Current Programming
Exhibition Lecture Series
All exhibition lectures are free and open to the public. RSVP required.
Curator Talk | | Susana Grajales Geliga, Ph. D | Mark Gilbert Ph. D | Christine Beard, Ph. D | Samuel Bak
Bak to Basics: Chess for All Ages
All sessions are free and open to the public. Please RSVP in pairs - limited to 12 attendees.
April 13 | May 4 | | June 15 | June 29
Emerging Artist Series
All emerging artist workshops are free and open to the public. RSVP required.
Mari Dailey | Liz Boutin | | Viy | Chelsea Kavich
Curator Talk - Thursday, February 13, 6:00 PM
Chief Curator of Samuel Bak Museum: The Learning Center, will introduce the key themes of the new exhibition War Games. The talk will be followed by a tour of the exhibition for a closer look at specific paintings in the exhibit.
Speaker: Alexandra Cardon
Exhibition Lecture - Thursday, March 13, 6:00 PM
Archives versus Experiences: Native American Children in the Boarding School System
Susan Geliga, Ph.D will discuss working on the archives of the Genoa Indian School in Genoa, NE as well as present her research on Native American children during the boarding school era. Dr. Geliga (Sicangu Lakota) is an Assistant Professor of History and Native American Studies at University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO), as well as a member of the Executive Council. She is also a co-director for the Genoa Indian School Digital Reconciliation Project at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus.
This is a FREE event, but preregistration is required.
Speaker: Susanna Geliga, Ph.D.
Emerging Artist Series with Mari Dailey - Saturday, April 5, 2-4 PM
After reflecting on life and dreamt perspectives, participants will learn how to create snapshot narratives. They will then draw these out on birch panels employing techniques of shading.
Artist Bio: Mari Dailey graduated from the University of Arizona after a childhood growing up around the world. She settled in Omaha 10 years ago and built a ceramics practice. In the last few years, she began drawing on birch panels, playing with narratives, and imagined landscapes.
This is a FREE event, but preregistration is required.
Exhibtion Lecture - Thursday, April 10, 6:00 PM
The Healing Power of Art
Creating portraits is a complex process that necessitates a series of profound interactions, fostering an environment conducive to open communication between the artist and the sitter. Mark Gilbert, Ph.D will discuss how such environments cultivate significant relationships that inspire reflection on often overlooked intersections of art, medicine, aesthetics, and ethics. Dr. Gilbert will emphasize how his experiences as an artist, particularly in engaging with individuals who have endured trauma and suffering, have led to nuanced insights regarding the therapeutic potential of art, impacting both the artist and the subject alike.
This is a FREE event, but preregistration is required.
Speaker: Mark Gilbert, Ph. D
Bak to Basics: Chess for All Ages - Sunday, April 13, 1:00 PM
Join us for a family friendly introductory chess program.
This youth program is for age 10 and above to learn about chess and magical realism in Samuel Bak’s paintings. Participants will engage in a brief history of chess followed by a lesson on how to play chess. This program is designed for beginning players and seasoned chess players who enjoy helping others learn.
This is a FREE event, but preregistration is required.
Please RSVP in pairs - limited to 12 attendees. Youth participants must have an adult partner in attendance.
Emerging Artist Series with Liz Boutin - Saturday, April 26, 2-4 PM
After a discussion on color, emotion, and symbolism participants will use paint, markers, and pencils on an 8" x 8" canvas to visually explore life experiences, whether from childhood or adulthood. At the end of the workshop, we will have everyone bring together their works and create a visual mural to show their unique way of expressing themselves through art.
Artist Bio: Liz Boutin is a local artist with a BA in Art History, a BFA, and an MA in Museum Studies. She is an advocate for the healing power of art after experiencing trauma. Liz believes expressionism in art can help one process one's emotions.
This is a FREE event, but preregistration is required.
Emerging Artist Series with Viy - Saturday, May 3, 2-4 PM
Participants will be invited to bring in ‘parts of themselves’, things they’ve been holding onto, things hidden in junk drawers and trunks in the attic. We will look at the collection of objects brought in collectively, talk about the memories held within them, the stories they tell. Participants will then be invited to transform the objects they’ve brought in while discussing the cyclical process of decay, repair, and the hope one must have to work within this cycle.
