by Sarah Troyer
In 2009, artist Wendy Bantam sought to bridge cultures through an art project in a Lincoln neighborhood. With help from members of the Asian community, she created a colorful mural at 27th and T streets that was inspired by their native lands.
With its lotus flowers, bamboo and elephants, the mural remains a testament to Asian immigrants and refugees and a reminder of home.
Artist Wendy Bantam created a mural at 27th and T streets that celebrates the Asian community.
“Art is a reflection of a culture,” Bantam said.
Lincoln brims with cultural diversity as immigrants and refugees make their homes here. With these new cultures come a vibrant array of art and expression. Lincoln has a growing community of New Americans who have a passion for art and take pride in the work they do.
In the stories that follow, you’ll read about some of those New Americans. For some, pursuing art is therapeutic; for others, creating or performing is a way to keep culture alive. For others still, art becomes a guiding bridge from one culture to another. Regardless the reason, art motivates and inspires them.
Bantam is among those who are trying to encourage and showcase the art of talented immigrants and refugees in the Lincoln so everyone in the community can appreciate its diversity and beauty.
“Art is quite personal and can be expressed and viewed in a number of ways depending on the artists’ background or culture,” Bantam said.
Bantam said she believes art is a form of communication and a way to portray individual ideas. Immigrants and refugees, just as anyone else, have their own ideas to express.
“Art is quite personal and can be expressed and viewed in a number of ways depending on the artists’ background or culture,” she said.
Helping immigrants and refugees find the time and place to express themselves is important, according to Brittany Steigner, an outreach specialist at Lutheran Family Services.
“Most artists have been doing the art form since they were in their country,” she said. “We want the artists to be able to pass down their ancient traditions, preserve their culture and give them the time and space to do so. It gives them a sense of pride culturally.”
Steigner works directly with artists and helps put on events that showcase their work. Lutheran Family Services sees such events as an important part of its community services program for refugees and immigrants.
Steigner helps organize the New American Art Festival — a daylong celebration in Benson, Nebraska, that features multiple food and craft vendors, performers and exhibits. She is now working on a Lincoln art exhibit at the Midwestern African Museum of Art on May 4 that will feature artists from Sudan, Nepal, Afghanistan and Myanmar (Burma).
“When you imagine art you may think of a still image, but with dance it’s the movement that spreads out the message about your background and culture. It’s the moving vision instead of something still like a painting. You have the dancing, the music, the instruments, the clothing, all coming together.” — Tin Htay
”Art is when you love to do something that you’re passionate about. That’s what’s most important. You have to love the thing you do. If you love it, you will focus on what you’re doing, you will put a lot of time in it; that’s what art is to me.” — Koosha Mooghen
“Art is what you make it. You can make art out of everything and anything; it just depends on what you yourself plan on doing with it. I don’t think art has a limit. But for me art is thinking something and going through the process of doing it, having an idea in your mind or visualizing it in your mind and being able to copy the exact same thing on the other side.” — Letura Idigma
“Culture is telling stories, and art is the global language to tell them.” — Assad Komi.
“I can explain how I’m feeling on the inside through art. I think it’s very important for me; even just 10 minutes of making art helps.” — Farah Alsebaie.
“Art for us is not really defined by set expectations. Art is really just a form of expression through different mediums sometimes set by traditions. Dancing, drawing, painting, etc are all forms of art. Art can be definitive or abstract and is what the person makes it to be.” — Eric Cao (far right)
“It’s hard to define art because it’s an expression. And most expression comes from emotion, and there’s always different emotions, so it’s just like can you articulate this feeling into a song. I don’t know if you can limit what art is in a box, so that’s why I think it’s good that people do creative stuff like this. It comes from the universe, and the universe is limitless.” — Tut Kailech
“I’m a visual person, I use photography to convey what I want to say and what’s inside my head or around me. I use art to tell a story.” – Wesaam Al-Badry
At the Nebraska History Museum, efforts are being made to give immigrants and refugees a voice in the community and to take pride in where they come from. The museum has been home to various exhibits about immigrants and refugees, including “What We Carried” by photographer Jim Lommasson and the “Looking Past Skin” exhibit, which shows the cultural progressions throughout Lincoln’s history.
The opportunity to meet and learn from refugee artists in Lincoln has been a rewarding part of helping organize the exhibits, said Sharon Kennedy, curator of education at the museum.
Kennedy, a former director of education at the Sheldon Museum of Art, said art is a reflection of our experiences, and refugees have individual experiences, including traumatic ones. Their trauma affects — and even inspires — the art they produce, she said.
The amazing power art holds — for students in particular — is something Gerardo Meza has experienced as an artist and teacher in the Arts and Humanities program at Lincoln Public Schools. The program is geared toward students interested in art, writing, music or cultural differences.
“There is so much diversity in our schools which represent our demographics as a city,” Meza said.
Meza said he understands how culture can influence art. As the son of two Mexican immigrants, he finds inspiration for his artwork in his own heritage and upbringing.
“There is so much diversity in our schools which represent our demographics as a city,” he said. “Our teachers are dedicated to understanding the needs of this community.”
Like Bantam, artist Leorra Platte has helped create public murals in Lincoln. One of those, the Clinton Community Mural, at 27th and Holdrege streets, was based on a compilation of drawings done by students and represented the pride in their families, home and neighborhood. Another, La Ilucion, at 13th and E Streets, illustrates the city’s growing Latin culture.
For Platte, art is not confined to certain countries or cultures but is appreciated by all.
“I don’t think the meaning of art, or what art is, changes across cultural lines because it is a human thing,” she said. “All humanity shares that innate creativity.”
*This story is the first part of a multimedia project led by CoJMC students in the Nebraska Mosaic class. To view the complete project, photos and videos, visit https://nebraskamosaic.atavist.com/painting-a-new-picture.
