Creating More Hours: A Temporal Commons offers humanly-scaled models for combining creative practice, social connection, and mutual caregiving. During a series of workshops designed to expand and reclaim time through cooperative caregiving, the gallery space functions as a "temporal commons" for caregivers and their children. Collaborative care that allows participants to cycle between caregiving and artmaking is an integral part of each workshop.

On Friday, April 12th from 6pm - 7pm, Omaha based poet, caregiver, printmaker, and project organizer Amanda Huckins will guide an Alternate Currents panel discussion at Generator Space that brings together Creating More Hours participants Carolyn and Eden Erickson, Maritza N. Estrada, and Kelly Seacrest for a conversation about mutual caregiving and its potential as an embodied practice to build solidarity within creative communities. 

Free and open to all, the discussion begins at 6pm and will end at 7pm. Generator Space will remain open until 8pm to gather, talk, and share space after the discussion. Please register in Eventbrite to attend.

Generator Space is wheelchair accessible and located on a fairly busy street with a decent amount of traffic. Please use crosswalks for safety. Unmetered street parking is available on Vinton Street, 18th Street, and neighborhood streets to the north and west of the space. 

About the Panelists:

Carolyn Erickson's main role is Mom now but she's always been mothering- whether it be with her friends or plants. It’s her default mode. Outside of that, she enjoys crafting of any kind and being in nature. Eden Erickson loves to play and eat (especially fruit). She loves to learn new things and play outside. She loves cats and zebras.

Maritza N. Estrada earned her MFA in Creative Writing at Arizona State University. Estrada’s recent poem “Audience” was published in the Academy of American Poets—the nation’s leading champion of American poets and poetry. Born in Toppenish, Washington to Mexican parents, she calls Phoenix, Mexico City, and Paris, home. ¡Liberar Palestina!

Kelly Seacrest is an educator and artist. With her husband Peter Stegen, she founded Wild Learning in 2020, a Democratic Self Directed learning place for kids. As a facilitator at Wild Learning, she supports kids' learning by practicing democracy, engaging in conflict resolution, creating curriculum and being playful with them. Kelly also practices her art and loves painting, drawing and printmaking.

About the Moderator:

Amanda Huckins is a Nebraskan poet whose work has been published in booklet form as "Trying to End the War" (merrily merrily merrily merrily, 2017) and featured in A Dozen Nothing (adozennothing.com), among other places on paper and online. In her weekday hours, Amanda is an Early Head Start educator and participates in building the brain architecture for social emotional and cognitive development in infants and toddlers. In addition to her paid work, Amanda is a grassroots organizer who works alongside fellow community members to build self-determination, forge non-transactional relationships, and create radical free spaces (such as past DIY spaces The Commons in Lincoln, NE and Media Corp. in Omaha). She is also a letterpress printer who produces posters and other ephemera in her garage print studio, where she teaches typesetting to anyone who wants to learn.

Organized by poet, caregiver, and printmaker Amanda Huckins, Creating More Hours: A Temporal Commons offers humanly-scaled models for combining creative practice, social connection, and mutual caregiving. During a series of workshops designed to expand and reclaim time through cooperative caregiving, the gallery space functions as a "temporal commons" for caregivers and their children. 

Join Artur Melika for the last workshop in the series on Saturday, April 6th from 2pm - 4pm for a cookie decorating workshop highlighting techniques that lead to beautiful and tasty results.

Caregivers with children between the ages of 3- and 12-years-old are invited to participate. Please register to attend. This workshop can accommodate ten participants. 

Collaborative care that allows participants to cycle between caregiving and artmaking is an integral part of  this workshop. Workshop participants should expect to share in both caregiving and artmaking activities! 

Generator Space is wheelchair accessible and located on a fairly busy street with a decent amount of traffic. Please use crosswalks for safety. Unmetered street parking is available on Vinton Street, 18th Street, and neighborhood streets to the north and west of the space. 

Generator Series programming is presented with support from the Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.

About the Artists:

Artur Melika is an Omaha-based, queer, Ukrainian-American artist. Melika received his BFA from University of Nebraska Omaha in December of 2022. Art’s current work explores the vastness of the queer experience and how it manifests for individuals coming from different backgrounds. His primary focus is in 2D mediums including printmaking, drawing and painting. Melika is also exploring guerrilla style performance-based work, in public and gallery settings.

Amanda Huckins is a Nebraskan poet whose work has been published in booklet form as "Trying to End the War" (merrily merrily merrily merrily, 2017) and featured in A Dozen Nothing (adozennothing.com), among other places on paper and online. In her weekday hours, Amanda is an Early Head Start educator and participates in building the brain architecture for social emotional and cognitive development in infants and toddlers. In addition to her paid work, Amanda is a grassroots organizer who works alongside fellow community members to build self-determination, forge non-transactional relationships, and create radical free spaces (such as past DIY spaces The Commons in Lincoln, NE and Media Corp. in Omaha). She is also a letterpress printer who produces posters and other ephemera in her garage print studio, where she teaches typesetting to anyone who wants to learn.

Organized by poet, caregiver, and printmaker Amanda Huckins, Creating More Hours: A Temporal Commons offers humanly-scaled models for combining creative practice, social connection, and mutual caregiving. During a series of workshops designed to expand and reclaim time through cooperative caregiving, the gallery space functions as a "temporal commons" for caregivers and their children. 

The third workshop in the series on Saturday, March 30th from 2pm to 4pm invites participants to learn how to do relief printing with traditional media and easy-to-cut alternatives in order to create postcard sized duplicates of their very own design with printmaker Kelly Seacrest.

Caregivers with children between the ages of 3- and 12-years-old are invited to participate. Please register to attend. This workshop can accommodate ten participants. 

Collaborative care that allows participants to cycle between caregiving and artmaking is an integral part of  this workshop. Workshop participants should expect to share in both caregiving and artmaking activities! 

Generator Space is wheelchair accessible and located on a fairly busy street with a decent amount of traffic. Please use crosswalks for safety. Unmetered street parking is available on Vinton Street, 18th Street, and neighborhood streets to the north and west of the space. 

Generator Series programming is presented with support from the Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.

About the Artists:

Kelly Seacrest is an educator and artist. With her husband Peter Stegen, she founded Wild Learning in 2020, a Democratic Self Directed learning place for kids. As a facilitator at Wild Learning, she supports kids' learning by practicing democracy, engaging in conflict resolution, creating curriculum and being playful with them. Kelly also practices her art and loves painting, drawing and printmaking.

Amanda Huckins is a Nebraskan poet whose work has been published in booklet form as "Trying to End the War" (merrily merrily merrily merrily, 2017) and featured in A Dozen Nothing (adozennothing.com), among other places on paper and online. In her weekday hours, Amanda is an Early Head Start educator and participates in building the brain architecture for social emotional and cognitive development in infants and toddlers. In addition to her paid work, Amanda is a grassroots organizer who works alongside fellow community members to build self-determination, forge non-transactional relationships, and create radical free spaces (such as past DIY spaces The Commons in Lincoln, NE and Media Corp. in Omaha). She is also a letterpress printer who produces posters and other ephemera in her garage print studio, where she teaches typesetting to anyone who wants to learn.

Organized by poet, caregiver, and printmaker Amanda Huckins, Creating More Hours: A Temporal Commons offers humanly-scaled models for combining creative practice, social connection, and mutual caregiving. During a series of workshops designed to expand and reclaim time through cooperative caregiving, the gallery space functions as a "temporal commons" for caregivers and their children. 

During the second workshop in the series on Saturday, March 23rd from 2pm - 4pm, musician and therapist Ameen Wahba will help participants use interactive musical technology to explore how touch, connection, and shared experiences can build meaningful relationships.

Caregivers with children between the ages of 3- and 12-years-old are invited to participate. Please register to attend. This workshop can accommodate ten participants. 

Collaborative care that allows participants to cycle between caregiving and artmaking is an integral part of  this workshop. Workshop participants should expect to share in both caregiving and artmaking activities! 

Generator Space is wheelchair accessible and located on a fairly busy street with a decent amount of traffic. Please use crosswalks for safety. Unmetered street parking is available on Vinton Street, 18th Street, and neighborhood streets to the north and west of the space. 

Generator Series programming is presented with support from the Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.

About the Artists:

Ameen Wahba (he/him) is an arab-american multidisciplinary artist and psychotherapist living in Omaha, NE - the ancestral homeland of the Omaha, Ponca, Otoe-Missouria and Ioway tribes. He is interested in exploring the liminal space between synthetic and organic modes of being in his art, activism, and therapy practice.

