By Kyren Gibson, Carnegie Arts Center Director
Come celebrate our very own local Alliance artist, Jelinda Nye, during the opening reception of her exhibit “Odds and Ends” this Saturday Sep 12th from 1-3pm. The exhibit is featured in the lower level Studio Gallery.
Jelinda is the retired former president of the Box Butte Art Society. She has attended numerous prestigious art workshops over the years and has competed in countless art shows. Jelinda's exhibit is a blend of oil painting, sketches, and photography. Despite varied media, the works all share a common theme of rural life, depicting rolling prairie, windmills, farm life, and plains animals.
While visiting, don’t forget that there is only a week and a half to see the exhibit on display, “Social Justice” from the Heritage Center at RedCloud Indian School. The exhibits final day will be September 19th. The pieces are a collection of different artists, time periods, and media. All the imagery selected for the exhibit contains thought provoking concepts that challenge long held perceptions of Native American culture and people. The pieces are on loan from the Center’s permanent collection. The history of the collection begins in in 1968. The Red Cloud Indian Art Show, started by Fr. Ted Zuern, S.J. and Robert Savage and managed by Br. C.M. Simon, S.J., was founded to demonstrate the talent and skills of local Native American artists and to afford them an entrance into the art world.
As a result of purchasing award winning artwork each year from the art show, Br. Simon quickly amassed an extensive collection of paintings, drawings and sculptures representing a variety of Native American tribal traditions. Also, donations of historical Lakota artwork were received from local families and private collectors from around the country. Soon, the need for an actual space for exhibiting these works became clear.
To address this need, the Center began “on paper” in 1974 on the campus of Red Cloud Indian School, and a new facility called The Heritage Center, Inc. swung open its doors in 1982 in the historic, brick school building—originally constructed in 1888 by the Lakota people and Jesuits priests and brothers. In 1997, the Center merged with Red Cloud Indian School and became a department within the overall institution, which includes not only the Center but also three schools that serve over 600 Lakota students and six active churches that minister to more than 800 families.
Today, The Heritage Center offers a rare opportunity to view an outstanding collection of Native American fine arts and historical Lakota arts. It continues to serve its mission—first noted by Br. Simon so many decades ago—to collect, preserve and exhibit the fine arts and traditional arts of Native Americans. The Center concentrates on the fine arts of all Native Americans and the traditional arts of the Lakota, and promotes the arts to bring a greater appreciation of their cultures.
We want to thank our September Sponsors, Charles and Ellen Lierk, Farmer’s State Bank, and Dave’s Pharmacy. We also want to thank our grantors the Nebraska Arts Council, the Nebraska Cultural Foundation, Peter Kiewit Foundation, Dillon Foundation, Story Foundation, the Mission Store, and the Snow Redfern Foundation! Thank you for your support!