People from all walks of life got together on Sunday to celebrate local artists and craftspeople that make University Place unique.
Emerge LNK: Mural and Street Art Festival was a collaborative effort by the Lux Center for the Arts, Uni Place Creative District and Nebraska Wesleyan University.
The goal was to bring together the artists and the community who share the spaces in the area on N 48th Street.
The focus of this years street fest highlighted the creative district’s roots in the larger Lincoln community.
The event boasted a maker’s market, music, food and three new murals, which were painted in the week leading up the event.
One of the mural sites, located on the west wall of Mo Java Cafe, wasn’t quite prepped for its artist’s arrival, though.
Margaret Kops Kuveke of Ithaca, N.Y., was supposed to create her mural at this site.
Instead, she worked on the wall of a different building, located nearby her designated site, and made it fun for those at the festival.
Kops Kuveke outlined drawings of flowers and other designs and invited community members to join her in painting.
“I just thought that this would be a great way to engage the community. The mural becomes a part of it, so people will be able to walk by and say that they helped with that,” Kops Kuveke said.
The vendors had their own ways of connecting with the community at this event. And there were over 40 vendors, many of them local to Lincoln.
One of these businesses, Bradley Bonbons, is owned and operated by Joshua Bradley.
Bradley started his business for his daughter, who wanted to try some of the popular Dubai chocolates, which have been a viral sensation on social media.
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Bradley has been a chef for over 16 years and decided to use his skills in a different way, which is where Bradley Bonbons came in.
He handed out samples of his Dubai chocolates, along with his freeze-dried candies.
Madison Chase was another of the vendor.
Chase, 20, of Omaha, is an art student at Metro Community College. She brought prints of her art pieces, handmade earrings and clay magnets.
“I just love seeing people’s reactions to the art that I make. So being here today at this event with people stopping by to look makes it all worthwhile to me,” Chase said.
Several of the artists showcased their creativity, live, as they were working on pieces.
Danny Reneau, originally from Seattle, was working on his own mural on the east side of 48th Street.
He was commissioned by UNI Place Creative District for his mural, which he said will be his “ode to Lincoln.”
This mural will include birds and flowers native to Nebraska.
“When I moved here 15 years ago, one of the first things I noticed was all of the trees and flowers. That’s not something you see everywhere,” Reneau said.
Reneau’s mural and the three other new murals, including Kops Kuveke’s which will likely be finished next week, are a testament to the district’s commitment to the arts in community.
“The whole point of this event and the work that we do here is to revitalize the neighborhood. We have gotten to grow our art here, so we want to reinvest in the community,” said Megan Trenkamp, one of the directors of the day’s event.
Reach the writer at 402-473-2634 or thurlburt@journalstar.com.
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