Sixteen Omaha and Council Bluffs area artists have been selected to have their creations on permanent display at Omaha Public Library’s new Central Library, currently under construction at 72nd & Dodge Street and scheduled to open in 2026.
The artists were chosen from 242 local applicants in an open call for public art, coordinated by Omaha Public Library and Omaha nonprofit Amplify Arts. The selected artists’ planned works include sculpture, photography, mixed media, video and textile work. All 16 artists live in the Omaha metro area:
Littleton Alston
Celeste Butler
Richard Chung
Mari Dailey
Dana Damewood
Kim Hager
Shelby Neely
Peyton Pearson
Christopher Prinz
Linda Rivera García
Sarah Rowe
Lee Emma Running
Shelby Seier
Angie Seykora
Ashley Vak
Cindy Weil
Central Library partners have committed 1 percent of the total building construction costs towards an investment in public art, with the majority of that budget already allotted to local artists through this call for art. The 16 artists selected are receiving project budget awards ranging from $5,000 to $100,000 to develop and fabricate their new pieces.
Amplify Arts, an Omaha nonprofit that provides resources to artists, organizers, and cultural workers, facilitated the call for art, including the selection process.
“This is, by far, the biggest response we’ve ever seen to a public call for art in Omaha,” said Lauren Martin of Amplify Arts. “Local artists were excited about being part of such a beloved community institution like the library and thoughtful about the possibilities in this new, beautiful building.”
The selection process for the artists included a review and scoring process by a panel of arts professionals from across the United States. Top-ranking applications were then reviewed by a panel of representatives from various Central Library stakeholder groups, who made the final selections.
