SEASON TICKETS ON SALE

OCT 27 & 29, 2023

DON PASQUALE

FEB 16 & 18, 2024

LA TRAVIATA

MAY 3 & 5, 2024

EL ÚLTIMO SUEÑO DE FRIDA Y DIEGO

(The Last Dream of Frida and Diego)

OPERAOMAHA.ORG/23-24

“We’ve had our ups and downs, burnout moments, and doubts about making this sustainable. That’s actually why we became a nonprofit,” Jochim explained. “We needed a direction to go with it. It couldn’t be grassroots anymore.”

A small core staff and around 45 dedicated volunteers keep BFF firing on al l cylinders.

“We’re here as a backbone consultant to businesses and organizations that want to get involved. We talk with them about best practices,” Jochim said. “We work with people about getting creative with their spaces. It doesn’t need to be a white wall gallery to showcase art or a creative element. It can even be window displays. It can be digital media. It can be having a performer out in front of your business.”

All of it, he said, “provides more opportunities for emerging artists and, I feel we’ve had a big impact on t hat front.”

“I feel like we’re still growing our roots and getting our foundation. It’s taken us a while to crack that foundation code for funding,” Jochim continued, noting his transition to working BFF full time. “Before, I didn’t have the capacity to dedicate what this organization needed.”

Now that state legislation has designated Benson a creative district, he’s involved in shaping its future.

“Once we hire someone to run that, I feel like it’s going to be unstoppable because the creative district (a Nebraska Arts Council administered program) allows access to more funding from the state,” Jochim said. “You can do infrastructure changes and large-scale projects. That’s what’s going to keep Benson growing and to allow BFF, which has been kind of managing that, to step out and pursue our vision of spreading to other communities."

While the additional funding is exciting and certainly appreciated by Jochim, it’s the people BFF supports, and now employs, that keeps him c oming back.

“I love actually being with people having conversations, and working with artists in nontraditional settings, poking at their creativity, and having them see it from different perspectives and angles. I love the installation process. That is what keeps me fueled. The other thing that keeps me going is my team.”

Visit bffomaha.org for more information.

They arrived 22 years ago. One by one, 107 fiberglass sculptures appeared throughout Omaha. The anonymous and androgynous figures, or rather the project writ large, went by “J. Doe” and served as the metro’s first wide-scale public art project. Whether it was a “Jane” or a “John,” people couldn’t escape talking about the figures or, indeed, encountering them throughout the city. From Creighton University’s campus to Saint Cecelia Catholic Cathedral, Eppley Airfield to Fontenelle Forest even a No Frills Supermarket the temporary artworks dominated just about every public space, and the public discourse, throughout the sum mer of 2001.

J. Doe was

The Brainchild

of

Eddith Buis.

Inspired by similar fiberglass community projects in cities like Chicago, Kansas City, and New York, the longtime arts advocate and educator came up with a novel approach in Omaha. Most urban areas had typically used animals for similar projects. (Zurich, Switzerland, started the urban craze with its “Cow Parade” in 1998). Buis, however, saw people as the main draw, and Omaha became the only city to use the human figure as the canvas for artists to interpret.

“We wanted to do humans, because Omaha is famous for its people,” she explained. “We don’t have scenery, but we do really have the friendliest people.”

Buis met with a committee of fellow arts advocates at the Hot Shops Art Center to get the project started and enjoyed a supportive, enthusiastic response from the community.

“It was pretty ambitious, but people jumped all over it,” she remembered. “We talked to everyone who made art in Omaha and got donations; we got so muc h support.”

Businesses like Lozier Corporation, Omaha Steaks, and Union Pacific Railroad played a major role in producing the J. Does, which towered over 6 feet and cost $2,500. As did local nonprofits such as the Rose Blumkin Foundation, the Omaha Community Playhouse, and the Omaha Children’s Museum. Individuals, too, opened their checkbooks to become patrons of Omaha’s urban art.

Ninety-five artists participated in the project, with some creating more than one sculpture. The roster read like a short list of Omaha creatives, including: Catherine Ferguson, Mary Zicafoose, John Thein, and Les Bruning, all of which were well-established, or well on their way. Ferguson landed the plumb role of designing sets and costumes for Opera Omaha. Zicafoose became a leading global textile artist. Printmaker and painter Thein, who died last May, was a beloved professor at Creighton University. Sculptor Les Bruning’s sculptures appear throughout the metro. Many more artists remained fixtures of Omaha’s local visual arts scene, while others have enjoyed success elsewhere.

Each artist brought their own inimitable imprimatur to their sculpture. For example, Trudy Swanson’s “Heart & Soul,” sponsored by One Pacific Place Shopping Center, depicted a bifurcated figure with a flare of twisting, twirling metal springing forth emblematic of the positive energy people experience from their “hearts” and “souls,” and symbolic of an individual “burstin g with joy.”

“This was my first public sculpture, and it was a big, exciting project to do,” Swanson recalled. “I was so excited it went somewhere where it was really seen a nd visible.”

Public response to the army of J. Does was overwhelmingl y positive.

“The sculptures were pretty impressive. It was fun, people loved it, and it was pretty popular,” Buis remembered. “It was a happy project, and I think it put us on the map.”

The figures remained in place into September of that year before being auctioned off, with