October 2025
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. | 6:30 PM
More details to come.
118 N 14TH ST. | 12 PM - 7:30 PM
elebrate the Freedom to Read with us on October’s First Friday!
All day, you can come in to play Banned Books Trivia,
get a FREE “I’m with the Banned” Vinyl Sticker with your purchase –
and Enter our Drawing.
Ten (10!) lucky winners will each receive an “I’m with the Banned” mug!
“I’m with the Banned” artwork is by our very own Izzy Sheesley, who made
Cricket & Charlie look like especially cool cats!
Join us 5:30pm-7:30pm for treats & community fun before you head upstairs
to Parrish Studios on your First Friday Art Walk.
Access to a wide range of ideas, stories and points of view is essential for personal growth and the development of critical thinking skills. Many current bans target books written by or featuring LGBTQ+ individuals and people of color. This censorship, suppressing ideas and information, is at odds with the fundamental principles of free speech.
School libraries are at the center of the current conflict – although there are also efforts to ban books in public, university, and institutional libraries. Although parents have a right to guide their own children’s reading, they do not have the right to decide what books/ideas are available to other people’s kids or the general public. For the most recent data on book banning, please visit: American Library Association
Burkholder Art Studio & Galleries
719 P ST. | 5 PM - 8 PM
October 3-31
Join us for our newest shows, including Tim Timken in the Main Gallery, Karen Krull Robart in the Outback Gallery, and Y. Suzanne Ócsai will be on display in the Skylight Gallery.
Main Gallery
‘Water & Rocks’ by Tim Timken
Paintings in this show demonstrate my ongoing love of moving water —
over and around rocks. There are several waterfalls, both large and small.
Outback Gallery
‘Goddesses and Legends’ by Karen Krull Robart
This is a celebration of women. Native American legends, Goddesses of sea and sky, and deities of woodlands and oases. They are powerful, protectors, and providers.
Skylight Gallery
‘Un Momento’ by Y. Suzanne Ócsai
This collection of photographs explores my life in transition from one location to another through three independent bodies of work. One set of photographs taken in Chicago, walking to and riding the Brown Line; one taken out the cab window of a U-Haul truck driving through Iowa; and one taken while on walks through the city of Lincoln. I wanted to be intentional about capturing scenes as I passed them by. These are scenes that, barring the blazing truck, I might not have paused to remember or given a second glance.
Special Exhibit Space
Group collection from September artists: Susan Hart, Dale Minter, Sharon Ohmberger, and Janette Amberg.
140 N 12TH ST. | 5 PM
Local artist Jenna Brisco will create live art during the event. Explore her vibrant collection, which is available for purchase and on display throughout the month of October.
Friday Drink Special: $3 Fireball shots — it’s Fireball Friday!
Complimentary snacks provided.
All artwork will remain on display and for sale through October.
Bring your friends, grab a drink, and experience a night of creativity, community, and fun!
Follow Jenna Brisco at @BriscoArt on Facebook and Instagram to see more of her work ahead of the event.
119 S. 9TH ST. | 5 PM - 8:30 PM
October Focus Gallery curated by Anji Stillwell
Six guest artists join Clements Noyes Art Gallery artist and curator Angi Stilwell for this show. Live music by Lorraine Newby; treats by The Rabbit Hole Bakery.
2055 O ST. | 6 PM - 8 PM
August 26 - October 25
Pass the Tree-line
Prints by Keith Buswell
Keith Buswell is a Lincoln artist who creates intricate and mysterious etchings of trees – the roots, branches, deformities, knots, growths, and all. His fascination is based on the graphic etching lines drawn as an interconnected system of branches and root structures as a metaphor for lineage, connections, chance intersections and stages of life. He has generated such a variety of tree images that his work creates a taxonomy of inventive, visionary obsessions with this significant life force. This is the show to put his tree prints all together and for us to all “take a look”, as he is ready to create new work soon, is directions that “Pass the Tree-line”.
Keith is originally from Council Bluffs and attended University of Nebraska Lincoln earning his BFA degree in printmaking. He has shown extensively in regional art and craft festivals regularly winning awards for his work; his shows include the Lincoln Summer Art Festival, Omaha Arts Festival, Sioux City, Iowa, Printers Row Art Festival Chicago, Minnehaha Falls Art Fair, Minneapolis. He is a 2025 recipient of the Lincoln Arts Award for Artistic Achievement in Visual Arts. He also attended residencies at The Kimmel Harding Nelson Center in Nebraska City, Pyramid Atlantic Art Center in Hyattsville, Maryland, Zootown Arts Community Center in Missoula, Montana, and the Chicken Coup Artist Residency in rural Nebraska. Keith is also a member of the Society of American Graphic Artists since 2023. He is the new owner of Gomez Art Supply Store, in Lincoln, and a member of Constellation Studios where he prints his etchings.
140 N. 8TH ST. | 7 PM - 9 PM
More details to come.
