The Front Row is our passion series offering an up-close look at the creators and cultivators that are reshaping Omaha’s community. The Union for Contemporary Art “strengthens the cultural and social landscape of our community by using the arts as a vehicle to inspire positive social change.” Patrick Mainelli, Communications Director, and Mary Lawson, Program Coordinator, discuss the pandemic’s impact on the art community and how ongoing work towards equity and social justice is built into The Union’s core mission.
Hero Image photo by Dana Damewood
“The Union has duel missions, which are supporting artists in our community and working for and promoting social justice in North Omaha. Many of the artists that we work with and whose work we highlight in our gallery are people who are using their artistic process to promote a deeper dialogue on equity. Part of that for us involves amplifying the voices of folks who have been historically unheard.”
How has The Union for Contemporary Art focused efforts amid the Black Lives Matter Movement?
PATRICK: Earlier this year, we radically changed how we approached our work in response to COVID, understanding that the things that our community needed from us were suddenly very different. The impact of this global pandemic would also be a social justice issue. It has dramatically impacted communities of color more than other communities. That’s where our efforts were early in the year. Within the last month and a half, it’s been another moment for us to reconsider what we can offer to the community and what our most effective role in this uprising is.
MARY: I heard something in a webinar that I sat in on, they said, “There is equity in the pause.” Something The Union has done is pausing to understand where we are all individually, where the community is, and what’s happening on an international scale.
PATRICK: We did the posters thing, which, in our mind, was almost a superficial effort. We didn’t think that it would be a big thing. For a week, we created several posters. We put an end to that because we knew that that, although it had some kind of value, it was not the sustaining thing. Community demand was so strong. It felt like we could have put all of our efforts into cranking posters out for the rest of this year, but something deeper was demanded. We’ve been redirecting energy toward building this new program we’re calling Uplift and Elevate. We are finding new, innovative ways to highlight the voices and work of Black artists in our community. We’re considering COVID in this, knowing that it probably won’t be safe to invite people back into our building until this year is out. There are also excellent ways that we can get people to engage in virtually. We’re keeping our minds as open as possible for different ways to engage people in this work and finding ways to pay Black artists.
Black Lives Matter posters ready for pick up by community members. Photo by Justin Limoges.
How have you seen the local creative community react to protests and the anti-racism movement?
MARY: It seems like there was a very positive reaction from creatives in the community with the posters. It seems like local artists want to shift gears, pivot their focus, and politicize their voices right now. I think the posters were a tangible way for them to do that.
The posters were a discussion starter and people showed their solidarity by having those posters. What kind of specific conversations were you trying to facilitate with those posters?
PATRICK: It was a moment that we did not anticipate being a moment. It was an emotional week, of course. Making posters that said a simple, obvious statement was, in our mind, the bare minimum thing that we could do. Then, it became something much more complicated because it can inspire conversations. People that came to the pickup would say, “I’m taking this back to my office. We’ll see if my coworkers will let me hang it.” That’s a conversation they may not have had if they didn’t have the poster. There’s also the worry that the conversation ends at that poster. That a person hangs that up on their door and says, “Check that box. I’m an ally. We’re good here,” and that’s the end of it for them. We really didn’t want to facilitate someone checking out of this ongoing work toward full liberty for everyone in this country. Although it’s a simple statement to us, it became complex. The function that it had in the community was multidimensional.
MARY: I think that the poster served a different purpose for everyone. We can’t speak for everyone in the community that has the poster, using it to show solidarity, to save their business. We don’t know what purpose it serves. Taking a pause on producing more gives the community time to sit with what that statement truly means, which is a positive thing right now.
The Black Lives Matter Movement has been going on for years. Sometimes it’s in the press, and sometimes it’s not. How does The Union plan to continue that conversation even if publicity dies down?
PATRICK: In a way, that’s our whole work. Continuing that work and keeping it in the forefront in whatever way that we can is what this organization has done for the last nine years. The answer to that is ever-evolving. We’re constantly trying to innovate different ways that we can bring that message to the community, make people think, and make people engage in conversation. For us, this doesn’t go away ever. This is who we are.
How would you encourage people who want to be an ally to have difficult conversations without feeling uncomfortable or like they’re not educated enough to speak on it?
PATRICK: Part of what is happening in this uprising is not that White people are suddenly waking up to the reality that Black lives matter. It’s that many White people are suddenly waking up to the fact that they are a White person in this world and that their whole life has been privileged. Have the humility and self-awareness to examine that and be self-critical, open to criticism. Recognize all the places that you have caused harm, participated in racism, and participated in white supremacy, that’s the real work. That is so hard, especially if that’s something that you are just waking up to. Be open, willing to take criticism, willing to criticize yourself, your friends, and your family, and know that this does not end. This is not a moment; this movement did not just start.
“The Union is thinking of how we can highlight, elevate, and uplift the Black artists in the community virtually. We’re thinking about the ways that we can share their work in a physical space but in a safe way.”
