January 2026
We have compiled a list of First Friday participants to allow you to experience the art of downtown! Please remember to follow each individual gallery's in-person policies & be sure to use #LNKFF when you post pictures to share your night!
101 N 14TH ST. |
More details to come
118 N 14TH ST. | 12 PM - 7:30 PM
Join us for an adventure There & Back Again ~ we’re celebrating JRR Tolkien’s Birthday!
12-7:30: Get 20% OFF All Tolkien Books & Gifts!
Including collectors’ editions, all puzzles & games, all new & used Tolkien books, coasters, candles, wax seals, tote bags…anything you can convince us is related to Tolkien!
*Play Tolkien Trivia!
*Enter our FREE Drawing for a Chance to Win a Lord of the Rings Game!
5:30-7:30:
*Hobbit Cupcakes
*Community Party
Ring in the new year with us with light & celebration!
I have found that it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folks that keep the darkness at bay.
Small acts of kindness and love.
~J.R.R. Tolkien
Burkholder Art Studio & Galleries
719 P ST. | 5 PM - 8 PM
Show runs January 2-31
On the Main Floor we are hosting our annual Artists Choosing Artists show, showcasing work from over 20 artists! The Skylight Gallery will host a winter themed group show, and in the Special Exhibit Space is a love letter to Vieques with work by Anne Burkholder.
Main Gallery
‘Artists Choosing Artists’ features work from over 20 artists in the Nebraska Art community. Each artist from our gallery has chosen a guest artist to show along side with.
Outback Gallery
‘Artists Choosing Artists,' continued.
Skylight Gallery
‘Winter Show’ is a group show displaying works from several of our artists in a festive celebration of the winter season.
Special Exhibit Space
‘Vieques’ by Anne Burkholder
50% of all sales will be donated to the Vieques Conservation and Historical Trust
140 N 12TH ST. | 5 PM
More details to come.
119 S. 9TH ST. | 5 PM - 8:30 PM
Curated by Dawn Worthington, this exhibit will include her latest paintings. Working in oil and acrylics, Worthington creates abstract works that evoke emotions and atmosphere by using rich surfaces and deep color.
Other artists featured in this show are: Kevin Bang (metal work), Rachel Brodsky (graphite pencil & ink), Evan Hutchison (photography), Mya Miller (ceramics), Tiffany Sinnott (mixed media), Dave Pierce (silversmithing) and Andy White (acrylic & mixed media). Additionally that night, come hear music by jazz trio The Steamboat Willies.
200 S ANTELOPE VALLEY PARKWAY | 5 PM - 8:30 PM
More details to come.
2055 O ST. | 6 PM - 8 PM
Constellation Studios presents the painted book covers of Turner McGehee, Hastings, Nebraska, and the bound books of painted pages by Ward Schumaker, San Francisco CA.
Schumaker’s expressionistic brush work, and stenciled text creates a “disorienting….discourse” as hymns, quotes, dreamy narrations are legible than obscured with paste, pigment, and scribbled graphite onto pages. McGehee plays with adding value and reclaiming discarded/deaccessioned book covers for his stream-of-conscience painted flow of mysterious figures, stamped patterns, landscape references, and biological-like microworlds.
The artists’ common issue is to embed the book format and material references with free associations and to spark our deep reading.
Turner McGehee was born in Alabama. He has a degree in psychology from Washington and Lee University (BA, 1975) and in printmaking from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro (MFA 1981). He joined the Hastings College art faculty in 1983, where he currently teaches printmaking, drawing and art history.
His work has been exhibited in shows at the Joslyn Art Museum, Sioux City Art Center (SD), Colorado College, the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, and the Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago, IL). He has exhibited solo at the Haydon Gallery (Lincoln, NE), the Museum of Nebraska Art, Louisiana State University and other college and university galleries.
He has presented lectures on the art of the ancient Maya, the relationship between jazz and visual imagery, the psychology of creativity and the evolution of Christian iconography. https://www.hastings.edu/bio/turner-mcgehee/
Ward Schumaker has been interpreting text into visual narrative for most of his working life. Though he started out in fine art over 40 years ago, he evolved into an internationally recognized illustrator for most of his career and is still heavily involved in the business. His illustrational style uses text as an integral part of the drawing to identify his clients and their products.
While in his senior year at Omaha University, a work he made won first prize in the Nebraska Governor's Art Show, but was deemed obscene by a viewer, forcing him to withdraw it under pressure. Consequently, Schumaker moved to San Francisco from Nebraska in 1966.