Amanda Huckins is a Nebraskan poet whose work has been published in booklet form as "Trying to End the War" (merrily merrily merrily merrily, 2017) and featured in A Dozen Nothing (adozennothing.com), among other places on paper and online. In her weekday hours, Amanda is an Early Head Start educator and participates in building the brain architecture for social emotional and cognitive development in infants and toddlers. In addition to her paid work, Amanda is a grassroots organizer who works alongside fellow community members to build self-determination, forge non-transactional relationships, and create radical free spaces (such as past DIY spaces The Commons in Lincoln, NE and Media Corp. in Omaha). She is also a letterpress printer who produces posters and other ephemera in her garage print studio, where she teaches typesetting to anyone who wants to learn.

Organized by poet, caregiver, and printmaker Amanda Huckins, Creating More Hours: A Temporal Commons offers humanly-scaled models for combining creative practice, social connection, and mutual caregiving. During a series of workshops designed to expand and reclaim time through cooperative caregiving, the gallery space functions as a "temporal commons" for caregivers and their children. 

The first workshop in the series led by poet Maritza N. Estrada on Saturday, March 16th from 2pm - 4pm invites participants to consider the letter as a container for wonder, possibility, transformation, and healing with poet Maritza N. Estrada and write their own letters to something or someone.

Caregivers with children between the ages of 3- and 12-years-old are invited to participate. Please register to attend. This workshop can accommodate ten participants. 

Collaborative care that allows participants to cycle between caregiving and artmaking is an integral part of  this workshop. Workshop participants should expect to share in both caregiving and artmaking activities! 

Generator Space is wheelchair accessible and located on a fairly busy street with a decent amount of traffic. Please use crosswalks for safety. Unmetered street parking is available on Vinton Street, 18th Street, and neighborhood streets to the north and west of the space. 

Generator Series programming is presented with support from the Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.

From Maritza:

Discussion & Workshop towards the poetic form of the Letter. The letter being the messenger, accomplice, disciple. In this workshop, all walks of life are welcome in this kind, generous, & abundant space of wonder, possibility, transformation, and healing heart-matters. Attendees will look into various forms of letters/study their stories & will create their own letter(s)—reaching towards something or someone. Please be courteous as to how one may enter a space, lived experiences, griefs, etc. What beauty & a gift. To say, here, love. Here is your letter; a part of me is now, here, with you forever & always. Yours.

About the Artists:

Maritza N. Estrada earned her MFA in Creative Writing at Arizona State University. Estrada’s recent poem “Audience” was published in the Academy of American Poets—the nation’s leading champion of American poets and poetry. Born in Toppenish, Washington to Mexican parents, she calls Phoenix, Mexico City, and Paris, home. ¡Liberar Palestina!

Amanda Huckins is a Nebraskan poet whose work has been published in booklet form as "Trying to End the War" (merrily merrily merrily merrily, 2017) and featured in A Dozen Nothing (adozennothing.com), among other places on paper and online. In her weekday hours, Amanda is an Early Head Start educator and participates in building the brain architecture for social emotional and cognitive development in infants and toddlers. In addition to her paid work, Amanda is a grassroots organizer who works alongside fellow community members to build self-determination, forge non-transactional relationships, and create radical free spaces (such as past DIY spaces The Commons in Lincoln, NE and Media Corp. in Omaha). She is also a letterpress printer who produces posters and other ephemera in her garage print studio, where she teaches typesetting to anyone who wants to learn.

Alternate Currents (AC) is a two-year program designed to support artists and organizers working to challenge dominant systems, forge collaborations, and engage with their communities. An alternative to a conventional MFA, AC cohort members work together to understand how justice in the arts is interpreted, documented, and enacted on multiple registers. 

Throughout 2023, group discussions and individual cohort members’ creative research worked to interrogate how artists and organizers might more thoughtfully align their practices with anti-capitalist orientations, and the movement lineages they come from, to build relationships, rest, and shore up regenerative modes of exchange. Sharing resources and holding cultural goods in common surfaced again and again as viable working practices for distributing wealth, knowledge, and power more equitably. 

Their ongoing investigations into the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of ‘commoning’ manifest in an anthology titled We Free Us. To celebrate its publication, Alternate Currents cohort members will be in conversation with one another at Generator Space on Wednesday, February 7th to talk more about their experiences working together and the potential creative practice holds to collectively consider the wellbeing of the many instead of the few. 

Free and open to all, the discussion begins at 7pm with time before and after to gather, talk, and share space. Please register in Eventbrite to attend. Face masks are welcome and encouraged. Copies of We Free Us will be available at the event, through Amplify’s website, and at stockists in Omaha, New York, and Los Angeles. 

Alternate Currents programming is presented with the support of the Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment

2023-24 Alternate Currents Cohort:

Joy Cotton is a mixed media artist living in Omaha. Joy uses a combination of pencil, acrylic, oil to create paintings and murals. She creates pieces that hold a great significance to personal emotions, like happiness, sadness, anger, and depression. The characters she makes depict different forms of fantasy and realistic figure drawings. These works contain multiple layers of textures and different types of painting applications. A graduate of University of Nebraska at Omaha Joy often works with other artists and organizations within the Omaha arts community. For the past two years she has worked on projects with Omaha Summer Arts Festival (OSAF), Benson First Fridays (BFF), and Midtown Crossing Sunny Chair project. Interacting, building relationships and collaborating with innovative individuals has shown her the interconnectedness of the art community. Through these interactions, observations, and personal projects she has continued to define and develop her artistry.

Amanda Huckins is a Nebraskan poet whose work has been published in booklet form as "Trying to End the War" (merrily merrily merrily merrily, 2017) and featured in A Dozen Nothing (adozennothing.com), among other places on paper and online. In her weekday hours, Amanda is an Early Head Start educator and participates in building the brain architecture for social emotional and cognitive development in infants and toddlers. In addition to her paid work, Amanda is a grassroots organizer who works alongside fellow community members to build self-determination, forge non-transactional relationships, and create radical free spaces (such as past DIY spaces The Commons in Lincoln, NE and Media Corp. in Omaha). She is also a letterpress printer who produces posters and other ephemera in her garage print studio, where she teaches typesetting to anyone who wants to learn.

Alex Jacobsen explores the interconnectedness of space, memory, and body primarily through psychoacoustics and somatic vibrations. Visually, they often use found electronics, liquids, and naked loudspeakers to create ceaselessly changing environments. In live performances, Alex often incorporates feedback, processed recordings, and amplified objects, creating a collectively remembered soundscape. In recent years, Alex has contributed music for a number of film and dance projects, and their work has been featured across the United States, Mexico, and Europe, including Radiophrenia Art Festival, ESS’s Quarantine Concert Series, and Konvent Puntzero.

Aspen M. Laboy (they/them) is an interdisciplinary artist from Omaha, Nebraska working in poetry, glass sculpting, installation, and film photography. Exploring concepts of environmentalism, internal identity, and cultural heritage, they are influenced by nature, science, and philosophy. Aspen has three published books; “Spirit” (2017), “The Quiet Lion” (2018), and “I MATTER” (2022). They co-hosted the poetry workshop “Corner’s Space” at KANEKO and have performed poetry in various galleries. In 2023, several of their selected poems were aired on “Friday Live'' with Nebraska Public Media through NPR. Their work has been exhibited at MoonRise Gallery, Fleabane Gallery, Goldsmith Silversmith, LUX Center for the Arts, Generator Space, Family of Things, and Union Street Gallery. Currently, Aspen is one of the selected artists for the Alternate Currents Cohort through Amplify Arts. In addition, they were awarded a scholarship for Penland School of Craft to attend in Summer of 2024.

Artur Melika is an Omaha-based, queer, Ukrainian-American artist. Melika received his BFA from University of Nebraska Omaha in December of 2022. Art’s current work explores the vastness of the queer experience and how it manifests for individuals coming from different backgrounds. His primary focus is in 2D mediums including printmaking, drawing and painting. Melika is also exploring guerrilla style performance-based work, in public and gallery settings.