How does The Union actively make itself accessible to all?
PATRICK: One of the great things about this moment is that it is forcing us to consider virtual options. In many ways, it makes a lot of our content more accessible. A gallery show or a theater experience, which requires you to be in a space and stay there for a long time, is not accessible to many people for any number of reasons. Something online that is fully captioned and available to anyone that has Internet access is already more accessible. Even when COVID is gone, we want to maintain a push there, understanding that this makes our work more open to everyone. Accessibility is also central to our mission. It’s a social justice issue, and making art accessible to as many people as possible has been core to The Union since the beginning.
MARY: As with everything, it’s a learning process. We are learning more about accessibility so that when we are speaking about it, we know what we are talking about, we don't leave anyone out of that conversation. We are learning as much as we can, spending time researching, and getting more information.
How can the community continue to support your mission through the pandemic?
MARY: By supporting the artists in our community, you’re supporting The Union. If you’re not able to donate, being a great support to the artists that we serve is a way of giving to The Union.
PATRICK: This time that we’re living in demands so many things, that we are active politically, that we are out on the streets, and engaging in deeper interior work and art facilitates that. Recognizing that artists, people engaged in that work, are putting themselves out there in a way that is not financially lucrative for them. They’re making sacrifices in their lives to do essential work. Find ways to support them financially, but also show up to participate in that work. By being part of open conversations, attending virtual artist talks that we have, and deeply engaging in that content, it is alive in our community and has an impact.
The Union’s Radical HeARTS Program provides support as a response to the ongoing pandemic to community members in a multi-faceted program. Volunteers distribute fresh produce grown in the Abundance Garden. Photo courtesy of The Union.
Has your organization had to make any hard decisions during this time?
PATRICK: As far as hard decisions and struggles, every decision has been a hard one. Knowing where we’re at and how we can best serve our community has been a hard question. I personally think that we’ve risen to that challenge pretty well. It continues to evolve and be a guessing game of where we’re going to be in a month or two months, where the funding will be, and what our community will need from us. With every decision, that’s at the forefront. How can we best serve the community and meet the mission with the resources that we have? That guides and directs decisions, but everything is hard for everyone.
In the next five years, what are your big hopes and dreams for The Union?
MARY: There’s so much interior work that I would like to commit myself to over the next five years. Day-by-day there is this intentional practice of how I can criticize myself. What parts of my identity intersect with whiteness and white supremacy? Even as a Black woman, what parts of myself have I grown comfortable with that hold white supremacy? There’s a lot of interior work that I want to lean into over the next five years that will help me be a better person in this movement, in this uprising.
PATRICK: Seeing more and more people from all across Omaha coming to The Union to do just what Mary said, to interrogate themselves, the community we live in, and the structures of society. One powerful watermark moment was when the Undesign the Redline Exhibit opened. There were more than 200 people crammed in that room to learn about redlining history. It blew us away that so many people from across the city came to have that hard conversation. More moments like that, evidence that people in this community are ready to do hard work to change things and make this a more equitable, free city.
MARY: The Union brings in artists from all over the world that challenge the way that people in Omaha think about art. I feel like Vanessa German, who was an exhibiting artist last year in the Wanda D. Ewing Gallery, did that with her exhibit, sometimes.we.cannot.be.with.our.bodies. That is something that I would love to continue. How can we challenge ourselves to think more about the ways that art is transformative in our world and find ways to support the work that’s being done that makes us stretch our way of thinking?
Photo courtesy of The Union.
Are there any upcoming events or ways to get plugged in?
PATRICK: At the end of this month, we begin hosting virtual tours of our Undesign the Redline Exhibit, which has been up for more than a year now. That’s open to the community. It will be a guided tour, much like if you were in the space. We will post a recording of the tour on our YouTube, along with more resources to engage with that content and tools that will help teachers facilitate conversations around redlining in their classroom. We are making many new things surrounding redlining more accessible.
MARY: We have an ongoing book club series that’s an extension of the Undesign the Redline Exhibit. We hold space three Tuesdays out of the month, where we discuss a specific text. The book for this month is called In Search of Our Mother’s Garden: Womanist Prose by Alice Walker. That’s open to the community and we meet over Zoom. Just reach out to myself, Mary Lawson, or Glyneisha Johnson, who is going to be co-facilitating this month.
What are actionable things that people can do in the next week to get involved in the Black Lives Matter Movement and The Union?
MARY: Culxr House is our local organizer as far as efforts that are being made that are aligned with the Black Lives Matter Movement. They are focusing specifically on James Scurlock’s case and bringing justice to his family. Stay up to date with what Culxr House is doing and find ways to support them.
PATRICK: In terms of The Union's internal work, the book club is essential. Also, the Undesign the Redline work is coming up more consistently virtually at the end of this month. I come back to what Mary said, which is that a lot of this work is internal. Keeping your ear to Black voices and interrogating yourself is the thing that will really create change.
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