Leo Adam Biga's My Inside Stories

Dear Friends,

TONIGHT is the NORTH OMAHA SUMMER ARTS CRAWL! Friday, August 14 from 6 to 9 pm

Make the stroll or the drive to venues up and down and around North 30th Street for great art and food. All free.

North Omaha native, resident, artist and advocate Pamela Jo Berry saw a need for more art to be infused into her community. So she dreamed up something called North Omaha Summer Arts (NOSA) in order to bring art in all its forms into that underserved neighborhood. With the help of partners and collaborators she’s made it a reality.

This free, family-friendly arts festival for the community, by the community wraps up Year 5 with the annual Arts Crawl on Friday, August 14 from 6 to 9 p.m. The Arts Crawl happens at venues up and down and around North 30th Street. Take a stroll or drive from Metropolitan College Fort Omaha campus north to various churches to Heartland Family Service/Solomon Girls Center to enjoy inspiring visual art and soothing live music by on the radar and under the radar artists from the community.

Sample the work of artists in a wide variety of mediums. Meet some of the artists and watch some of them create in front of your eyes. Visual art work by Bart Vargas, Michael Girón, Shea Wilkinson, Pam Hinson, Gabrielle Gaines Liwaru. Brett Henderson, David Guy and many, many more metro artists.

Enjoy the handiwork of Omaha Fashion Week designers.

View a community peace mural.

Chill out to performances by Edem Soul Music Kegey, Kenneth Be, Marilyn Martinez and other musical artists.

Free refreshments and homemade snacks available at each stop.

“I am very excited about the fifth annual North Omaha Summer Arts Arts Crawl.” Berry says. “From 6 to 9 p.m. we have five locations showing beautiful art and serving really good food. New this year, the Washington Branch Library is hosting a reception from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. and there will be food and art there as well.

“The Arts Crawl features established artists and newcomers, all of whom love to share their art and its story with audiences. The food is wonderful at each stop. The deserts at Parkside Baptist Church are another work of art.”

The Arts Crawl lineup:
• Metropolitan Community College Fort Omaha campus, Mule Barn Building #21 New this year: Omaha Fashion Week at the Mule Barn

• Church of the Resurrection, 3004 Belvedere Blvd. (just northwest of 30th and Kansas Ave.)

• Trinity Lutheran Church, 6340 North 30th St. (30th and Redick) Featuring a Community Peace mural made by teens and seniors from the North Omaha Intergenerational Human Services Campus

• Parkside Baptist Church, 3008 Newport Ave. (30th and Newport Ave.)

• Heartland Family Service/Solomon Girls Center, 6720 North 30th St. (30th and Titus Ave.)

NEW THIS YEAR:
• Washington Branch Library, 2868 Ames Ave. is hosting an Arts Crawl reception from 5:30-6:30 p.m. Enjoy art and refreshments at the library.

Berry describes the Community Peace mural that a group of teens and seniors from the North Omaha Intergenerational Human Services Campus made under the direction of artist Pamela Hinson:

“This year we wanted to make a mural about North Omaha,” Berry says. “It is a beautiful, vibrant place to live, yes. even with all the attention on the violence and the issue of poverty. There are sweet, peaceful neighborhoods, people of different hues, faiths and languages, families of all generations in the parks, community gardens and small forests. And there is art in all forms.

“Many people care about North Omaha’s redevelopment and the well-being of the people. Better things are on the horizon. There is much prayer for peace in exchange for the violence that seems to linger in the in-between spaces here.. Our mural is about peace in and for North Omaha. Maybe as we focus on the good that can be found here, better ideas for mastering poverty and violence will come forth.”

The mural will be displayed at Trinity Lutheran Church during the Crawl.

The North Omaha Summer Arts team invites the general public from all over the metro to come participate in this important milestone of 5 years bringing art to North Omaha. Discover art and artists in our midst whose work deserves wider appreciation and recognition.

Before, during or after The Crawl, enjoy some of North Omaha’s other resources, including the Loves Jazz & Arts Center, the Carver Bank, the Union for Contemporary Art, the Bryant Center, Miller Park and the Malcolm X Memorial Foundation.

Visit the NOSA Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/NorthOmahaSummerArts and the NOSA Arts Crawl Facebook Event page.

For more information, email pamelajoh100@hotmail.com or call 402-502-4669/402-709-1359.

Thank you,

The North Omaha Summer Arts team

P.S. Please pass the word to friends, family, colleagues. Like and share our Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/NorthOmahaSummerArts. Visit and share our North Omaha Summer Arts Crawl Facebook Event page.