THE UNION FOR CONTEMPORARY ART

The Union's Exhibition program is dedicated to providing a venue for emerging, underrepresented, and socially-conscious artists to engage directly with the public.

The Wanda D. Ewing Gallery is dedicated to the Omaha artist and educator who passed away in 2013. Ewing’s work ranged from traditional print media to painting, sculpture, and fiber arts, and was influenced by folk-art aesthetics and the depiction—and lack thereof—of African-American women in popular culture and the canon of art history. Throughout her career, she represented the connections between autobiography, community, and history, often with a biting, comical edge.

Born and raised in Omaha and educated around the United States, both the artist and her work traveled around the globe: she felt strongly about the fact that where one has been in the past—literally and figuratively—affects how one proceeds in the future. This often led her to historical representations of women in popular and folk expressions, such as pin-ups, beauty advertisements, “Mammy” dolls, and “exotic” figurines, all of which promote sometimes powerful, sometimes problematic ideals of womanhood into which she often projected herself. In sometimes-humorous, sometimes-serious appropriations of works by white, male artists from Western art history she similarly, meaningfully recast the figures in ethnic and gendered configurations that require viewers to rethink the originals. In so doing, Ewing encouraged dialogue around questions of who is allowed to make, see, and be seen in visual culture, and whether the arts look like the communities we live in, challenging her audiences to believe in the transformative power of art to conjure images where people might be themselves wherever they can see themselves.

The Union Co-Op is comprised of communal studios outfitted with equipment which the majority of our city’s artists previously had no access to. Artists in the greater Omaha area can now access this equipment by becoming Co-Op members. The funds raised through membership fees are put right back into the studios, helping us maintain the equipment and purchase supplies. Artists wishing to learn how to expand their creative practice have an opportunity to attend regularly scheduled artist-led workshops that will provide an overview of how to use the equipment in the studios.

Art is a pathway to finding individual voice, which in turn can empower youth to be agents for change in their personal lives and communities. The Union provides North Omaha youth with access to creative experiences—ranging from visual and performing arts to urban agriculture and cooking—that instills them with valuable life skills. Our youth programs help lay the foundation for self-directed discovery and lifelong learning.

In our programs, we:

+ Engage youth in multidisciplinary, hands-on, and project-based curricula
+ Utilize teaching methodologies that privilege youth voices in the making of meaning and knowledge
+ Assist youth in establishing short- and long-term relationships with artists, educators, or mentors
+ Offer holistic learning experiences that simultaneously address a child’s creative, physical, emotional, relational, and intellectual well-being
+ Encourage active civic engagement and community leadership
+ Create a safe environment for youth to engage the arts and each other

The Union's Performing Arts program is dedicated to the development and continued support of professional theater artists, and professional thought provoking productions that reflect authentic and diverse narratives about African American experiences.

Central to the program is the Performing Arts Collective (PAC), a theatre ensemble dedicated to exploring the diversity of Blacks experiences in contemporary theater. Invested in the creative growth of local artists, The Union provides a home for the ensemble to work on their craft and tell their story.

As part of The Union’s commitment to assist with the revitalization of the North Omaha community, we launched our Abundance Garden project in 2013, providing fresh fruits and vegetables to our neighbors. Our facility is located within the boundaries of one of Nebraska’s most populous food deserts. Simply put, a food desert is a low-income census tract where a substantial number of residents lack easy access to a grocery store. Furthermore, according to data from the Omaha Community Foundation’s Landscape Omaha project, 35% of Northeast Omaha residents worry that their food may run out before they can afford to purchase more.
Lacking access to nutrient-rich foods, our neighbors are more likely to become overweight or obese and have a greater risk of developing chronic illness.

In May of 2018, The Union broke ground on the next phase of the Abundance Garden project, located in a 6,300 square foot lot adjacent to the Blue Lion.

Designed by The Union’s Garden Fellow, Andrew Tatreau, and funded by The Peter Kiewit Foundation, the new Abundance Garden will contain 960 square feet of raised garden beds, a geodesic dome greenhouse for seedlings and off-season growing, composting facilities, a performance space, and an outdoor classroom used for community events and The Union’s youth engagement programs.

The garden will include a wide variety of crops, from okra and ground cherries to several varieties of heirloom tomatoes, beans, peppers and melons. We will also be collaborating with the community’s refugee populations to start a dye garden where yields can be used to create natural dyes for fabric and weaving. The new garden also allows for space to plant a small orchard.

Produce grown in The Abundance Garden will be made available free of charge, to North Omaha residents and distributed with the help of local food banks, helping individuals and families meet this vital basic need.The Union previously implemented a CSA program for residents living in the Fair Deal Village Senior Apartments, providing them with fresh produce delivered to their door each week, and plans to re-launch this program as produce becomes available.

Beyond providing a much-needed source of fresh produce, the Garden will provide a beautiful, outdoor community space, as well as food growing resources (seed library, tools & workshops) for individuals who want to plant their own gardens.