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Preview
The following is a brief guide to
weekend events. Please call venues
for more information.
CONCERTS:
Duggan’s Pub, 440 S. 11th St
Friday and Saturday: Grateful
Dudes
Knickerbockers, 901 O St
Friday: Country Melvins, the
Dark Townhouse Band, the
Black Dahlias
Saturday: Mychicaseal, Billy
Hillshine
Orpheum Theater, 409 S. 16th
St, Omaha
Saturday: Wayne Newton with
the Omaha Symphony
The Royal Grove, 340 W.
Cornhusker Hwy.
Friday: On the Fritz
Temptations, 1600 0 St
Saturday: Comedy Jam ’99
Zoo Bar, 136 N. 14th St
Friday and Saturday: The Bel Airs
THEATER:
Johnny Carson Theater-Lied
Center, 12th and R streets
All weekend: “Always/Never
Coming Home,” a multimedia
performance art production
GALLERIES:
Gallery 9,124 S. Ninth St
All weekend: works by
Nebraska Arts Council 1998
Artist Fellowship winners
Haydon Gallery, 335 N.
Eighth St, Suite A
Friday and Saturday: landscape
paintings by Deborah Murphy
Joslyn Art Museum, 2200
Dodge St
Opening Saturday: “Modotti
and Weston: Mexicanidad”
NEVILLE MURRAY is the Multicultural Arts Coordinator for the Nebraska Arts Council. “A lot of people think of Nebraskaashmno^
geneous,” Murray said. “But Nebraska is so diverse. There are many wonderful artist traditions that need to be preserved.”
Expression with colors
Program brings diversity to the arts
Editors note: Today’s story on the Nebraska Arts
Council wraps up a semester long look at
Nebraska's expanding artistic scene, and
statewide efforts to represent our varied heritage.
By Liza Hoitmeier
Senior staff writer
Of all the tools to combat racism, the arts may be
the most non-threatening.
“You can get people into a room who would
probably not come otherwise,” said Christina
Godfrey, executive director of the Malone Center.
For this reason, the work of artists of color has
taken on a new importance in the era of multicultur
alism, and programs have sprung up to give artists of
color opportunities to produce work and get it seen.
The Nebraska Arts Council serves as the umbrel
la for multicultural arts programs in the state, provid
ing financial and educational support to organiza
tions and individuals.
The programs cost the NAC a mere $168,000, or
around 10 percent of their overall fiscal year 2000
budget, but their impact has been immeasurable.
“(The programs) showed me that a small amount
of money can go a long way to get an artist working,”
said Neville Murray, the NAC’s multicultural pro
gram coordinator.
~ NAC’s multicultural initiatives began six years
ago as an effort to educate people on their native cul
tures and those that are foreign. It was created as a
response to the organization’s People of Color
Committee, which wanted the arts council to be
more diverse in its priorities and funding.
The NAC started three multicultural programs:
the Multicultural Awareness Project, the
Multicultural Assistance Program and the Mentoring
Program for Artists of Color and Traditional Artists.
The programs seek to educate and promote
artists of color, such as blacks, Hispanics, American
Indians and Asian Americans.
The programs focus on artists who have not fol
lowed a traditional academic path, but have inherited
their art as it has been passed down through their cul
ture.
“We need to look at art not just in terms of cre
dentials beside your name, but as: What is your lega
cy to the artistic world?” Murray said.
For the Multicultural Awareness Project, the
NAC gives grants to organizations that include peo
ple of color in new or existing programming.
Lincoln’s Malone Community Center, 2032 U
St., has received money through this program for its
Black History Dinner Theater.
Each year, the Malone Center produces a play
featuring area youth. The plays, such as “We Dance
In Our Neighborhood,” deal with contemporary
issues such as drug use and peer pressure.
With the help of the NAC, the center also brought
in Idu Madouli, a black folk tale storyteller, to work
with children.
Please see ART on 13
The
' ;>*
Wayne Newton brings
.., Vegas to heartland
• ■ • v- ** : ■ ■
I as Vegas is upping its influential ante by dressing
its vices in tuxedos and evening gowns
md across the American heartland.
The City of Sin is spreading its culture out
side the lines of Nevada, into Nebraska and its for
mal venues.
Gentlemen casino junkies and young, elegant
female escorts are joining transplanted domestic
beer, keno-playing drunks and town whores at the
roulette wheel.
Gambling houses aren’t legal in Nebraska; but
Las Vegas influence obviously is.
Wayne Newton is coming.
The legendary crooner will front the Omaha
Symphony at the Orpheum Theater courtesy of
Arneristar Casino this Saturday at 8 p.m.
Tickets range according to seat quality from $31
- $39, but are half-price for students.
For an extra five clams, show-goers can attend an
exclusive concert reception starring Newton at
Ameristar’s Waterfront Grill across the river in
Council Bluffs. A meal is promised, but no word
about a buffet - the newest American birthright.
Later on, guests are invited to explore the 27,500
square feet of slot machines, black-jack tables and a j
Please see NEWTON on 13