Artist Bio: Viy is a self-proclaimed refuse artist, working in refuse, refusal, and re-fusing. Their practice focuses on the history and materiality of objects, breaking them down in order to understand them so they can be reconfigured and re-contextualized as art objects.
This is a FREE event, but preregistration is required.
Bak to Basics: Chess for All Ages - Sunday, May 4, 1:00 PM
Join us for a family friendly introductory chess program.
This youth program is for age 10 and above to learn about chess and magical realism in Samuel Bak’s paintings. Participants will engage in a brief history of chess followed by a lesson on how to play chess. This program is designed for beginning players and seasoned chess players who enjoy helping others learn.
This is a FREE event, but preregistration is required.
Please RSVP in pairs - limited to 12 attendees. Youth participants must have an adult partner in attendance.
Exhibition Lecture - Saturday, May 10, 2:00 PM
War Games - Music of Lullabies, Nightmares, and Child's Play
UNO's Professor of Flute, Dr. Christine Beard, joined by talented students, alumni, and faculty from the UNO School of Music, will present a deeply moving concert featuring powerful compositions crafted to offer comfort, spotlight the harrowing impact of war on children, and give a voice to the voiceless. Experience music that serves as a beacon of hope, illuminating the path toward a brighter tomorrow.
This is a FREE event, but preregistration is required.
Speaker: Christine Beard, Ph.D.
Emerging Artist Series with Chelsea Kavich - Saturday, May 24, 2-4 PM
This workshop will take place after a screening of the documentary film Fragments. The film explores the archive as a site of geography, specifically in the aftermath of war. What does our own personal, bodily geography look like in a world increasingly shaped by global culture & war? This workshop will focus on conversation, writing, and reflection, to look beyond the traditional linear nature of autobiography. We will explore our history through a discussion of personal recollections.
Arist Bio: Chelsea Kavich (she/they) is an emerging artist in areas of documentary, photography, and film. She hopes for her art to serve as a medium for thought, community, play, and a means by which to process the possibilities of who we, each other, and our world are. Chelsea is the founder of a previous poetry workshop called Corner's Space, where creatives in the community were invited to write, share, and grow through poetic form. Chelsea is influenced by the power of connection and healing possible in the community. She is currently working toward an MSW at the University of Nebraska - Omaha. She is interested in how the systems we live in and the systems socialized inside us keep us from ourselves and hopes to use art to find ways of meaningful return.
This is a FREE event, but preregistration is required.
Exhibition Lecture - Saturday, June 14, 2:00 PM
An Afternoon with Samuel Bak
Samuel Bak will join Chief Curator Alexandra Cardon via a live Zoom conversation to discuss the Museum’s current exhibition War Games, including Bak's 2024 series Tools of the Trade. This in-person program will include an in-depth look at how Bak’s works represent his fears for children whose lives and futures are destroyed by war while providing hope through his unending belief in humanity’s ability to mend and bring peace. After the 50-minute conversation, there will be a Q& A session.
This is a FREE event, but preregistration is required.
Speaker: Samuel Bak
Bak to Basics: Chess for All Ages - Sunday, June 15, 1:00 PM
Join us for a family friendly introductory chess program.
This youth program is for age 10 and above to learn about chess and magical realism in Samuel Bak’s paintings. Participants will engage in a brief history of chess followed by a lesson on how to play chess. This program is designed for beginning players and seasoned chess players who enjoy helping others learn.
This is a FREE event, but preregistration is required.
Please RSVP in pairs - limited to 12 attendees. Youth participants must have an adult partner in attendance.
Bak to Basics: Chess for All Ages - Sunday, June 29, 1:00 PM
Join us for a family friendly introductory chess program.
This youth program is for age 10 and above to learn about chess and magical realism in Samuel Bak’s paintings. Participants will engage in a brief history of chess followed by a lesson on how to play chess. This program is designed for beginning players and seasoned chess players who enjoy helping others learn.
This is a FREE event, but preregistration is required.
Please RSVP in pairs - limited to 12 attendees. Youth participants must have an adult partner in attendance.