KEARNEY,NEB. — The City of Kearney is looking to work on a new canvas as Governor Jim Pillen visited to announce the state’s support of the Museum of Nebraska Arts with a shovel-ready grant in the amount of $845,000. It comes from the Nebraska Department of Economic Development adding on to the $36.5 million renovation and restoration project; a 23,000 square foot expansion with additions including modern galleries, an enlarged outdoor sculpture garden, a community studio and flexible event spaces.
This grows our capability to do all three of these things. To better care for the collections that have been trusted to our our safekeeping, to better tell the stories through expanded physical spaces of the museum and additional galleries that allow us to rotate our collections through to show more of what we have.
The MONA isn’t the only art museum in Nebraska, but it stands out from the rest. Why? It’s home to the state of Nebraska’s official art collection which means these art pieces are only homegrown Governor Pillen says it’s time to show the world our Nebraska pride.
That’s why we have to brag more about the people in Nebraska. We come from everywhere. We come from everywhere all different nationalities, languages, colors and that’s what makes us so extraordinary.
Said Pillen.
Those same factors are what make Kearney the ideal spot for this depiction of Nebraska pride.
The Mayor of the City of Kearney Stan Clouse said:
Kearney is a huge mecca for the hospitality with conferences and various conventions. We play on that, we talk about the art and the culture that we have in our community from Yanney Park and the botanical gardens and MONA with the art collection. Just the downtown sculptures and murals. It really adds to our community.
The ever-growing city of Kearney has events coming up in July like Cruise Nite and Art in the Park which will leave the area packed with people across the country who get to experience Kearney’s restaurants, hotels and MONA which is expected to be open to the world to reopen this year.