Lauren Simpson is an Omaha-based choreographer and educator. She created Moving Truck, a mobile and socially-distanced show performed on front lawns at residences throughout Omaha in 2020. Recent projects include Smithereens, a site specific performance in Joslyn Art Museum with music by Omaha musician Miwi LaLupa, Celestial Real Estate, a collaborative performance at Generator Space gallery featuring local artists Nick Miller (painter), Celeste Butler (textile designer), and Dereck Higgins (musician), and Self-Leveling a performance at ODC Theater San Francisco in collaboration with dancer Galen Rogers and visual artist Emma Strebel. Collaboration across disciplines is at the heart of her art making. 

Bilgesu Sisman is a writer, researcher, educator, and film programmer with a background in philosophy and a deep love for cinema. Bilgesu’s work as a creative writer and filmmaker focuses on female-driven narratives, often in the form of psychological and philosophical mysteries, thrillers and fantastical fiction that meditate on our encounters with the unknown - whether personal, existential, or socio-political. As a PhD candidate in Philosophy at DePaul University, Chicago, her thesis explores the political history of necroviolence (i.e. posthumous corporal violence) and argues for its formative role in state power. In addition to political philosophy, Bilgesu taught courses on subjectivity, psychoanalysis, affects, memory, trauma, and film theory. She currently works as the Interim Programming Director at Film Streams in Omaha, Nebraska.

Valerie St. Pierre Smith (White Earth Ojibwe enrolled descendant) nindizhinikaaz. A mischief maker, scholar, author, healer, and multidisciplinary artisan, Valerie has an eclectic creative background including fiber arts, sewing, painting, and costume/fashion design. Her design work has been seen across the country with highlights that include The Kennedy Center, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Mixed Blood Theatre, Sea World: San Diego, the National Museum of the American Indian, and Pilobolus Dance Theatre. A bit of a unicorn, Valerie’s creative research and scholarly work focuses on appropriation, inspiration, representation, and decolonization in western design practices. She is currently working on a book focused on decolonizing contemporary design processes for Routledge Press. As a mixed blood Anishnaabe-kwe, healer, and artisan, her work explores and is influenced by her experiences at the confluence of healing, social justice, traditional Anishinaabe teachings, and the power of identity. St. Pierre Smith holds a B.F.A from Stephens College, and an M.F.A from San Diego State University.

Mi'oux Stabler is a member of the Umoⁿhoⁿ Nation whose tribal lands are located in northeast Nebraska along the banks of the Missouri River. She is a proud mother, artist, land tender, and a dedicated cultural advocate. For the past decade, her endeavors have been geared towards the revitalization of traditional languages and land stewardship practices. She has traveled extensively, but currently focuses her work in the ancestral homelands of the Umoⁿhoⁿ people.

Casey Albert Welsch is a working class writer, cook, journalist, and organizer. Born and raised on a dryland Nebraska farm, he now lives and works in central Omaha. As a multimedia journalist in southeast Nebraska, Casey started a community news service at KZUM radio in Lincoln, was a founding member of the Dandelion Network mutual aid group, and was a regular contributor to Hear Nebraska and Perfect Pour magazine. These days he is focusing on his other life's work as a cook, working at Methodist Hospital, feeding the sick and those who care for them.

Amplify Arts is a nonprofit arts incubator for more just and equitable futures. We support Omaha-area artists working to affect meaningful change with funding, space, and opportunities for collective learning.

As 2023 comes to a close, we are excited to gather together in celebration of the incredible artists in our community and strengthen the grid of connection between us all.

Join us on Sunday, December 17th at Slowdown from 4:00-6:00 pm for exceptional performances and experiences from ELEVATION GOSPEL BAND (formerly Umoja Choir), Sgt Leisure, & Ian Tredway, along with drinks and food from Lola's.

Two limited edition tote bags will be available for purchase for $25 each featuring art by Amanda Huckins & Ilaamen Pelshaw.

Online ticket sales close at 10am on December 17th and will also be available for purchase at the door. Each ticket is $15.00 and includes one drink. All ticket sales directly support Amplify’s work as an incubator.

Performance Schedule:

• 4:15 - 4:45 pm - Sgt Leisure

• 5:00 - 5:45 pm - ELEVATION GOSPEL BAND (formerly Umoja Choir)

People of all ages, including kids, are welcome.

Slowdown is ADA compliant and wheelchair accessible. Free parking is available in the venue’s east parking lot which faces Charles Schwab Field. Metered street parking on the west and south sides of the venue is also available.

Masks are welcome and encouraged.

About the artists:

ELEVATION GOSPEL BAND (formerly Umoja Choir) began in 2010. It was started by Dieudonne Manirakiza and Eric Esron after resettling in Omaha, Nebraska as a creative outlet for children in their community. With members from Kenya, Rwanda, Congo, Uganda and Tanzania, ELEVATION GOSPEL BAND continues to provide a network of support for refugees creating spaces of belonging as new Americans.

Sgt Leisure started as a practice of sharing song ideas between friends Ameen and Pat and Kafele, and bringing in others along the way. With inspirations spanning palm wine music, singer songwriters, slap bass, and beyond, Sgt Leisure emerges as an experimental pop band balanced between improvisation and written work.

Ian Tredway is your fellow nature-loving artist-turned-designer and nonprofit manager, combining their love for community, tech, and the arts all together. Ian believes in building strong communities using bottom-up, collaborative, and creative approaches. Utilizing his experience and education in the arts and management, he actively creates alternative solutions to unique or everyday problems -- connecting the arts to neighbors, the public, or clientele. His experience ranges all aspects of the nonprofit and design pipeline; from brainstorming and conceptualization to final production and evaluation.

Amanda Huckins is a Nebraskan poet whose work has been published in booklet form as "Trying to End the War" (merrily merrily merrily merrily, 2017) and featured in A Dozen Nothing (adozennothing.com), among other places on paper and online. In her weekday hours, Amanda is an Early Head Start educator and participates in building the brain architecture for social emotional and cognitive development in infants and toddlers. In addition to her paid work, Amanda is a grassroots organizer who works alongside fellow community members to build self-determination, forge non-transactional relationships, and create radical free spaces (such as past DIY spaces The Commons in Lincoln, NE and Media Corp. in Omaha). She is also a letterpress printer who produces posters and other ephemera in her garage print studio, where she teaches typesetting to anyone who wants to learn.

Ilaamen Pelshaw is a Latina artist and illustrator born in Guatemala, a visual storyteller who explores elements of everyday life in a colorful and cheerful way, often focused on kindness and inclusion. Pop Art and the New Contemporary Movement influence her art. She mainly works with acrylic paint, graphite and digital media.

GRID Sponsors:

• Lauren Simpson & Jake Hoppe

• Alex Cardon

• Denise Blaya Powell & Hobson Powell

• Heritage Omaha

• Omaha Steaks

• eCreamery

Image artwork by Ian Tredway

Throughout 2023, Alternate Currents has worked to examine regenerative modes of economic exchange in which artists and organizers can fully participate. Sharing resources and holding cultural goods in common have surfaced again and again as viable working practices for building new paradigms to distribute wealth, knowledge, and power more equitably. 

Establishing a cultural commons doesn't come without challenges though, particularly when operating within dominant economic systems that privilege private ownership, state enforced deregulation, and corporate interests. On Wednesday, November 29th at 7pm CST, Manne Cook, SaRena Freet, and Amanda Huckins will come together on Zoom for Amplify’s next virtual Alternate Currents panel discussion, Common Good: A Primer on the Commons to consider ‘the commons’ more deeply. They’ll talk more about the terms and social charters that help artists negotiate the often messy process of collectively managing shared resources for the wellbeing of the many, rather than the few.  

Free and open to all. Please register on Amplify’s website (www.amplifyarts.org). You’ll receive an email with a link to join the discussion on Zoom after registering. And don’t forget to visit the Alternate Currents blog to read, watch, and listen to more discussions like this one. 

www.amplifyarts.org/alternate-currents

Alternate Currents (AC) is a two-year program designed to support artists and organizers working to thoughtfully challenge dominant systems, forge collaborations, and engage with their communities. An alternative to a conventional MFA, AC cohort members work together to understand how justice in the arts is interpreted, documented, and enacted. 

Alternate Currents programming is presented with support from the Sherwood Foundation, the Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.

About the Panelists:

Manuel Cook (Manne) is an urban planner and spatial practitioner from North Omaha who works to create vibrant places and more liveable built environments. Manne works closely with local artists and grassroots organizations to produce events, exhibitions, and creative placemaking projects. He is the Director of Urban Planning & Design with Spark where he specializes in the planning and development of projects that support more livable, people oriented, human scale places. Manne is a former neighborhood planner for the City of Omaha, studied Spatial Sciences at Rijks University in the Netherlands, and holds a Masters in Urban Studies from the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

SaRena Freet (she/her) currently is a bartender at The Hot Mess. She is also a co-facilitator of mutual aid projects, political education and community spaces. SaRena graduated from UNL with a Women’s and Gender Studies degree.

