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
Into Whooperland – Michael Forsberg
February 20 to August 7, 2026
Into Whooperland is a photo documentary exhibition dedicated to visualizing the plight of the whooping crane. The whooping crane is the rarest of 15 crane species worldwide, and one of just two crane species native to North America. In the 1940s, there were fewer than 20 whooping cranes left. Today there are about 830 in wild and captive populations.
Michael Forsberg’s photographic expedition with whooping cranes follows their journey of conservation and strength. Forsberg has traveled roughly 50,000 miles on what he calls the “Whooper Highway,” an ancient north-south pathway from whooping crane wintering grounds on the Texas Gulf Coast through the Great Plains to summer nesting grounds in Canada’s Northwest Territories. He has amassed more than 100,000 photographs, 15 of which are featured in this exhibition. The images reveal the lives of these rare birds as they navigate caring for chicks, defending breeding territory, climate change, and the impacts of alternative and fossil fuel energies. These photographs demonstrate how whooping cranes link habitats and people along their flyways, creating a community. The exhibition invites us to reflect on our place in a deeply interconnected world.
Michael Forsberg is a Nebraskan whose 30-year career as a photographer and conservationist has been dedicated to wildlife and conservation stories in North America’s Great Plains. His images have been featured in publications including Audubon, National Geographic, Nature Conservancy, and Sierra magazines. Forsberg is the author and photographer of Into Whooperland – A photographer’s journey with whooping cranes (2024) from which this exhibition features select photographs.
Photo: Michael Forsberg, Whooping crane (Grus Americana ), tallest bird in North America. Rarest of 15 crane species in the world. Texas Gulf Coast, 2024, archival pigment print
The University of Nebraska Medical Center and Nebraska Medicine’s Healing Arts Program would like to thank Michael Forsberg Photography for the loan of these artworks. We would also like to thank our exhibition sponsor The Claire M. Hubbard Foundation for their generous support.
Learn more at www.michaelforsberg.com