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.
130 S 13TH ST | 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM
Visiting Writers - Teo Shannon, Saddiq Dzukogi, and Alina Nguyen
Read more here.
124 S. 9TH ST. | 5 PM - 9 PM
October 1 - November 2
Join us in October for LAYERS OF INTENTION with watercolor by Valerie Knobel, ceramics by Pam Young, and mixed media by Jan Garvin.
1300 P Street | 5 PM - 8:30 PM
Meet local artists & makers, support small businesses, enjoy hand-baked goods, with live music by Micah Leamer.
1155 Q ST. | 5 PM - 7 PM
The Great Plains Art Museum is open late on First Friday, Oct. 3, 5-7 p.m. with three exhibitions and light refreshments. Visit the lower-level education studio to make your own Great Plains art button.
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.
“Reflections of Our People, Our Ways, Our Land”
First-Floor Galleries
September 5–December 20, 2025
Twenty-five Otoe-Missouria artists, ranging from traditional to contemporary and working in any medium, were selected to co-create an art exhibition reflecting on healing, reconciliation, and reconnecting to the land. "Reflections of Our People" is a key part of the new Mellon-funded initiative “Walking in the Footsteps of our Ancestors: Re-Indigenizing Southeast Nebraska.” The initiative, a partnership between the Otoe-Missouria Tribe of Oklahoma and the Center for Great Plains Studies, aims to promote healing and reconciliation in our region by reconnecting the Otoe-Missouria Tribe to one of their homelands in southeast Nebraska and educating non-Native people about the history and ongoing presence of the Otoe-Missouria and other Indigenous peoples in our region.
This will be the first exhibition to center Otoe-Missouria artists and their creative work. Jessica Moore Harjo, Ph.D. (Otoe-Missouria/Osage/Pawnee), is the curatorial director for this exhibition.
“Big Blue Reservation: Struggles and Hope of the Otoe-Missouria Tribe”
September 5–December 20, 2025
Mezzanine Gallery
One hundred seventy years ago, the Treaty of 1854 was passed by Congress, authorizing the move of the Otoe-Missouria Tribe to the Big Blue Reservation in Gage County, Nebraska. The Tribe watched as acre by acre of their land was sold off by the government and treaties were broken. In 1881, the Tribe was moved from this reservation to Red Rock, Oklahoma.
The Gage County Historical Society, along with the Otoe-Missouria Tribe, arranged a summer exhibit in 2024 to educate the public about this important part of American history. The Otoe-Missouria Tribe once called Southeast Nebraska home. Through the displacement of the people during the 1800s, they lost sacred traditions. This exhibit includes their voices of how that loss affected them into the present.
The Tribe and the Society wanted this exhibit to travel to other institutions to provide a cultural history of Nebraska, utilizing the Tribe’s perspective. As a result of this hard work, the Gage County Historical Society’s traveling exhibit will open in the Great Plains Art Museum’s mezzanine gallery on Sept. 5, 2025. This exhibit is on view in conjunction with “Reflections of Our People, Our Ways, Our Land.”
1208 O ST. | 5 PM - 8 PM
Join us for October First Friday, happening this Friday, October 3rd, from 5–8 PM! Stop by and view "Field Studies to Paintings: 50 Years of Keith Jacobshagen," which spans two gallery floors, and enjoy a cash bar while you browse.
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.
More details to come.
131 CENTENNIAL MALL N | 5 PM - 7 PM
More details to come.
More details to come.
325 S 11th St. | 6 PM - 8 PM
Mark your calendars!! Super excited for @loop.and.swoop ‘s art show 🤗 if you’ve been looking for an amazing crocheted cardigan this is the show for you! They would also be an amazing Christmas gift 😜
1410 O St. | 7 PM - 10:30 PM
Check out their website and view all of their different studios for more details.
More details to come.
Saint Paul United Methodist Church
More details to come.
Sheldon Museum of Art stays open until 7 PM on the first Friday of the month. Explore the exhibitions through a drop-in tour at 5:30 PM and sketching in the galleries throughout the evening. First Friday at Sheldon is the perfect opportunity to connect with art and each other. This event is free and open to everyone.
140 N 8TH ST | 6 PM - 8 PM
More details to come.
"In the Wake of Ourselves" featuring Lydia Nong opens First Friday, October 3rd from 7-10 with DJ ol' moanin'.
210 Architecture Hall (HDR Pavilion Lobby) | 5 PM - 7 PM
More details to come.
"People, Places, & Things" features paintings by Robin Smith, whose vibrant still life compositions make common objects a joy to behold and whose scenes and skies from Nebraska’s Pine Ridge and the West Coast offer a compelling view of what paint on canvas can convey. Reception features the artist and smooth yet innovative jazz by Camden Smith.
Have an art show in downtown Lincoln you'd like added to our monthly list?
Email Maia at maia@downtownlincoln.org.