His exhibition record includes shows in New York, San Francisco, Shanghai, UC Berkeley, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Charleston, Miami, and Nashville. His work can be found in the Achenbach Foundation (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco), The Zimmerli Art Museum (Rutgers); The Joslyn Art Museum (Omaha), and The Crocker Art Museum (Sacramento, CA).
https://ward-schumaker.squarespace.com/
140 N. 8TH ST. | 6 PM - 9 PM
Featured artist Honey B. Frank will be showcased for First Friday at Crescent Moon, with music provided by Tyson A.M. from 7-9pm.
The drinks are as excellent as the art, and the evening is free of charge for all ages.
1100 E O ST. | 5 PM - 9 PM
More details to come.
STADIUM DR. & T ST. | 5 PM - 7 PM
More details to come.
The Eloise Kruger Gallery of Miniatures
RM 831 of Oldfather Hall on UNL City Campus | 3 PM - 6 PM
The Eloise Kruger Collection of Miniature Furnishings and Decorative Arts comprises about 20,000 pieces of 1:12 scale furniture and accessories of historically accurate American, English, French, and Asian designs make up this collection, and about 2,500 pieces are on display. The handmade miniatures were collected and commissioned by Eloise Kruger and made by renowned model artists.
211 N 14TH ST | 6 PM - 9 PM
More details to come.
130 S 13TH ST | 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM
More details to come.
124 S. 9TH ST. | 5 PM - 8:30 PM
It's time for our annual HOLIDAY SHOW! Get one of a kind gifts and support Lincoln artists by shopping locally this holiday season. First Friday Opening Reception Jan 2 (5-8:30pm). On display Dec 3, 2025 - Jan 18, 2026.
1300 P Street | 5 PM - 8:30 PM
More details to come.
1155 Q ST. | 5 PM - 7 PM
On View:
“Wild Great Plains”
Lower-Level Gallery
October 3, 2025-February 21, 2026
Inspired by the Center for Great Plains Studies’ 50th annual conference, “Wild Great Plains,” this exhibition considers the concept of “wild” in art. Drawing from the Great Plains Art Museum’s permanent collection, “Wild Great Plains” explores how artists have connected with and portrayed the wild species and places of the region.
Handspoken Fair Trade (originally Ten Thousand Villages)
140 N. 8th ST. | 6 PM - 8 PM
Join us on Friday, January 2nd for Lincoln's First Friday Art Walks. We will be making coffee filter flowers! Let's start this year out on a fun note!
1208 O ST. | 5 PM - 8 PM
More details to come.
Lincoln Marriott Cornhusker Hotel
333 S. 13th St. | 6 PM - 9 PM
More details to come.
701 P St SUITE 102 | 5 PM - 8 PM
More details to come.
'Frostbite and Fever' - the coldest month, hottest exhibit.
131 CENTENNIAL MALL N | 5 PM - 7 PM
More details to come.
More details to come.
325 S 11th St. | 6 PM - 9 PM
Don’t miss it this Friday!! Some amazing paintings by @v.m_works 🤩
1410 O St. | 7 PM - 10 PM
Check out their website and view all of their different studios for more details.
First Friday Art Exhibition at Parrish Studios and Metro Gallery Nebraska. 7pm to 10pm Friday, January 2nd
More details to come.
Saint Paul United Methodist Church
More details to come.
Sheldon Museum of Art and University Dining Services are collaborating to realize artist Ken Friedman’s 1967 event score “Twenty Gallons: Cook soup for several hundred people.” The soup will be served at the museum and in campus dining centers from 11 AM to 2 PM and from 5 to 7 PM. Free and open to the public.
Participants will be entered to win a framed event score from the exhibition “Ken Friedman: 92 Events.”
About the exhibition “Ken Friedman: 92 Events”
“92 Events” presents works by American-born, Sweden-based Fluxus artist Ken Friedman. The conceptual, action-oriented, language-based works challenge the idea of an artwork as a unique object and as distinctly separate from daily life. The instructional texts are playful—absurd even—and viewers are invited to realize the event scores in their minds or in real life.
“92 Events” was conceived by Ken Friedman and Copenhagen-based art historian Peter van der Meijden and has been presented by institutions around the globe since 2019. The exhibition is on view at Sheldon Museum of Art through January 4, 2026.
10+ local artists and live music!
More details to come.
210 Architecture Hall (HDR Pavilion Lobby) | 5 PM - 7 PM
More details to come.
FIVE DAYS ONLY 12-4 and SATURDAY RECEPTION 5-8! New and never exhibited work from five different portfolios by Michael Farrell explores a wide range of subject matter and techniques. Large format images inspired by 19th century photographs are presented in color, hand-tinted and albumen-toned formats. Women, a few men and couples, and several month’s documentation of a pregnancy are also featured.
Photographs are available for viewing and purchase December 31-January 4, including New Year’s Day or by appointment: text to 402-429-2684
Have an art show in downtown Lincoln you'd like added to our monthly list?
Email Maia at maia@downtownlincoln.org.