Situated Selves: Art, Place, and Identity

How do the landscapes we grow up in shape who we are and the art we make? The landscapes we grow up in aren’t just scenic backgrounds; they teach us how to think, feel, and relate to the world.

Situated Selves: Art, Place, and Identity at on December 12th at 12PM brings together panelists Cady de la Cruz, Keegan Dunn, and Ami Polite, with moderator Sara Jacobson, for a conversion about how environmental histories, cultural inheritance, and our ties to the land shape creative subjectivities. Together, they’ll consider the ethical responsibilities that emerge when “place” is an active collaborator in creative work and discuss relational identity as a framework for addressing how we show up in the world as collaborators, caretakers, and witnesses within the environments we depend on.

Free and open to all. Bring your curiosity and please RSVP to attend.

The Ashton is wheelchair accessible and located in Millwork Commons, a walkable and bikeable district off the number 4 Metro Transit Omaha bus line. If you have any accessibility needs, please reach out to us at least 48 hours in advance of this event at [email protected].

Free parking can be found north of HELLO Apartments and in the lot west of the Mastercraft building. Metered Parking is available on Millwork Ave, 13th St, 12th St, and Nicholas Street. Be sure to download the City of Omaha’s Park Omaha app or pay at the purple kiosks. Click here for directions.

Alternate Currents programming is presented with support from the The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment, and Metropolitan Community College.

Image artwork by Keegan Dunn

About the Panelists:

Cady de la Cruz is a community organizer and Curatorial Assistant of Native American Art at The Joslyn Art Museum where she focuses on both day-to-day and long-range operations, including programming and engagements with Indigenous organizations and communities and the Native American Art Advisory Committee. She graduated from the University of Virginia with dual degrees in Global Development Studies and Anthropology. Her academic and research interests address Indigeneity, migration and displacement, abolitionist practice, museum studies, social movements with special focuses on the Andean region and Latinx diaspora.

is a field researcher and photographer currently residing in Omaha, Nebraska. He is an integrated science major at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln studying the ecology and history of the Missouri RIver watershed. His work explores how notions of place shape the personal constructs of identity and self-image. He documents human interactions with the landscape to better understand how we think about, and remember, where we’re from.

is a gardener of plants and people. She is the owner of Polite Gardens, a company that offers private gardening services, coaching, writing, art installations and nature psychoeducation. Born and raised in South Bronx, New York, Ami has resided in Nebraska for several decades. Self taught from volunteering at botanical gardens various commercial and residential sites. She believes that gardening should be natural, not stressful. Her self-published memoir, "Garden My Hair" is a growing mix of plants, art, hair and music. Her art installations have appeared at Kiewit Luminarium, CULXR House and Afrocon. She's been a nature lover all her life, an avid gardener for over 15 years and professional gardener for over 10 years. "People interacting with plants should be a regular and natural occurrence. The simplest of interactions is observing and imitating."

About the Moderator:

Sara Jacobson is a creative consultant and entrepreneur based in Omaha, working with design, curation, research and user experience in various forms. She owns and operates the shop Family of Things, consults remotely with the NBA in NY doing UX design research, and conceptualized & curated Omaha's Kiewit Luminarium Gift Shop. After 13 years in California, NYC and Chicago, she relocated back to Omaha in 2020 with the intention to open Family of Things. She earned a Masters in Designed Objects from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, providing the foundation for her interest in the conceptual side of design, the value of craft, and human behavior in relation to design. She now brings these interests together in all of her varied work to create intentional, engaging experiences.

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