Polina Gardens Call for Public Art
Earlier this year, Amplify and Lauritzen Gardens teamed up to open a call for public art!
Lauritzen Gardens is a 100-acre public garden in the heart of Omaha. The organization believes in thoughtful, ecologically-minded practices and the curation of accessible, educational, and inspirational experiences that enhance lives.
Polina Gardens is Lauritzen Gardens’ first satellite location. Opening in June of 2026, the garden will offer a new, free-to-visit, green space in the heart of Omaha’s Old Market where nature, art, and community intertwine.
Spearheaded by Polina and Bob Schlott and designed by internationally acclaimed Dutch landscape designer Piet Oudolf, in collaboration with leading landscape design firm, Field Operations, this vibrant, urban oasis will be located between 12th and 13th Streets and Jones and Leavenworth Streets. With over 80 trees and 22,000 individual plants divided into four distinct garden areas, the naturalistic landscape will bring year-round interest to this city block featuring a mix of native plants and other flowers and foliage from across the country. Polina Gardens will also serve as a gathering space for garden-sponsored and private events.
As a result of the call for public art, artist Lee Emma Running was selected to realize “Switchgrass,” her proposal for a large-scale mural situated in the heart of the gardens. The work starts with monumental stainless steel forms based on tracings of switchgrass Running made at the Nebraska State Museum’s Bessey Herbarium. These will be mounted to the mural surface, sandblasted using ground walnut hulls, and then removed to reveal a relief image that reflects the interplay of light and shadow in the garden. Finally, the steel forms will be remounted to the surface and, alongside the relief images, bring about a dynamic material study of the space between permanence and loss.
Sharing more about her work, Running says:
“This work will not only be a study of the native grass, but a material study. The sandblasted marine plywood will age to a beautiful gray over the seasons, and the shaped steel will rust on the side that has been sandblasted. As the seasons change and the garden grows, this mural will change as well. The switchgrass will indeed ‘switch’ forms from object to shadow, and dark to light.”
“Switchgrass” will be completed in July of 2026.
About Lee Emma Running
Lee Emma Running is an artist based in Omaha who creates monumental public installations and arresting sculptures with cast iron, enamel, glass, bone, and handmade paper. She uses this work to engage audiences in conversations about the impact of human-built systems on the natural world.
Running was a Foundry Resident in the Arts/Industry program at Kohler Co. in 2023 and 2024. Permanent installations of her work can be viewed at the Omaha Central Public Library, the STEM trail at the University of Nebraska Omaha, the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Bernheim Arboretum. Her work has been featured in exhibitions at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Kaneko, and the Des Moines Art Center. She has been awarded residencies at Sloss Furnaces, Kohler Arts/Industry, Opera Omaha, Ucross, and the Santa Fe Art Institute