAM guided young people through a step-by-step process on how to develop an extensive civic art project that resulted in the fabrication and installation of eleven exceptional artworks for display at each of the ten Omaha Public Library branches and the Council Bluffs Public Library. As a true public arts project, TEAM empowered young adults to become community leaders by teaching them to identify their natural talents and by showing them how their individual contributions to their groups yielded greater results than what they could accomplish on their own. TEAM taught participants to collaborate so they could grow and work together, find their identity and achieve a sense of responsibility to themselves and the world in which they live.
“Discover Omaha: Mapping Our Cultural Landscape” Art 4 Omaha Project 5 will create a kaleidoscope of creative images that celebrate Omaha and its diverse communities. Sixteen local community groups will photograph the people and places throughout the city that make Omaha a wonderful and dynamic place to live, work and play. Participants will focus on capturing a wide-range of community images including Omaha’s geography, culture and architecture. Through taking photographs of ordinary days as well as special events, gatherings and celebrations, participants will share their individual perspectives on how they see and experience Omaha. These photos will therefore provide a way for visitors, residents and participants alike to “Discover Omaha” through varied viewpoints that showcase Omaha’s diversity.
The Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts is Omaha’s own contemporary arts center. We work to bring the community the very best in local, national and international contemporary art and to involve the community in the very exciting world of contemporary art. Come to the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts today and experience all that we have to offer.
For additional information on the Bemis Center's programs and sponsorship opportunities, please contact Mark Masuoka, Executive Director, at 402.341.7130 ext. 11, or director@bemiscenter.org.