Amanda Huckins is a Nebraskan poet whose work has been published in booklet form as "Trying to End the War" (merrily merrily merrily merrily, 2017) and featured in A Dozen Nothing (adozennothing.com), among other places on paper and online. In her weekday hours, Amanda is an Early Head Start educator and participates in building the brain architecture for social emotional and cognitive development in infants and toddlers. In addition to her paid work, Amanda is a grassroots organizer who works alongside fellow community members to build self-determination, forge non-transactional relationships, and create radical free spaces (such as past DIY spaces The Commons in Lincoln, NE and Media Corp. in Omaha). She is also a letterpress printer who produces posters and other ephemera in her garage print studio, where she teaches typesetting to anyone who wants to learn.

Alternate Currents (AC) is a two-year program designed to support artists and organizers working to thoughtfully challenge dominant systems, forge collaborations, and engage with their communities. An alternative to a conventional MFA, AC cohort members work together to understand how justice in the arts is interpreted, documented, and enacted.

Applications for 2024’s Alternate Currents cohort are open October 9th through November 19th.

On Thursday November 9th, Amplify is hosting ACWG Office Hours from 4-6pm on Zoom. Applicants are invited to join and ask Amplify staff questions while they work on their application during this informal and unstructured open meeting time.

Click to join anytime between 4pm-6pm on November 9th. No RSVP necessary.

Click here for the full application: https://amplifyarts.submittable.com/submit

To mark the closing of Unceded Garden at Amplify's Generator Space, Unceded Artist Collective invites volunteers to join them in the Indigenous garden at Joslyn Castle for an morning of conversation and getting dirty. Volunteers will work alongside Collective members to prepare the garden for the end of the growing season.

RSVP to join. Please wear comfortable clothing, appropriate for working outdoors, that doesn't restrict or limit movement. We suggest:

• A Long-sleeve top

• Long pants

• Close toe shoes

• A light jacket

• Hat

• Gloves

• Sunscreen

*Volunteers with allergies or sensitivities to pollen are encouraged to wear masks.

About Unceded Garden:

Unceded Garden, organized by Unceded Artist Collective, underpins the significance of interspecies relationships to Indigenous lifeways by positioning plants as medicine, plants as sovereign, plants as nation. Working in partnership with the Indigenous garden at Joslyn Castle in Omaha, collective members Nathaniel Ruleaux, Sarah Rowe, Mi’oux Stabler, and Jennie Wilson approach the exhibition as an expression of care across dual sites.

In individual and collective actions, Unceded Artist Collective members transpose the sights, sounds, and smells of the garden onto the gallery space in video and installation work created with the plants that remediate its soil and feed its stewards. In doing so, Unceded Garden raises questions around indigenous land use and sovereignty critical to dreaming a better world for other species–and each other–into being.

• Exhibition Dates: September 8th - October 20th, 2023

• Opening Reception: September 8th; 6pm - 9pm

• Garden Volunteer Day: October 20th; Time: 10am - 12pm

• Regular Gallery Hours: Thursdays and Fridays; 1pm - 5pm by appointment

Generator Grant programming is presented with support from the Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.

About the Artists:

Unceded Artist Collective is a community and directory of Indigenous artists who live and create on the unceded land of the Umónhon & Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (aka the colonized Omaha Metro). While honoring the past and fighting for the future we seek to take, create and indigenize space for our underrepresented and overlooked relatives. With similar organizations across Turtle Island, Unceded Artist Collective was created to focus on our Omaha Metro community, and the talent that has been here and is still here. Wopila

Sarah Rowe is an interdisciplinary artist based in Omaha, NE. Her work opens cross cultural dialogues by utilizing methods of painting, casting, fiber arts, performance, and Native American ceremony in unconventional ways. Rowe’s work is participatory, a call to action, and re-imagines traditional Native American symbology to fit the narrative of today’s global landscape. Rowe holds a BA in Studio Art from Webster University, studying in St. Louis, MO, and Vienna, Austria. She is of Lakota and Ponca descent.

Nathaniel Ruleaux (he/him) is an award-winning artist and culture worker currently located on unceded land of the Umónhon & Očhéthi Šakówiŋ in Nebraska. A partner, father, and member of the Oglala Lakota Nation, his work combines modern art with traditional Indigenous imagery. He is a founding member of Unceded Artist Collective. Recently, he created work for Opera Omaha’s 2023-2024 season and the national 2022 Indigenous Futures Survey. In addition to creating visual art, he is a classically-trained actor and educator. He received his MFA in Theatre from the University of Houston’s School of Theatre and Dance after receiving a BA in Theatre Performance at the Johnny Carson School of Theatre & Film at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. 

Mi’oux Stabler is a member of the Umoⁿhoⁿ Nation whose tribal lands are located in northeast Nebraska along the banks of the Missouri River. She is a proud mother, artist, land tender, and a dedicated cultural advocate. For the past decade, her endeavors have been geared towards the revitalization of traditional languages and land stewardship practices. She has traveled extensively, but currently focuses her work in the ancestral homelands of the Umoⁿhoⁿ people.

Jennie Wilson is an artist, educator, and citizen of the Cherokee Nation. Born on, and lifelong resident on the unceded land of the Umónhon & Očhéthi Šakówiŋ in Nebraska. Her work centers intergenerational learning in an ongoing exploration of traditional foodways, language, cultural practices, and artistic traditions. She is a daughter, wife, and mother who moves forward as an advocate for her family and authentic Cherokee people and knowledge. Since 2020, she has served on the board of the Kansas City Cherokee Community, a chartered chapter of the Cherokee Nation. As a team with others on the board, she has planned and hosted gatherings for Cherokee families living outside the CN to promote language, gardening, historical knowledge, crafting traditions, and provide an opportunity for citizens to be present together. Her personal artwork is made of natural materials such as clay, gourds, and corn husks. Her work is in collections of the Cherokee Nation, the Asheville Art Mus

How do we understand and interpret the significance of socially and politically engaged artwork in a culture that values profit over process, commodity over collaboration? How can artists, arts organizations, and philanthropy mutually reinforce and support projects that pursue meaningful change through the unstable, intangible, and often invisible channels of organizing, building relationships, and community care?

On Wednesday, September 27th at 7pm CST panelists Annika Johnson, Diana Martinez, and Alajia McKizia will join moderator Jared Packard for Amplify’s next in-person Alternate Currents panel discussion, Irony, Wonder, Allusion: Evaluating Social Practice at the Ashton in Millwork Commons to consider how critical and evaluative frameworks might change to more fully embrace the uncertainties, indecipherable rewards, and generative failures inherent in socially and politically engaged work. 

Free and open to all. Please RSVP to join the conversation. Face masks are not required but always welcome. And don’t forget to visit the Alternate Currents blog to read up on the topic before the discussion. 

www.amplifyarts.org/alternate-currents

Alternate Currents incubates artist-led responses to the systemic challenges we face by centering creative research, collaboration, and critical dialogue both on- and off-line. Together, the Alternate Currents Blog, Discussion Series, and Working Group hold space for critical discourse around national and international issues in the arts that have a profound impact at the local level.

Alternate Currents programming is presented with support from the Sherwood Foundation, the Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.

About the Panelists:

Annika Johnson is Associate Curator of Native American Art at the Joslyn Art Museum where she is developing installations, programming, and research initiatives in collaboration with Indigenous communities. Her research and curatorial projects examine nineteenth-century Native American art and exchange with Euro-Americans, as well as contemporary artistic and activist engagements with the histories and ongoing processes of colonization. Annika received her PhD in art history from the University of Pittsburgh in 2019 and grew up in Minnesota, Dakota homelands called Mni Sóta Makoce.

Diana Martinez is the Programs Director for The Union for Contemporary Art in Omaha, NE. The Union for Contemporary Art strengthens the cultural and social landscape of our community by using the arts as a vehicle to inspire positive social change. She is the former Artistic Director of Film Streams, a non-profit arthouse organization in Omaha, Nebraska. She was previously the organization’s Education Director. At Film Streams, in collaboration with founder Rachel Jacobson, she launched See Change, a gender parity initiative committed to programming 50% women-directed films by the end of 2021. Diana received her PhD from the University of Oregon. While there, she taught classes in film history, media aesthetics, and writing.

