One of Pamela Jo Berry’s cross pieces

When I first posted this, I wrote about the subject of this story, “Pamela Jo Berry is a photographer who doesn’t like her picture taken.”  I could have added that she also doesn’t allow her picture to be used without her permission.  That’s still true but she has since relented to let me post a self-portrait she created.  The fact that we’ve became a couple since I wrote this story may help account  for this change of mind.  She’s still very shy and particular about her image.  What you will see in this self-portrait, which is broken up into two images here, is her heart.  The mixed media artist displays her big, warm heart in everything she does, including the North Omaha Summer Arts festival she just dreamed up herself and has staged three consecutive years now out of her own pocket and with in-kind donations from friends, fellow artists, and supporters.  The grassroots event is very much an expression of her passion for art in all its many forms,  her deep spirituality, and her abiding love for her North Omaha community.  As always, this year’s featival culminates in an Arts Crawl up and down a section of North 30th Street that not coincidentally is also her neighborhood.  The crawl runs from 6 to 9 p.m. and Berry’s organized an eclectic roster of artists to show their work.  Berry’s done something here that should be a lesson to us all.  She saw a need for more public art in her community and instead of bemoaning its absence she went about creating a festival that brings art there.

Matter of the heart: Pamela Jo Berry’s love for community brings art fest to North Omaha

©by Leo Adam Biga

Originally appeared in The Reader (www.thereader.com)

Pamela Jo Berry saw a need for more art offerings in the section of northeast Omaha where she resides and decided to do something about it.

With the help of friends and venues the photographer and mixed media artist created North Omaha Summer Arts (NOSA) in 2011 to serve the area north of Ames Ave. along the 30th Street corridor, The free public festival is a homespun hodgepodge of writing and quilting classes, a gospel concert and an arts crawl. She says all of it’s “open to anyone interested in participating.”

“It actually came about as wanting to put a taste of art in the area,” she says.

This year’s festival has already seen: a Creative Writing Journey for Women workshop series taught by best-selling romance novelist Kim Whiteside (who publishes under Kim Louise) of Omaha; and a Free Motion Quilting course taught by former Union for Contemporary Art resident Shea Wilkinson.

A free home-cooked dinner was served before each class.

The June 22 gospel concert at Miller Park featured the Cadence Ensemble, Highly Favored and Eric and Doriette Jordan.

That leaves the August 9 Arts Crawl, from 6 to 9 p.m., featuring artists, art talks and homemade food and refreshments at the following sites:

Metropolitan Community College, Fort Omaha Campus, Mule Barn (Building 21) – Bart Vargas

Church of the Resurrection, 3004 Belvedere Blvd. Work and art talk by sculptress Pamela Conyers-Hinson

Blessed Sacrament Church, 6316 North 30th St.

Trinity Lutheran Church, 6340 North 30th St.

Jehovah Shammah Church International, 3020 Huntington Ave.

Parkside Baptist Church, 3008 Newport Ave.

Solomon Girls Center/Heartland Family Service, 6720 North 30th St.

Other artists featured in the Arts Crawl include: Whiteside, Wilkerson, Peggy Jones, Linda Garcia, Reginald LeFlore III and Gerard Pefung.

Berry’s also showing her own work.

It’s only natural for Berry to utilize churches because she’s a deeply spiritual woman who sees the festival, like her own artwork, as a faith-led mission.

“It’s just an extension of who I am as a follower of Christ.”

The normally shy Berry, whose extrovert daughter is local actress and playwright Beaufield Berry puts herself out there with NOSA because she feels called to it

“When you see something as a ministry you kind of go with it,” she says. “This gives me a chance to share. North Omaha Summer Arts is quite important to me.”

She sees NOSA as a much needed asset for an underserved community challenged by poverty, crime, scarce amenities and a perception problem.

“In the area of North Omaha where we live we could find no art,” she says. “We knew it was there, we just had to uncover it. We knew art would bring hope and peace and most of all community to our neighborhood. We’ve seen it grow, we’ve noticed the interest and the benefits…and we want it to continue to flourish.”

Nebraska Arts Council Heritage Arts Manager Deborah Bunting says NOSA is part of the new energy and sense of community being built in North O.

Berry, who works with Omaha Community Playhouse education director Denise Chapman in organizing the fest, says while the number of people who engage with NOSA is still small it positions North O as a place of beauty, creativity and potential.

“The impact of art in places deemed ‘artless’, the impact of music to create growth and connectedness, the impact of strangers coming together for a common goal of creativity, creating opportunity, is magical. We want the community of North Omaha, particularly the youth, to open themselves up to creativity, of what is possible and to be a part of.”

Berry, who regularly attends Trinity Lutheran, says her pastors, Revs. John and Liz Backus, “have been very supportive” as have pastors at other churches she’s enlisted.

John Backus admires Berry’s efforts.

“Her open spirit is a challenge to everyone to make things better. She successfully combines her passion for her art with her passion for the world around her. Her contribution has been of unimaginable value in bringing one more hope to the North Omaha area, cultural opportunities, and the chance to meet neighbors in an atmosphere of elevation and inspiration.”

Berry says her decision to create NOSA was much like her decision 20-plus years ago as a young single mother to make art her life.

“I just made a choice one day to go ahead and try it and do it.”

She succeeded too with commissions, exhibitions, Nebraska Arts Council residencies and a Mid-America Arts Alllance fellowship. Just as her art career got in full swing a series of challenges, including a chronic illness, interrupted her plans. It’s taken time for her to learn to budget her energy.

“What you do is end up trying to work your life around it and try to make it work around your life, but you’ve got to take your time with it, so you step back and you slowly come back into it. It’s almost like I’m starting over again with creating.”

She’s producing and exhibiting again. She currently has a show of mixed media work in the Mulitcultural Affairs office at Creighton University’s Harper Building.

“Art opportunities keep popping up. I guess this is my time to be an artist again. I’m making things from found objects. In my last show I had older images shown along with the new images I’ve made. All of it’s an expression of the spiritual side of my life.”

She says a turning point in her artistic life came with photographing the homeless, “It helped me to understand that in order to tell a true story the subject needs to be a partner and shown the same respect I would want.”

“Going through changes you realize your flaws,” she says. “I’m not perfect, nobody is. So now when I make the artwork I am not so set on making it perfect. I make it from the heart. It’s very liberating.”

That same easy attitude infuses NOSA. Berry appreciates that after a long lull the 24th and Lake Street hub is alive with arts activities again thanks to Loves Jazz and Arts Center, Carver Bank, the Union for Contemporary Art and the Great Plains Black History Museum. NOSA fills a gap further north and offers programs the others don’t. She likes that NOSA has a quirky, do-its-own-thing vibe.

“You can do that when you’re not paying attention to what everyone else is saying. You’re free to do whatever you want to.”

In putting NOSA together Berry calls on fellow African American female creatives.

“There are artists I admire and am friends with. I’m not walking this myself believe me.”

The artists feel a kinship with Berry, whose big heart and bright spirit they respond to. Peggy Jones says of Berry, “She is committed, passionate and has great love for both the arts and her community. Pam is a tireless advocate for helping people tell their own stories and create art because she is a true believer in the way the arts can be used for expression as well as heal and connect disparate groups.”

Berry likes that she and her “sisters” produce a festival that not only gets people to experience different forms of art but that gives them a chance to create art and to get it seen. Students in the creative writing class pen pieces published in an anthology and students in the quilting class get their work shown in the Arts Crawl.

For Berry, it’s all about giving North O its due.

“I love my community.”

For details visit http://www.facebook.com/NorthOmahaSummerArts.

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