Open House / Open Studios

Schedule

Subject to change

1–5 PM: Artist Studio Exploration
> 2nd, 3rd, + 5th Floors
Meet our fall 2026 artists-in-residence + view their works in progress in their live/work studios and throughout Bemis’s installation spaces.

1–5 PM: All-Ages Art Activity
> Okada Sculpture + Ceramics Facility
Experience the magical blend of printmaking and drawing through trace monotypes. Guided by artist Amy Xu, participants will create their own drawing and then place East Asian paper onto a delicately inked plate in order for the pressure from the drawing to transfer through the paper to reveal a unique print underneath.

1–5 PM: Sweet Treat: Hot Cider and Cookies
> LOW END Bar
While supplies last!

1–5 PM: Short Film Screenings
> LOW END
View a variety of video works from our fall 2026 artists-in-residence.

2 PM: Artist Talk with Matt Romein
> LOW END
Artist-in-residence and theater maker Matt Romein will explore how video game technology can merge with narrative theater, sharing excerpts from past performance projects and demoing his newest work, MILKMAN ZERO, a text-adventure video game performed live by the artist.

3 PM: Exhibition Tour: OMA ARTalks
> Galleries
Explore the Benefit Art Auction Exhibition through the perspective of participating artists! Our guest speakers Shawnequa Linder and Todd McCollister will guide you through the more than 300 artworks on view, highlighting their favorite works and notable artists.

4 PM: Live Performance by Miriam Parker
> 3rd Floor
Artist-in-residence Miriam Parker will perform alongside her installation, THE ONE WHO STANDS IN THE CENTER OF THE FIRE. Visitor discretion advised; this performance will contain nudity.

Admission is free; RSVPs are encouraged.

Featured Artist: Shawnequa Linder

Shawnequa Linder is an artist living in Omaha, NE. Linder explores the tension between chaos and order and what it means to stay whole amid that pull. She works in portraiture, landscapes, and figures. Linder uses unconventional tools like business cards, the textured soles of shoes, and other everyday objects to apply paint instead of traditional brushes. Linder earned her Studio Arts degree from Bellevue University in 2006. Her work has been shown at Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, the Museum of Nebraska Art, Gallery 1516, and Fred Simon Gallery.

Featured Artist: Todd McCollister

Todd McCollister works in wood and mixed media here in Omaha, NE. His sculptures address a range of themes from the predicaments of life to more formal ideas like pattern and geometry. He carefully balances colors, forms, and materials, and his compositions are concise. In his Panel Paintings series, various craft traditions create friction against one another. Artworks in his Long Shadow Series are improvisations with complex geometry that shifts and changes as the artist carves compound curves. McCollister shows frequently in Omaha, NE, and his work can be found in lots of private collections in Nebraska and New York. He organizes a monthly event series where Omaha artists can share advice with one another, called "First Tuesdays at Todd's". He earned an MFA in Sculpture from Stony Brook University and a BFA in Sculpture and Photography from Texas Christian University.

Featured Artist: Amy Xu

Fueled by the desire to investigate ideas of home, Amy Xu is a multimedia artist and printmaker who explores themes of displacement and belonging. Born in Guiyang, China and raised in the American Midwest, elements of East Asian art and resistance prints are central influences within her work. Utilizing organic forms and geometric built environments, she arranges compositions to create a quiet tension between the natural and constructed.

Xu will lead the trace monotype printmaking workshop at Open House / Open Studios.