By Tyler Dahlgren

The line to enter the “Arts For ME!” artist reception and exhibition was out the front door to downtown Omaha art museum KANEKO last Thursday night.

Inside, pure magic awaited. A celebration of adaptive art at Westside High School, Westside Middle School, Millard North Middle School and Omaha Public Schools Transition Program North, the event put young artists and their work in the spotlight. It’ll stay there for the next four months.

“This program is pretty incredible,” said Vicki Krecek, who serves on the KANEKO Board. “It’s taking kids with special needs and giving them the time and the materials to really use art to learn both physically and mentally. The kids come to this final exhibition, and they’re so excited to see their work on display.”

The byproduct of unique collaboration, innovation and big hearts, Arts for ME! just wrapped up its fifth official year. Thanks to steadfast support from its partners, including KANEKO, private donors, the Westside Foundation and the Nebraska Arts Council, the program will soon become its own 501(c) non-profit organization. 

Its story begins 15 years or so ago, said co-founder Erin Lunsford, with an idea.

“We weren’t really providing our neurodivergent students with what they really deserved,” said Lunsford, who teaches art for Westside Community Schools. “We typically have 30 kids in a class, which gives you a couple minutes with each of them. That’s just not enough time to give these students. We wanted to do more and we thought we could do more.”

Fast forward through a decade of deliberation and exploration, and you’ll find the catalyst. Therman Statom. An Omaha-based Studio Glass artist with sculptures on display all over the world and a passion for education in his heart.

“I have a really good friend on the board here, and she told me I just had to meet Therman,” Lunsford recalled. “We met, I discovered his passion for education and our relationship grew. When I told him about Arts For ME!, he immediately said, ‘Oh, we’re doing that together.’”

Statom is a catalyst, and a character. He jokes about pulling up to Westside in his “really ugly van” that first time. He laughs about the sideways stares and the curious glances that followed, about how he went from a potential security threat to getting big hugs in a manner of five minutes on campus.

“I’ve always wanted to be a teacher and to support teachers, and I believe education is the highest order of advocacy,” Statom said, standing in front of a mesmerizing glass wall that he created to serve as an entrance into the Arts For ME! exhibit. “We all kind of discovered each other. This program is a real time kind of program where we respond to needs as they come, and it fits well with KANEKO’s mission of promoting creativity. We’re very much about coming up with ideas that help service providers, of giving them the license to figure out new ways of teaching.”

Statom can hardly give an interview without giving out a handful of those big hugs. Sure, his art is displayed all over the world. And, sure, he’s been to a lot of places and seen a lot of things. But tonight, there is nowhere he would rather be.

“For far too long, people have been focused on what these kids can’t do,” Statom said. “I’m just delighted. You see the parents, and their pride, and that motivates me just as much as the kids.”

Like Statom, Krecek made sure she was in town for this one. The Arts For ME! program has consistently left her in awe. She marvels at the growth the students make from one year to the next.

“The way they’re teaching these kids is a way to teach everybody,” Krecek said. “What they do, insisting on the child making the decision, takes courage on the part of the teachers. What’s interesting is the parents will go, ‘Yeah, that’s my son’s work alright.’ They know their children. They see it in the work. Nobody’s telling them they have to paint between the lines.”

That’s the beauty of adaptive art. An artist’s work is an artist’s work. No negotiations. Lunsford is so fiercely defensive of that idea that she created Arts For ME! around it.

“The minute an adult in the room or a well-meaning helper comes and moves their hand around or draws something for them, it completely devalues them as a human being and what they’re capable of,” Lunsford said. “Art is subjective, and I think this is the one thing that is truly theirs.”

There’s never a mistake, said MNMS art teacher Amber Castillo. Not in the adaptive art room.

“Everything is on purpose,” Castillo explained. “The mark is there and it’s just beautiful. Some kids, some days you get them to do a line or two lines and that’s okay. That’s their artwork. It really is an amazing night, and KANEKO is an amazing venue and partner.”

A student at OPS Transition Program North, Alexa Morris fell in love with art in middle school. She’s been scrapbooking and making custom bracelets at home ever since. All throughout the reception, which included finger food and refreshments, Morris wore an infectious smile.

“I never stop thinking about art,” she said. “There is so much talent in this room, and everybody has amazing abilities.”

And for one night, the spotlight is all theirs.

“So many of these kids, when they go places it’s to watch a sibling or to cheer on a sibling,” said Krecek. “Tonight, they’re the stars. They’re the artists, and you can just see the joy on their faces.”

Becoming its own 501(c) will allow for continued growth, said Lunsford. The program started six years ago at WHS. WMS and MNMS jumped on board two years later. Morris’s school joined at the beginning of this year, bringing OPS into the fold. And while thinking about the future is fun, Lunsford was ready for a breather. The event was a year in the making, after all.

“When we get done here tonight, we’ll already be talking about next year and what our focus will be,” she said. “We have so many volunteers that make tonight happen. It takes a lot of people who believe in what we’re doing. We’re so thankful for all of them.”

There was a time when Lunsford walked into these events admittedly nervous. The idea of artist autonomy wasn’t being exercised with this population of students, and she was unsure of what the parents would think. Then she saw their reactions. She saw their eyes welt up, and she couldn’t keep hers from doing the same.

“To see that response, to hear the parents say ‘I know my kid, and I know that they made that,’ that’s what it’s all about,” Lunsford said. “We’re here to elevate everything they’re doing, because they deserve it. They deserve to be put on a pedestal.”