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Joslyn Art Museum Nebraska s premiere art museum wows with gorgeous Art Deco architecture and an exterior of 38 kinds of marble from around the world. Inside, the 11,000-piece permanent collection includes Greek pottery, Impressionist master works, 20th-century paintings and modern art. Scavenger hunt-style activities and tips fill backpacks for kid fun, and the outdoor sculpture gardens are a don t-miss. Best of all, general admission is free. joslyn.org Joslyn Art Museum. Photo courtesy of the Omaha Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Joslyn Art Museum. Photo courtesy of the Omaha Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Rick Ruggles
Omaha World-Herald
Old Market shop owners look ahead to a better future after setbacks, including fire, protests and a pandemic.
Omahaâs Old Market, the downtown business area known for its old brick buildings, uneven brick streets and mishmash of shops and restaurants, looks old indeed.
Vacant bays and buildings spatter the area. Since last year, the coronavirus pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests and violence have taken a toll. The fire at Mâs Pub five years ago left its mark, and the downtown core faces competition from Midtown, Blackstone, Aksarben and Near North Omaha.
Gone are Old Chicago and Michaelâs restaurant, as well as Tom Mangelsenâs Images of Nature gallery and Drastic Plastic records and gifts. The Passageway, the indoor collection of shops and restaurants in the Old Market, has at least three vacant bays.
George Mills
Omahaâs quest to connect the downtown business district to the riverfront started in the 1970s. An appropriate theme for the effort could be, âif at first you donât succeed try, try, again.â The plan started with the design of the Central Park Mall and a manifest destiny-like approach that someday, somehow it would all come together and connect with the river.
The Central Park Mall was later renamed the Gene Leahy Mall in honor of Mayor Leahyâs effort to move the project forward. The mall had makeovers in 2005 and in 2013.
Between the mall and the river, a nationally recognized historic district of century-old warehouses called Jobbers Canyon was demolished in 1989 as part of a deal to entice ConAgra to build its national headquarters on the site. Community leaders sweetened the deal by building adjacent to the ConAgra campus Heartland Park of America, comprising 10 acres with a lake and a magnificent colored fountain.