Based in Omaha, Nebraska, Alajia McKizia is a Black multi-disciplinary artist and curator working in community organizing, visual art, performance, herbalism, and creative placemaking. McKizia was a 2020 Inside/Outside Fellow at the Union For Contemporary Art where she debuted her movement performance film honoring Black women in Omaha titled “Resonate.” She co-founded Hiatus Healing Collective, an herbal mutual aid collective started in 2020. Alajia has featured interactive community art projects to explore themes of Black liberation throughout Omaha, as well as participated in group exhibits at The Bemis for Contemporary Art, Kaneko, TugBoat Gallery, Amplify Arts, and more. Alajia is the organizer of Juneteenth Joy Fest, an annual Black Arts & Culture Festival. She also is the curator of Sunday Soul; a five part series honoring women artists which was a 2022 Populus Fund project. Alajia was a 2022 Inspire Awards Young Leader Recipient and continues to cultivate community and creativity throughout Omaha

About the Moderator:

Jared Packard is an artist and curator based in Omaha, NE where he works as the Exhibitions Manager at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art. Packard completed his BA at Clark University and his MFA at School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has curated Opulence: Performative Wealth and the Failed American Dream, Bemis Center, Omaha; the NEA-funded unLOCK: Merging Art and Industry, Lockport, IL; the nationally traveling exhibition, ReTooled: Highlights from the Hechinger Collection; and (Re)Flex Space, Sullivan Galleries, Chicago, IL. He has shown at Project Project, Omaha, NE; ADDS DONNA, Chicago, IL; Sullivan Galleries, Chicago, IL; Centre International d’Art Contemporain, Pont-Aven, France; Hillyer Art Space, Washington, D.C.

The student debt crisis, exclusionary admissions policies, and precarious working conditions for faculty and staff at academic institutions across the board: How do the ripple effects of the academic industrial complex compromise the university’s mission to produce and share knowledge? How do artists and organizers cultivate common spaces for learning in response to shifting paradigms of “value” and “worth” in higher education?

On Wednesday, July 26th at 7pm CST panelists Cass Eddington, Alex O’Hanlon, Valerie St. Pierre Smith will join moderator Amanda Huckins for Amplify’s next virtual Alternate Currents panel discussion, Common Place: Collective Learning Outside the Institution. Together they’ll weigh the possibilities for ongoing education outside the institution by uplifting humanly-scaled models of collective learning that reorganize value systems conventionally bound by money, exclusivity, and expertise.

Register on Zoom, Facebook, or Amplify’s website. You will receive a confirmation email with a link to join the discussion on Zoom after registering. And don’t forget to visit the Alternate Currents blog to read related posts before the discussion.

www.amplifyarts.org/alternate-currents

Alternate Currents incubates artist-led responses to the systemic challenges we face by centering creative research, collaboration, and critical dialogue both on- and off-line. Together, the Alternate Currents Blog, Discussion Series, and Working Group hold space for critical discourse around national and international issues in the arts that have a profound impact at the local level.

Free and open to all. Alternate Currents programming is presented with support from the Sherwood Foundation, the Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.

About the Panelists:

Cass Eddington is a poet, teacher, editor, and community arts organizer. A PhD candidate at the University of Denver, they are the author of VERNAL HURT (Magnificent Field) and TRANSIT (Spiral Editions). They run vocationalpoetics.com -- an accessible space of creative autonomy and radical communion for working writers. Cass teaches community-based and university-funded creative writing classes, and performs other forms of labor. They live in so-called Denver with their dog Jupiter.

Alex O’Hanlon is a community organizer who is committed to supporting resident-led projects that enhance their quality of life. She currently works as the Engagement Coordinator at One Omaha. Prior to that, Alex worked as a Garden Manager for City Sprouts South where she coordinated programs, workshops, and events. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy/History from UNO and travels to California every fall to harvest olives.

Valerie St. Pierre Smith (White Earth Ojibwe enrolled descendant) is a scholar, author and multidisciplinary artisan. Valerie's eclectic creative background includes fiber arts, sewing, painting, multimedia, and costume/fashion design. Her design work has been seen across the country with highlights that include The Kennedy Center, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Mixed Blood Theatre, Sea World: San Diego, the National Museum of the American Indian and Pilobolus Dance Theatre. A bit of a unicorn, Valerie’s creative research and scholarly work focuses on cultural appropriation, inspiration, representation and decolonization in western creative practices. As a mixed blood Anishnaabe kwe, healer, and artisan, her work explores and is influenced by her experiences at the confluence of healing, social justice, traditional Anishinaabe teachings, and the power of identity. St. Pierre Smith has over 25 years of professional creative, academic, and scholarly experience, holding a B.F.A from Stephens College, and an M.F.A from San Diego State.

About the Moderator:

Amanda Huckins is a Nebraskan poet whose work has been published in booklet form as "Trying to End the War" (merrily merrily merrily merrily, 2017) and featured in A Dozen Nothing (adozennothing.com), among other places on paper and online. In her weekday hours, Amanda is an Early Head Start educator and participates in building the brain architecture for social emotional and cognitive development in infants and toddlers. In addition to her paid work, Amanda is a grassroots organizer who works alongside fellow community members to build self-determination, forge non-transactional relationships, and create radical free spaces (such as past DIY spaces The Commons in Lincoln, NE and Media Corp. in Omaha). She is also a letterpress printer who produces posters and other ephemera in her garage print studio, where she teaches typesetting to anyone who wants to learn.

Join us Sunday, June 11th from 10am - noon for GRID in the Prairie, an outdoor artist market in the Prairie at Millwork Commons. An incredible group of Amplify’s current and former Artist Grant recipients and program participants working at the intersection of art, ecology, and regenerative agriculture will share their work and lead activities for all ages like weaving, flower pressing, and a botanicals raffle.

Spend a morning in the sun with Blazing Star Seed Cooperative / Free Farm Syndicate, Michaela Ciulla, Clarice Dombek, Omaha Sunflower Cooperative, Ami Polite, and Joelle Wellansa Sandfort; support their work and see first-hand all the good these artists and organizers are growing.

Free and open to all, this is an outdoor event that includes periods of walking and standing. Masks are always welcome. The Prairie at Millwork Commons is ADA compliant and wheelchair accessible. Millwork Commons is a short walk from the Route 4 Metro city bus stop at 16th and Cuming Streets. If you're driving, free parking can be found on Millwork Ave, 13th St, 12th St, the parking Lot North of HELLO Apartments and the parking Lot West of the Mastercraft building. More information about parking and a map of the neighborhood can be found here.

About the Artists:

The Blazing Star Seed Cooperative (BSSC) is a collection of urban farmers, home gardeners, and community organizations that work together to grow, save, and share as much locally produced seed as possible. BSSC’s goal is to provide education and Infrastructure for a more robust seed saving culture in Omaha (and the surrounding area).

Free Farm Syndicate believes that food should be grown naturally, sourced locally, and given freely. FFS is a syndicate, meaning that we produce and distribute produce for a common goal: to fill food gaps in our community. Not all the produce we distribute comes from our production plots. Much of it also comes from partners, including both for- and nonprofit urban farms, other mutual aid gardeners, and neighbors.

Michaela Ciulla is a watercolor and multimedia artist living and working in Omaha, Nebraska. She draws inspiration from her environment, especially the plants and colors around her. She has a BA in Environmental Studies and took a few art classes in Omaha after graduating from UNL. She has been creating art from a young age and is happy to have the opportunity to share it with others. You can find her leading art workshops, vending at markets, and working from her home studio. Website: michaeladrawsflowers.com. Instagram: michaeladrawsflowers

Clarice Dombeck was born and raised in North Omaha. She received her undergraduate degree in Black Studies and Sociology from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She is currently studying for a Master of Science in Urban Studies. She believes that her relationship with gardening began with her ancestors and uses her creative gardening practice to honor her grandmother Old Mae Walker who was a sharecropper.

Omaha Sunflower Cooperative’s mission is to replenish, strengthen, and elevate the BIPOC community and the members of the cooperative with community-sustained nutritional and financial support. The Cooperative is committed to fostering holistic relationships between local BIPOC growers, farmers, and business owners to reclaim and cultivate our collective cultural wisdom. Since its establishment in 2021, the cooperative has held two plant sales, facilitated a seed starting wisdom share, and collectively cultivated land in Omaha and Cresent, Iowa.

