The Museum of Nebraska Art's expanded area, (Brian Neben, Central Nebraska Today)
KEARNEY — The Museum of Nebraska Art (MONA) will reopen to the public on Saturday, May 3, 2025. Following a significant expansion, restoration, and renovation, MONA will unveil its revitalized historic building and brand-new 23,000-square-foot expansion, marking a new chapter for Nebraska’s art and cultural community.
MONA is the only museum in the state dedicated solely to celebrating the art and artists of Nebraska. The reimagined museum showcases exhibitions of work by Nebraska artists from the Museum’s permanent collection as well as temporary exhibitions by contemporary artists.
The newly renovated MONA will feature:
• Modern Gallery Spaces
• Community Studio
• Expanded Outdoor Sculpture Garden
• Flexible Event Spaces
• Interactive Gallery
Opening Weekend Celebration
MONA invites the community to a day of free festivities to commemorate this milestone on Saturday, May 3, 2025.
• 9:30-10:00 a.m. | Brief remarks and ribbon cutting
• 10:00 a.m. | Doors open to the public
• 10:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m. | Hands-on art-making activities with local artists, interactive experiences, and music throughout the Museum.
• Free and open to the public
Upon reopening, visitors can experience the following exhibitions or register for a variety of classes.
Exhibitions Currently On Display
• Magic and Loss: Charley Friedman and Nancy Friedemann-Sánchez
May 3-July 20, 2025
Magic and Loss is a collaborative exhibition by married artists Charley Friedman and Nancy Friedemann-Sánchez exploring themes of creation, destruction, and transformation through distinct but interconnected bodies of work. Together, their work creates a mystically transformed space in the Museum’s new John and Elizabeth Lauritzen Foundation Gallery for an immersive and contemplative moment that must be experienced to be understood.
• Eliza Hardy Jones: Song Quilts
May 3-August 10, 2025
On loan from the International Quilt Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska, this temporary exhibition by musician and quiltmaker Eliza Hardy Jones weaves music and visual arts together through textiles. Inspired and “composed” by folk music sung in Nebraska and across the world, Song Quilts allows visitors to experience a fusion of sight and sound by listening to the music that inspired every pattern, stitch, and color.
• Plein Air Paintings from the Flatwater Folk Art Museum
May 3-August 24, 2025
This collection, borrowed from the Flatwater Folk Art Museum in Brownville, Nebraska, showcases the intimate and expressive qualities of painting outdoors, including several Nebraska artists, such as Beth Cole, Keith Jacobshagen, Stephen Dinsmore, Tom Palmerton, Tim Klunder, and Robert Gilder, within the context of the American plein-air tradition.
• Wesaam Al-Badry: The Labor of Belonging
May 3-September 21, 2025
For his first solo museum exhibition, Wesaam Al-Badry presents a new photography project of Nebraskans. The project aims to consider place as a component of human identity while celebrating survival, beauty, and belonging. This exhibition includes a selection of twenty photographs from a project Al-Badry began in 2024 to reflect the vibrant culture of his adopted home. What has emerged is a portrait of Nebraska that is familiar, surprising, and unabashedly authentic.
• In Search of Ourselves: A Reinstallation of the Museum of Nebraska Art’s Permanent Collection
May 3, 2025- July 2027
This reinstallation of MONA’s permanent collection surveys the entirety of the collection through a thematic lens—a significant shift from the Museum’s previous approach of presenting the collection chronologically by four eras: artist-explorers, early Nebraskans, modern artists, and art of today. In Search of Ourselves dives deeply into various areas of the permanent collection to explore the many ways “Nebraska art” has been defined through the Museum’s collecting practices.
• Susan Knight: Groundwater Magic
Permanent Installation
Groundwater Magic considers the concept of porosity as a critical factor in determining the quality, quantity, and accessibility of groundwater. Through Knight’s examination of porosity through her chosen material, porosity takes on additional meaning as a literal and figurative opening to more possibilities.
• Outdoor Sculpture Garden
Permanent Installation
A new vision for the outdoor sculpture garden is a major feature of the museum’s renovation and expansion. The new garden wraps around the museum on the north and west sides, featuring crushed stone, lawn, perennial gardens, shrubs, and trees around a concrete plinth. Sculptures from the permanent collection are located throughout the space, highlighting existing work and allowing for new acquisitions, loans, and special exhibitions.
Programs and Classes
Open Studio
May 6, 13, 20, 27 | All Day | Free Event | Bring your own art supplies, or use the supplies and art prompt provided. Featured Artist Prompt for May: Round Trip Time by Barbara Takenaga
MONA Book Club
May 6 | 10:30-11:30 AM | Free Event | May – The Art Collector’s Daughter by Derville Murphy
ARTisTRY: Australian Hinge Book Making with Deanna Jesse
May 7 | 1:30 PM } Open to individuals ages 15 and up.
The Art of Well-Being Series Presents: The Art of Presence – Yoga with Lori Cody
May 7, 14, 21, 28 | 9:30-11:00 AM | Blending yoga with MONA’s artwork to cultivate mindfulness and deep connection through movement and visual storytelling. Open to individuals ages 15 and up.
First Saturday – Guest Artists: UNK Wrestling Team
May 10 | 10:30 AM-12:00 PM | Free Event
| Join the UNK wrestling team for a morning filled with creativity and art-making. For ages 5-14.
Collection Connection: “Artist Explorers” with Karen Park & Sandy Mahalek
May 14 | 1:30-3:00 PM | Free Event
Demonstration Series: Lampworking by Chris Haussler
May 29 | 6:30-8:00 PM | Free Event | Registration required
The Radiant Sky with Beth Cole
May 30 | 1:00 – 4:00 PM And May 31 | 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM | Open to individuals ages 15 and up.
For more information about the reopening and upcoming events, visit mona.unk.edu to register for classes. Also, follow us on social media.
