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December 2024

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!


1867 Bar

101 N 14TH ST. | 6 PM to 9 PM

More details to come.


Burkholder Art Studio & Galleries

719 P ST. | 5 PM - 8 PM

Shows run December 6th - 28th

Join us for the full gallery ‘Holiday Show’, featuring work from over 40 artists in the building, a special ‘Tiny Treasures’ section in the Skylight Gallery. We are excited to host guest artist Emily Mulvaney in our Special Exhibit Space.

Main Gallery

The ‘Holiday Show’ extends throughout the gallery, highlighting work from both our Associate and Studio artists to create this celebratory show.

Outback Gallery

The ‘Holiday Show’ will cover a variety of mediums, styles, and subject matter. This show is meant to celebrate all of our talented artists that we have had in the building this year.

Skylight Gallery

‘Series 17’ by Rachel Steffens-Koepke

“Immerse yourself in a captivating art collection that explores the energy it brings – into being.”

Special Exhibit Space

Emily Mulvaney with her work, ‘Not the Americana Average’

“Not the Americana Average is my take on a vintage American home. However, the more time one spends in the scene, the more distortions and imperfections become apparent. This exhibition is meant to showcase a blend of past and present women’s issues through the lens of the not-so-typical home.”


Clements Noyes Art Gallery

119 S. 9TH ST. | 5 PM - 8:30 PM  

Four Clements Noyes members and three guest artists will exhibit new work depicting animals and other features of the natural world. A live stream of the opening and brief artist talks will broadcast on Clements Noyes Gallery Facebook page at 7 p.m. In addition, a Second Saturday event will be held 1-4 p.m. on Dec. 14 to accommodate holiday shopping.

The event, curated by Clements Noyes artist Janna Harsch, includes an impressive variety of media. For example, Harsch paints on metal, illuminating her depictions of horses, trees, flowers and people.

Other artists featured in the December show are: Peggy Alloway (painting, assemblage & wearables), Karissa Bettendorf (watercolors), Jerry Hall (colored pencil), Pam Hynek (painting), Teri Martens (metal sculpture), and Wendy Mues Bonge (ceramics & miniatures).


Constellation Studios

2055 O ST. | 6 PM - 8 PM

November 1, 2024 – January 31, 2025

Brian D. Cohen, Kennebunk, Maine
Brian Curling, Dresden, Germany
Anne Desmet, London, England
Ron Fundingsland, Bayfield, Colorado
Anita Hunt, Colrain, Massachusetts
Carrie Phillips-Kieser, Hammonds Plains, Nova Scotia, Canada
Robin Sherin, New York, New York
In this 3rd iteration of Stellar Small Prints, we feature artists who have impacted the print world through their small format works. This traditional and historical aspect of the intimate scale of the printed image enables the sharing of knowledge, personal insights, and iconic messages from afar. Look closely again for deeply felt care in the artists’ crafting of impressions that condense visual mastery and visionary possibilities. Selections from the Constellation Studios collection will also be shown.


Crescent Moon Coffee

140 N. 8TH ST. | 7 PM - 9 PM

First Friday: Photography by Pam Whisenhunt & Music with Tonal Anomaly

Seasonality in the Midwest

Pam Whisenhunt displays a collection of images captured in various locations throughout the Midwest.  These images highlight the beauty that comes with seasonality, from flowers blooming in the spring, summer sunsets, leaves changing color in the fall and snow-covered fields in the winter.  


Dish Restaurant 

1100 E O ST. | 5 PM - 9 PM

More details to come.


Eisentrager-Howard Gallery

STADIUM DR. & T ST. | 5 PM - 7 PM

The (UNL) Graphic design capstone is up and rolling. Make sure to stop by this week and check it out. We will have a closing reception on Friday 5-7 and we hope to see you there!


The Eloise Kruger Gallery of Miniatures

RM 831 of Oldfather Hall on UNL City Campus | 12 PM - 3 PM

More details to come.


Francie & Finch Bookshop

130 S 13TH ST | 4 PM - 7 PM

More details to come.


Gallery 9

124 S. 9TH ST. | 5 PM - 8:30 PM

First Friday Opening Reception


Gilded Gecko

1300 P Street | 5 PM - 9 PM

Gilded Gecko is joining First Friday at @turbineflats. Art in the Resonator Gallery on main floor, vendor market upstairs. 2124 Y Street to kick off the weekend.


Great Plains Art Museum

1155 Q ST. | 5 PM - 7 PM

UNL’s Great Plains Art Museum is open late, from 5-7 p.m. on Nov. 1. Join Great Plains Student Storyteller Karla Hernandez Torrijos for the opening of her exhibition, “Dear Great Plains.” The event will feature light refreshments and admission is always free.

“Dear Great Plains” is a postcard-writing campaign that hopes to tell a different story of the Great Plains: more complex, more diverse, and more nuanced. A collective letter, “Dear Great Plains” raises questions of heritage, history, and home. Botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer writes, “Knowing that you love the earth changes you […] but when you feel that the earth loves you in return, that feeling transforms the relationship from a one-way street into a sacred bond.” Karla asked letter writers to consider their bond with the Great Plains and spent time collecting postcards from various communities and online.

Karla Hernandez Torrijos (she/her) is a poet and workshop facilitator who has been invited to read in venues across Nebraska, including The Bay, El Museo Latino, and The UNL Wick Alumni Center. The recipient of the 2022-2023 Irby F. Wood Prize for Poetry and the 2020-2021 Vreeland Award for Poetry, her writing interrogates our understanding of home, displacement, and the liminal space in between. Torrijos was the 2021-2022 Creative in Community Resident for The LUX Center for the Arts and is the inaugural Student Storyteller in Residence for The Center for Great Plains Studies. Her work can be found in “Preposition: An Undercurrent Anthology.”

