Omaha artist Emmy Gifford's costume designs now on display
The exhibit runs from June 1 through September 8, 2017 on the first floor of Criss Library.
Set design drawing by Emmy Gifford for the play "The Snow Queen."
Costume design for giraffes by Emmy Gifford for the 1977 production of "The Rainbow Express." The watercolor includes a fabric sample.
Costume design by Emmy Gifford for the 1981 production of "The Sleeping Beauty." The watercolor includes a fabric sample.
Portrait of Emmy Gifford by her daughter J. Nebraska Gifford on the cover of the program for the event honoring Gifford. Oscar-winning Omaha native Henry Fonda was a guest at the celebration and autographed the cover of this copy of the program.
Omaha artist and theater-founder Emmy Gifford designed costumes and sets for dozens of Omaha children’s theater productions helping to create wide-ranging characters from hobbits to otters to bugs for decades. “What Is It Supposed To Look Like?”: Emmy Gifford’s Costume Designs on display in Archives & Special Collections showcases dozens of Gifford’s drawings and supporting material from the latter part of her years with what Omahans know today as the Rose Theater.
The designs evoke the personality of the characters with some of the eye-catching fabric samples for queens, ants, and other characters still attached to the drawings. Artist Emmy Gifford was the main founder of the Omaha Junior Theater in 1948, and her decades of dedication was honored in 1977 when the company was renamed the Emmy Gifford Children’s Theater in her honor.
All of the items on display are from the Omaha Theater Company Records, 1948-2014. The collection includes over 35 cubic feet of photographs, programs, designs, correspondence, marketing material, and other administrative records and is part of UNO Libraries’ Archives & Special Collections.