Ami Polite is a private gardener for the best and the brightest in Nebraska, loving plants belonging to those who have busy lives. She is self taught from volunteering at Botanical and private gardens, as well as mentoring under a senior gardener until going off on her own journey. On a professional and volunteer basis, she has been involved in horticulture for 15 years (May is her anniversary month). Gardening is her joy and therapy and she writes to help others share that joy.

Joelle Wellansa Sandfort is an interdisciplinary artist living and working in Omaha, Nebraska. Using mostly secondhand materials and an experimental approach to traditional craft processes, she explores how cultural information is learned, inherited, and lost. Joelle graduated from Nebraska Wesleyan University in 2018, earning her BA in Art and Art Education Endorsement. She is a 2023 Amplify Arts Generator Grant Recipient and current facilitator of Fleabane Gallery.

Can sharing resources and ideas in collaborative working practices help artists realign notions of “value” and “worth”? How do performers, particularly collaborative performers, cultivate regenerative modes of exchange, alternative forms of value, and a cultural commons rooted in solidarity? Voicings: Value Creation and Collaboration / Access to Experimentation and Building An Audience of Listeners, Amplify’s next in-person Alternate Currents panel discussion, on Wednesday, May 17th at the Ashton at Millwork Commons brings together panelists Dereck Higgins, Jacoby, Keiria Marsha, Ameen Wahba, and moderators Mary Elizabeth Lawson and Anna McClellan for a deeper dive into the role collaborative performance practices play in building communities and modeling new paradigms of value creation.

Please RSVP to join the conversation. Face masks are not required but always welcome. And don’t forget to visit the Alternate Currents blog to read up on the topic before the discussion.

www.amplifyarts.org/alternate-currents

Alternate Currents incubates artist-led responses to the systemic challenges we face by centering creative research, collaboration, and critical dialogue both on- and off-line. Together, the Alternate Currents Blog, Discussion Series, and Working Group hold space for critical discourse around national and international issues in the arts that have a profound impact at the local level.

Free and open to all. Alternate Currents programming is presented with support from the Sherwood Foundation, the Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.

About the Panelists:

Dereck Higgins is a self taught music maker. Multi-instrumentalist primarily known as a bass player. Experience playing everything from classic rock to reggae to punk to jazz to electronic to improvisation and more. Dedicated to the moment of music making, listening to allow the music to speak. Big record collector as well. Inducted into the Nebraska Music Hall of Fame. Three time OEAA winner, multiple nominations. Had a show segment (Higgs Corner) on Adult Swim for 5 years. Some bands past and present: David Nance Mowed Sound, Digital Sex, Son Ambulance, RAF, 3gypt, Skuddur, Hotlines, InDreama, Chemicals, Norman & The Rockwells, Icky Blossoms, Hotlines, Norman & The Rockwells and many more. Has toured the USA, Europe and Japan. He has performed on stage with Mark Burgess (The Chameleons UK), Tatsuya Nakatani, Soul Asylum, Toxic Reasons, Preston Love and many others. Dereck also does visual art, specifically collage and has had exhibits.

Jacoby is a multifaceted artist - a singer, writer, producer, dancer, and more - based in Lincoln, NE, who uses art as a vehicle to explore humanity, express emotion, enter conversation, and celebrate life. Through performance he encourages spaces for thought, joy, healing and discomfort.

Keiria Marsha Lowe, known professionally as Keiria Marsha, is an American R&B singer/songwriter , from Omaha Nebraska. Keiria grew up with a visionary mind. She grew up creating music, art, visuals, writing and recording. She started performing on stages as young as four years old. Keiria’s passion for music, art, and social justice led to the creation of CCVisions (Collaborative Creative Visions). Through CCVisions, Keiria Marsha has created events such as Pull Up and Vibe Music Festival, Pull Up and Vibe Open Mic Series, Pull Up and Vibe Podcast, Melanin City Classics and etc. A native to North Omaha, Keiria prioritizes outreach work in her community through volunteering with different organizations such as Elks Lodge, FABRIC Lab, The Black Agenda Alliance, and many others.

Keiria also sits on the boards for the Healing Roots Garden and Our Light Inc programs and participates as a Landbank ambassador. Keiria is extremely excited to be making her debut performance at the Omaha Community Playhouse theater in the show The Little Shop of Horrors. “I love to connect with my audience in a way thats sends them home happy & inspired.” Keiria has a forever growing love to send good vibrations through her music while also sending positive messages. Keiria stands firmly on following your dreams, there will always be eyes and ears to see and to hear.

Ameen Wahba is a multidisciplinary artist and therapist from Omaha, NE. Primarily working in sound and music, he has also experimented within curating, installation, video, and culture work initiatives. He is currently an Inside/Outside fellow at The Union for Contemporary Art.

About the Moderators:

Mary Elizabeth Lawson is a musician, singer of songs, and writer based in the Midwest. She performs under the stage name, Mesonjixx. Alongside music and performance Mary works in arts and culture as an independent contractor and grassroots organizer. She is interested in building new worlds with artists and destroying systems of supremacy and hierarchy – not only in the world around her but also her inner world. She believes that we all are worthy of having our needs met, and that we don’t have to die trying to meet them.

Anna McClellan is a songwriter born and based in Omaha, NE. She records and releases music under her given name. She is currently in school to become an electrician, teaches piano lessons part time and works at a coffee shop. Forever interested in getting closer and closer to the hearts of matters, examination and excavation of self are central to her work.

To celebrate the closing of X, at Amplify's Generator Space, X at Lynch Park on Friday, April 21st from 6pm-8pm, invites participants to come together at Lynch Park for food, music, and skateboarding. Exhibition organizers will reposition work from the exhibition and the community feedback gathered during it's 4-week run in the physical space of the park to contextualize and make meaning of the connections between skateboarding, community, and place.

Free and open to all, please register to attend. This is an outdoor event that might include periods of sitting, walking, and standing. Face masks are not required but always welcome.

About X:

X marks a spot. X checks a box. In policy-making, X represents a variable that anticipates meaning. It’s a stand-in, a proxy for metrics designed to assess the “value” of place that transforms the way our city looks, moves, and feels at an unimpassioned distance. X, Amplify’s next Generator Grant exhibition organized by Brenton Gomez, pushes against mechanical by the numbers community engagement to forge a deeper understanding of place–one place in particular, Lynch Park–and the people and processes that continue to shape it.

A once disused tennis court on 20th and Martha, Lynch Park has become integral to the fabric of Omaha’s skate community and its DIY ethos of creating space together. Initiatives led by the Nebraska Skateparks Council in 2020 saved the park from threats of demolition by the City and opened the door to substantive and ongoing community-informed engagement at the grassroots level. X continues that work.

The exhibition transposes the material and ideological realities of the park onto the gallery space with graffiti, skate ramps, photographs, and opportunities for visitors to share their experiences and feedback that will be key in shaping the park’s future.

• Exhibition Dates: March 10th - April 21st, 2023

• Opening Reception: March 10th; 6pm - 9pm

• X at Lynch Park: April 21st; 6pm - 8pm

• Regular Gallery Hours: Thursdays and Fridays; 1pm - 5pm by appointment.

Generator Grant programming is presented with support from the Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.

About the Artists: 

Brenton Gomez is a skateboarder, emcee, and poet who braids family, community, and the Chicano culture of a flyover state into lyrics that are equal parts petition and prayer. Oldies, doo wop, hip hop, punk rock, drum & bass, pop music, and psychedelia converge in a cacophony of influences distilled by notions of what it means to belong. 

Juan Lopez (Lopez) is an artist and South High graduate seeking to build community through his graffiti practice. The variation of styles and forms graffiti offers make it a constant source of motivation, learning, and collaboration.

Brandon Price is South Omaha Native, steel worker, and visual artist. You've definitely seen his artwork hanging around town in one way or another. 

Dan Moreno has been capturing the local skateboarding scene through photography and video since 2001. Throughout the years his passion has been to display the beauty, art, skill, and community of those who share this love. These days Dan is enjoying his career as a trading analyst, and spends his free time with his daughter and fiancé. 

Ty Wegener is the owner of Wags Sign Co., a local traditional hand painted sign shop. Since 2016, Wegener’s main focus has been quality hand-painted lettering in Omaha. Ty employs traditional and modern methods to create visually appealing and long lasting custom hand painted signs. No matter the size or scope, Ty’s approach is meant to communicate identity, process, and history. 

