Madeline Cass, salt marsh grass at Arbor Lake, 2018, archival pigment print. Courtesy of the artist.
how lonely, to be a marsh
Lower-level Gallery
January 19–May 8, 2027
how lonely, to be a marsh is an expanded exhibition of an ongoing project by Madeline Cass originally commissioned by the Platte Basin Timelapse project at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Bringing together new photographic works made since the project’s 2019 publication with select natural history specimens and archival materials, the exhibition explores wetlands and museum collections as sites of memory, preservation, and loss. Through photography, ambient landscape audio, video, and objects, the exhibition invites sustained looking and listening, asking how ecological grief is held, witnessed, and made visible within institutional spaces.
Walter Mason Oddie, Heading Out West, 1849, oil on canvas, 9 1/4 x 13 5/8 inches, Agrarian Spirit in the Homestead Era—Artwork from the Moseman Collection of Agrarian Art, 2022.0005.0008.
Preservation on the Plains: Conserving Art from the Collection
First Floor, Main & South Galleries
January 26–May 8, 2027
The Great Plains Art Museum collects, cares for, and exhibits art that helps us understand and engage with the diverse region of the Great Plains. This exhibition focuses on a significant and sometimes overlooked aspect of that work: artwork conservation. By exploring the topic of conservation, visitors can learn more about an artist's process, the life of an artwork, and what needs to be done to preserve that artwork for generations to come. Preservation on the Plains features works from the museum's permanent collection that require conservation or have recently undergone professional treatment at the Midwest Art Conservation Center, allowing visitors to see the results of this important work.
Through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the museum will bring a conservator from the Midwest Art Conservation Center to conduct a conservation survey and lead educational programming during the run of the exhibition.
Woody Crumbo (Potawatomi), Spirit Horse, circa 1950, screenprint on paper, 15 x 20 inches, gift of Karen Janovy and John Janovy, Jr., 2020.0004.0001.
Native Art in Focus: Works on Paper
First Floor, West Gallery
January 26–May 8, 2027
Native Art in Focus: Works on Paper presents selections from the Great Plains Art Museum's collection of art by Indigenous creators, a significant—and growing—part of its permanent holdings. This spotlight exhibition focused on works on paper includes prints, paintings, and ledger art made between the early twentieth century and the present. Foregrounding art on paper by Native artists allows the museum to share recent acquisitions as well as art from the founding collection, such as a painting by Oscar Howe (Yanktonai Dakota), which will be exhibited for the first time since undergoing conservation.
Alvina Yepa (Jemez Pueblo), Jar, circa 2016, carved and etched ceramic, 5 3/4 x 5 1/8 inches, gift of Lehn and Mary Straub through the University of Nebraska Foundation, 2024.0010.0009.
Shaping the Southwest, Part II
Mezzanine Gallery
January 26–May 8, 2027
In 2025, the museum's exhibition Shaping the Southwest debuted Indigenous pottery from a donation by local collectors of Southwest art, Lehn and Mary Straub. This exhibition features new selections from that donation to demonstrate the depth of this collection and to highlight the skilled work of more contemporary Native potters from the museum's holdings.