The Student Storyteller in Residence Program is funded by the Michael Farrell Fund for Student Storytelling, administered through the University of Nebraska Foundation.

Other exhibitions include:
“Contemporary Indigeneity 2024”
This exhibition features over 25 Native American artists from across the Great Plains. For the fifth iteration of “Contemporary Indigeneity,” the Great Plains Art Museum sought Native American artists addressing any issues and themes relevant to the contemporary Indigenous experience on the Great Plains. A panel of Native American art professionals reviewed the submitted work and made selections based on the artwork’s aesthetic merit and contribution to the field of contemporary art.

“Confronting the Legendary West”
This exhibition continues the themes of the Center for Great Plains Studies’ 49th annual conference, “Confronting the Legendary Great Plains,” by focusing on the complex mythology of the American West. “Confronting the Legendary West” includes works from the Great Plains Art Museum’s extensive collection of western art and considers the perspectives that have—and have not—been included in the art that tells the stories of this region.

https://plains.unl.edu/student-storyteller-residence/


Kiechel Fine Art

1208 O ST. | 5 PM - 8 PM

Opening reception for the Kiechel Fine Art Holiday Show is TONIGHT (Thursday, Dec 5) from 5-8 PM!


Lincoln Marriott Cornhusker Hotel

333 S. 13th St. | 6 PM - 9 PM

More details to come.


Maly Marketing

800 Q ST. | 5 PM - 7 PM

More details to come.


Mana Games

701 P St SUITE 102 | 5 PM - 8 PM

More details to come.


Metro Gallery

1414 O ST. | 3 PM - 10 PM

More details to come.


Nebraska History Museum

131 CENTENNIAL MALL N | 5 PM - 7 PM

More details to come.


Occidental/Kate Martin

735 O ST. | 3 PM - 2 AM

More details to come.


Ollie's Sake

325 S 11th St. | 7 PM - 10 PM

Get ready for First Friday! December we’ve got @erinjbutcherart and we are so excited. Shop local this holiday season and give the gift of ART!


Parrish Studios

1410 O St. |

TONIGHT (Thursday, Dec 5), we’re decorating Parrish for the holidays - ahead of First Friday tomorrow! We’ll have cider, cocoa & cookies around 6/6:30 as artists are getting their studios ready. AND, the incomparable Jack Rodenburg with play piano at 8:30 for Singalong with Jack!


RAYGUN

1221 P ST. | 

More details to come.


Saint Paul United Methodist Church

1144 M St. | 12 PM - 1 PM

We will conclude our Fall 2024 series with a performance by Bell-issimo on December 6 at 12 p.m. Bell-issimo is a 16-member ensemble of bell ringers from eleven Lincoln churches. Performing since 2002 and under the leadership of Nancy Youngman, Bell-issimo inspires and promotes the distinctive beauty and uniqueness of hand bell ringing. This concert is FREE and open to the public. An optional lunch will be served in Paine Parlor from 11:30-12 and 1-1:30 for $5 per person.


Sheldon Museum of Art

12TH & R | 4 PM - 7 PM

Start your weekend off with at Sheldon with the music of the Peter Bouffard Jazz Trio from 5:30 to 6:30 PM. Explore the exhibitions, participate in creative activities, and socialize with friends. This event is free and open to the public.


Ten Thousand Villages

140 N 8TH ST | 6 PM - 8 PM

More details to come.


Tugboat Gallery

116 N 14TH ST. | 7 PM - 10 PM

"Toil of Hands" featuring Joseph Holmes and Santiago Cal opens First Friday, December 6th from 7-10 with DJ ol' moanin'.

Artist Spotlight
@josephnholmes

Joseph Holmes is a designer and furniture maker based in Lincoln Nebraska. Trained in the English Arts and Craft tradition, he has exhibited nationally including the Wharton Esherick Museum in Malvern PA, ICFF in New York, and the Millenium Film Workshop in Brooklyn. Joseph was selected as a 2022 Launch Pad Emerging Designer at NYC x Design and honored as the International Society of Furniture Makers 2021 Designer/Maker of the year. He currently works in the School of Art, Art History and Design at the University of Nebraska Lincoln.

The new work in this show emerged from sketches made at the Barbican Estate, while revisiting landmarks from my childhood with fresh eyes. Like much of my work, these pieces are built from western cedar, a construction wood that I attempt to use in unusual and innovative ways. Just as the Barbican’s modern approach to materials integrates subtle nods to classical architectural elements and the site’s history, this work alludes to traditional woodworking methods, techniques, and personally significant pieces from my life.


WallSpace-LNK

1624 S 17TH ST. | 5 PM - 9 PM

Lana Miller's "Danger & Discovery" opens Friday Dec 6, Reception 5-8PM

The five groups of works on display reveal the inner workings of Miller’s emotional sensibilities, revealed in the unmistakable artistic hand of one of the most intriguing artists working in Nebraska today.
Chaos and control.  
Grief and gratitude.
Danger and discovery.
Throughout her career as an artist, art educator, and art community builder, Lana Miller has been a constant explorer, plunging into the depths of human emotion.


Have an art show in downtown Lincoln you'd like added to our monthly list?  Email Maia at maia@downtownlincoln.org