Is it possible to divorce creative practice from the trappings of capitalism and the market forces that propel it forward? How do artists, organizers, and cultural practitioners question and challenge the art world’s entanglements in US imperialism, neoliberal globalization, and consumer capitalism?

Join Dawaune Lamont Hayes, Parker Krieg, Bilgesu Sisman, and Jared Packard during Amplify’s next virtual Alternate Currents panel discussion, Doing Well / Doing Good: Anti-Capitalism for Artists, Wednesday, March 29th at 7pm CST, for a conversation that examines how artists are aligning their practices with anti-capitalist orientations, and the movement lineages they come from, to build relationships, rest, and work toward regenerative futures. 

Register on Zoom, Facebook, or Amplify’s website. You will receive a confirmation email with a link to join the discussion on Zoom after registering. And don’t forget to visit the Alternate Currents blog  to read related posts before the discussion. 

www.amplifyarts.org/alternate-currents

Alternate Currents incubates artist-led responses to the systemic challenges we face by centering creative research, collaboration, and critical dialogue both on- and off-line. Together, the Alternate Currents Blog, Discussion Series, and Working Group hold space for critical discourse around national and international issues in the arts that have a profound impact at the local level.

Free and open to all. Alternate Currents programming is presented with support from the Sherwood Foundation, the Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.

About the Panelists:

Dawaune Lamont Hayes: Dawaune was born, raised, and loved on the land of the Umoⁿhoⁿ, Omaha Nation, The People Who Move Against the Current. They are a Regenerative Artist and Cultural Curator who works at the intersections of natural expression, historical reconciliation, and restorative futurism. They explore visual and performing arts, from burlesque dance to digital photography and collage to visualize their experience and those of their ancestors. As a Spatial Practitioner, they believe in helping people reconnect to the natural world and embracing the innate joy of being an animal in space, without the limiting burdens of consumerist modernity.

They live by the mantra “Clean Air, Clean Water, Good Food, Good Weed, Best Friends.” Wherein they find peace in the essentials of life and symbiosis with people, place, and planet.

Their photography documents young people, especially Black Men, in relationship to Mother Nature in urban environments while finding peace between the concrete.

You can learn more about Dawaune’s work at www.dawaune.one.

Parker Krieg: C. Parker Krieg teaches in the Exploratory Studies program and English at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He previously taught in the Global Studies program at UN-Lincoln, and held a postdoctoral fellowship in environmental humanities at the University of Helsinki in Finland, affiliated with the Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science. His research and teaching focuses on twentieth and twenty-first century American literature and culture, environmental justice, and cultural memory studies.

Bilgesu Sisman: Originally from Istanbul, Turkey, Bilgesu is a writer, researcher, educator, and film programmer with a background in philosophy and a deep love for cinema. Bilgesu’s work as a creative writer and filmmaker focuses on female-driven narratives, often in the form of psychological and philosophical mysteries, thrillers and fantastical fiction that meditate on our encounters with the unknown - whether personal, existential, or socio-political. As a PhD candidate in Philosophy at DePaul University, Chicago, her thesis explores the political history of necroviolence (i.e. posthumous corporal violence) and argues for its formative role in state power. In addition to political philosophy, Bilgesu taught courses on subjectivity, psychoanalysis, affects, memory, trauma, and film theory. She currently works as the Interim Programming Director at Film Streams in Omaha, Nebraska.

Jared Packard: Jared Packard is an artist and curator based in Omaha, NE where he is the Exhibitions Manager at The Bemis Center for Contemporary Art. Packard completed his BA at Clark University and his MFA at School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has curated the NEA-funded unLOCK: Merging Art and Industry, Lockport, IL; an urban curatorial experiment, Stumble Chicago; the nationally traveling exhibition, ReTooled: Highlights from the Hechinger Collection; and (Re)Flex Space, Sullivan Galleries, Chicago, IL. He has shown his work at ADDS DONNA, Chicago, IL; Baltimore Gallery, Detroit, MI; Sullivan Galleries, Chicago, IL; Centre International d’Art Contemporain, Pont-Aven, France; Hillyer Art Space, Washington, D.C.; Shiltkamp Gallery, Worcester, MA.

Amplify Arts’ Artist Grants program supports Omaha-area artists and organizers who orient their practices toward building more economically, environmentally, and racially just futures. These unrestricted awards provide seed funding and direct financial support to artists actively engaged in challenging dominant systems, expanding their practices, and engaging with their communities.

Interested in learning more? Join Amplify staff Thursday, February 23rd at 12pm for a virtual Artist Grants Info Session to hear more about the program, the application process, and how an Artist Grant can support your practice. Come with thoughts, questions, and please share with others who might be interested.

Register to attend this virtual Info Session. After registering, you'll receive a confirmation email with a link to join the Zoom meeting.

More about Amplify’s Artist Grants:
Artist Grants are awarded in individual amounts of $500 or $1,000. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis and reviewed quarterly (March, June, September, December). Our goal is to award at least half (51%) of all Artist Grants to artists and organizers who self-identify as a member of a community or communities that have historically faced discrimination or been denied access to institutional support based on race, ethnicity, national origin, differing abilities, sexual orientation, or gender identity

For the full award description and to apply, click here: https://amplifyarts.submittable.com/submit

Alternate Currents holds space for critical discourse around national and international issues in the arts across multiple platforms. Together, the Alternate Currents Blog, Discussion Series, and Working Group incubate artist-led responses to the systemic challenges we face by centering creative research, collaboration, and critical dialogue.

Throughout 2022, Alternate Currents worked to address issues surrounding the economic, social, and environmental dimensions that shape our understanding of what it means to be in, of, or from a place. The Alternate Currents Working Group, a cohort of arts workers and cultural practitioners, moved those conversations forward, meeting monthly to consider how different aspects of place are held and cared for when approaching site-informed work.

The question that surfaced again and again during group discussions was a complex and open-ended one: How can a creative practice oriented toward understanding place expand notions of what it means to belong? This Place: An Alternate Currents Working Group Reader collects Alternate Currents Working Group members’ projects crafted in response.

To celebrate its publication and launch, Alternate Currents Working Group members will be in conversation with one another at the Ashton at Millwork Commons on Wednesday, January 25th at 7pm. They’ll talk more about their experiences working collaboratively over the course of the year and the potential creative practice holds to examine belonging at the boundaries of geography, language, and discipline.

Free and open to all. Alternate Currents programming is presented with the support of the Sherwood Foundation, the Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment, and in partnership with Millwork Commons.

Please register through Eventbrite to join us for this in-person event. Please be aware that there is ongoing construction at Millwork Commons. We encourage you to arrive a few minutes early if traveling by car to find parking which is available on Nicholas between N 11th and N 14th Streets or behind the Hello Apartments off N 12th Street. Please reference this map for directions. Guests are invited to sit on risers or chairs during the program. Risers are uniform and each riser is approximately 20 inches tall. Entrances and exits at the Ashton are wheelchair accessible. Face masks are welcome and encouraged.

This Place: An Alternate Currents Working Group Reader will be available after the event through Amplify’s website and at stockists in Omaha, New York, and Los Angeles. Email peter@amplifyarts.org to reserve your copy.

2022 Alternate Currents Working Group:

Katie Bettin is an urban grower among other working titles. She received her formal education at Colorado State University and has spent the last 2 years in Omaha involved in urban agriculture projects. She has worked predominantly on the nonprofit side of food access and food production. Currently, she is working to navigate away from nonprofit food production efforts to explore alternative modes for establishing an equitable, dependable, and interdependent shift in the growing and distribution of local food.

Caitlin Cass makes comics and installations about failing systems and irrational hope. Her recent installation at the Burchfield Penney Art Center examined radical imagination in U.S. suffrage history. Since 2009, Caitlin has published a bi-monthly comic periodical called the Great Moments in Western Civilization Postal Constituent. Her comics and cartoons have also appeared in The New Yorker, The Lily and The Nib. Caitlin was a 2018 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Fiction. She earned her MFA from the University at Buffalo, SUNY and recently relocated from Buffalo to Omaha to teach as Assistant Professor of Studio Art, Illustration and Time-Based Media at the University of Nebraska Omaha.

Daniel Castañeda (Sedra D’) is a Universal Observer, Pachamama warrior, and Indigenous kid. His work draws on his Aztec-Mexica and Mexican roots and the traditions of his ancestors to connect past, present and future.

