Located on level one of the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center, the Art Gallery features two exhibitions each year, showcasing exhibitions of national and local artists. The gallery enriches, inspires and enlivens UNMC/Nebraska Medicine patients, visitors, employees and community. The intention is to exhibit work that is of the highest artistic quality and reflects a rich diversity of media, creators, cultures and perspectives. Exhibitions support the healing environment of the hospital by providing guests with inspiring images, enhancing the compassionate care that UNMC/Nebraska Medicine provides. Each exhibition has a “Meet the Artist” event and reception for patients, staff and the community. Artist talks provide the opportunity to gain insight about the art and foster personal introspection on the artistic process and its impact on health and wellness.
Current Exhibition
Chica
November 22, 2024 to May 16, 2025
Chica is a little grey dog’s story about her fortuitous rescue from a historic town in eastern Mexico. Artist Joseph Broghammer was commissioned in 2017 to produce a series of drawings to illustrate the children’s book, Chica, by arts collector and patron Karen Duncan of Lincoln, Nebraska. The book chronicles the early life, budding friendship and subsequent adoption of Duncan’s dog, Chica, starting in El Tajin, Mexico and ending with preparations for a new life in Lincoln.
Broghammer’s whimsical illustrations and Duncan’s balance of fact and fancy bring this magical love story to life. His unique and bold use of chalk pastels provides a moving accompaniment to her travelogue, as told from the dog’s point of view. Chica is written in both English and Spanish with Spanish translation by Ute Tiemann. With whimsy and touching sensitivity, from life in a circus to a scary visit to the vet, Broghammer’s authentic drawing style and peculiar compositions provide a fun and sincere illumination to this entertaining children’s book.
Broghammer was born in 1963 and grew up in Omaha, Nebraska where he makes his home today. He graduated from the University of South Dakota in Vermillion and completed graduate work at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. His works have been collected and exhibited by museums and galleries throughout the United States, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy, and Mexico.
Karen Duncan grew up in Clarinda, Iowa, and has lived in Lincoln with her husband, Robert, for almost fifty years. The pair has amassed an internationally recognized contemporary art collection. In 2014, they founded the Clarinda Carnegie Art Museum, a nonprofit museum open to the public, which serves as an educational resource for Southwest Iowa.
The University of Nebraska Medical Center and Nebraska Medicine’s Healing Arts Program would like to thank the Clarinda Carnegie Art Museum for the loan of these artworks and assistance in organizing the exhibition.