Nebraska by Heart is a statewide public art project celebrating the 150th anniversary of our state.
Liz Shea-McCoy, Project Director, says a call for artists was put out last summer.
Shea-McCoy says she told artists that though this is a Nebraska project, she didn’t want that to stop them from opening the door on their feelings of whimsy and surprise.
She says the fiberglass hearts feature themes including cowboys, agriculture and the sand hills. Shea-McCoy says there is also a heart commemorating Nebraska’s only astronaut, Clayton Anderson as well as a heart that celebrates the diversity we have in the state.
Paula Yoachim, artist and art teacher at Bellevue West High School, says she painted two hearts. The first one she calls, “The Heartland.”
She says she tried to depict the history of Nebraska in a fun and whimsical way.
"I started on one side doing Western Nebraska. I wanted to pay tribute to the early pioneers so I did a wagon train. And then I just focused on my home town of North Platte, Nebraska. So I did Buffalo Bill Cody’s house and I also included trains. And then on the back side I just tried to do Eastern Nebraska so I did the state capitol building, the Omaha skyline, the Missouri River but put it together in kind of a playful way.”
All 89 hearts will be on display October 5th and 6th in Lincoln’s Haymarket Park. There will be a public viewing day on October 5th. Each heart will then be auctioned off on October 6th, starting at 7:00 p.m.
For more information, the website is NebraskaByHeart.org.