Shannon Elder was born and raised in Omaha, NE. She is a self-taught writer of poetry. Through writing she uses language and form to interpret the meaning of experience, emotions, and connection. With this intention, she incorporates other disciplines into her work such as illustration and collage. She is a past participant of the Omaha Zine Fest. Her inspirations include Eileen Myles, Shira Erlichman, Adrienne Rich, and her grandmother’s stories. Currently attending UNO, she is studying for an MBA in Sustainability in hopes to better improve the way we think about our options and impact in the spaces we exist.

Alex Jacobsen is an artist based in Omaha, NE, whose work focuses on the plasticity of sound and aims to provide audiences with a deeper understanding of their spatial-temporal environments. He received his Bachelors of Music from the University of Nebraska at Kearney in 2017. His work has been shown and performed across the Midwest and Europe, including Radiophrenia Art Festival, ESS’s Quarantine Concert Series, and Omaha Under the Radar.

Holly Lukasiewicz explores prairie-inspired botanical design through an impact-conscious lens of sustainability as District 2 Floral Studio, valuing land ecosystem health over trending aesthetics. Holly’s background is in K-12 arts education, and she continues to guide creative-making experiences with community groups as a teaching artist with nonprofits, seeing these connections as a way for participants to grow compassion toward self and others. Holly supports the role of creative practices as an approach to activism, weaving awareness and action around environmental, social and economic concerns.

David Muñoz is an up and coming artist whose main focus is acting. He's studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and the Upstanding Citizens Brigade in New York City for four years. He's worked with sketch teams and improve shows while working with an acting coach to better hone his craft. At the beginning of the pandemic, he was working with Hunter College and an indie theatre company to help develop a new show. Slated to assist the director with their planned tour. Unfortunately once the pandemic reached the city everything had shut down and he had to move back home to Omaha, to help support his mother. He's been trying to upstart his career in a new location since August of last year. He has plans to work with an indie theatre company here in Omaha with hopes to perform, produce, direct and write his own productions in the upcoming future.

Nathaniel Ruleaux (he/him) is an award-winning artist and culture worker currently located on unceded land of the Umónhon & Očhéthi Šakówiŋ in Nebraska. A partner, father, and member of the Oglala Lakota Nation, his work combines modern art with traditional indigenous imagery. He is a founding member of Unceded Artist Collective, and sits on the board of the Omaha Area Youth Orchestras. Recently, he created work for the national Indigenous Futures Survey 2.0 campaign. In addition to creating visual art, he is a classically-trained actor and educator. He received his MFA in Theatre from the University of Houston’s School of Theatre and Dance after receiving a BA in Theatre Performance at the Johnny Carson School of Theatre & Film at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

Lee Running makes sculptures and drawings using roadkill animal bones, glass, paper, fabric, fur, raw pigments, and gold. Her training as a traditional papermaker allows her to manipulate materials and process as well as maintain the discipline of a fine craft. Her sculptures, installation and performance work are deeply connected to place. Her work has been exhibited internationally, at the National Taiwan University of the Arts, Taipei, Taiwan, The Morris Graves Museum, Eureka, CA, The Dubuque Museum of Art, Dubuque, IA, Western Carolina University Fine Art Museum, Cullowhee, North Carolina, the Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA, and The Charlotte Street Foundation, Kansas City, KS.

Joelle Wellansa Sandfort is an interdisciplinary artist living in Omaha, NE. She makes drawings, textiles and installations using mostly second hand materials. She is the current Facilitator of Fleabane Gallery and a 2022 member of the Amplify Arts Alternate Currents Working group. Her work has been exhibited at Elder Gallery (Lincoln), Eisentrager-Howard Gallery (Lincoln), Tugboat Gallery (Lincoln), Confluence (Lincoln), San Paro (Lincoln) and Sanctuarium (Omaha). Joelle earned her BA in Art from Nebraska Wesleyan in 2018.

Amplify's Artist Grants program is 5-years-old. To mark that milestone, we're celebrating!

Join us on December 18th at Slowdown from 3-5pm for food by Lola's, drinks, and performances by 3GYPT, Conny Franko, and Vōx Dance Collective, all amazing artists who call Omaha home.

We'll also release new editioned works: Thunderbird by Sarah Rowe and Grid (x Grid) by Angie Seykora! Each edition will be available for pre-order leading up to Grid and for sale during the event at the special price of $75 each. Editions will be available through Amplify's website after Grid at the regular price of $100 each. Click here to learn more.

Is there a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon?!? Join us as we look back at where we've been, share more about what's to come, and most importantly, celebrate the artists who work every day to make Omaha a more vibrant, thoughtful, and inclusive place.

Online ticket sales close at 10am on December 18th. Tickets will also be available at the door. 2 drinks are included in your $10 ticket purchase price.

Performance Schedule:

• 3:20pm: 3GYPT

• 3:50pm: Conny Franko

• 4:20pm: Vōx Dance Collective

People of all ages, including kids, are welcome. Some performances may include mature themes and strong language. Please use your best discretion or email peter@amplifyarts.org with questions.

Slowdown is ADA compliant and wheelchair accessible. Free parking is available in the venue’s east parking lot which faces Charles Schwab Field. Metered street parking on the west and south sides of the venue is also available.

Masks are welcome and encouraged.

About the performers:

3GYPT is a self-taught musician and artist. Inspired by Erykah Badu, Sade, Aaliyah, Dezarie, Jah-9, and her travels through Jamaica, she reorients the often male-dominated genres of Reggae and Dub to focus the stories of women of color in her music. Giving voice to empathy, self-love, and justice, 3GYPT crafts songs that hold space for both hurt and healing.

Conny Franko is a skateboarder, emcee, and poet who braids family, community, and the Chicano culture of a flyover state into lyrics that are equal parts petition and prayer. Oldies, doo wop, hip hop, punk rock, black metal, drum & bass, pop music, and psychedelia converge in a cacophony of influences distilled by notions of what it means to belong.

Vōx Dance Collective was created to challenge dominant systems and hierarchical power structures by foregrounding collaboration in high-energy, evocative contemporary and modern dance performances. In their work, the body becomes a medium to build honest, authentic relationships between performers and audience alike.

About the special editions:

Sarah Rowe is an interdisciplinary artist based in Omaha, NE. Her work opens cross cultural dialogues by utilizing methods of painting, casting, fiber arts, performance, and Native American ceremony in unconventional ways. Rowe’s work is participatory, a call to action, and re-imagines traditional Native American symbology to fit the narrative of today’s global landscape. Rowe holds a BA in Studio Art from Webster University, studying in St. Louis, MO, and Vienna, Austria. She is of Lakota and Ponca descent.

A former grant recipient and multi-year program participant, Sarah designed a functional piece for Amplify’s Editions program. This wearable fleece-lined hooded blanket is completely covered in Sarah’s Thunderbird print. Originally a woodcut, Thunderbird has been replicated here using an all-over-printing method that reveals the image’s intricacies in an entirely new way. Cozy and bold, Thunderbird will warm body and soul.

• Edition size: 30

• Date: 2022

• Materials: All-over-printing on a poly-spandex blend wearable fleece-lined blanket

• Dimensions: One size fits most; 36.6” from the shoulder to the bottom seam; 28.3” from shoulder to shoulder; 61.4” bust

• Care: Machine wash cold with similar colors, hang dry, do not bleach or dry clean, iron on low without steam only when needed

Angie Seykora received an MFA in Sculpture from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. In 2018 Seykora was the recipient of an Unrestricted Artist Grant from Amplify Arts and in 2016, was recognized as a Distinguished Artist by the the Nebraska Arts Council through the award of an Individual Artist Fellowship. In 2013, she was presented with the Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture award from the International Sculpture Center, where she was selected for the Art-St-Urban Sculpture Residency in St. Urban, Switzerland. Angie Seykora is an instructor of sculpture at Creighton University. Her work is exhibited and collected on a national and international level.

A multi-year grant recipient and program participant, Angie’s investigation into the formal relationships between line, color, shape, and texture continues with Grid (x Grid). Using reclaimed plastic mesh, Angie collects, weaves, and reimagines the material stuff that makes up more and more of our world. Available as individual works, this edition also stuns in larger groupings.

• Edition size: Series of 50 unique works in various colorways

• Date: 2022

• Materials: Plastic mesh, beads, adhesive, paper

• Dimensions: 6” x 6” (each)