Artists and community organizations contribute to new temporary mural downtown

The mural, created by various organizations, represents nurturing and will be removed upon completion of the Tenaska Center for Arts Engagement.

• Hugo Zamorano led this project.
• Contributors to the mural include Completely Kids at Jackson Elementary, the Intercultural Senior Center, Joslyn's Kent Bellows Mentoring Program, BFF, and Pops Midtown Boxing

BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
"It started off with me drawing on my mom’s walls and it never really stopped," said Olivia Harruff, a junior at Papillion La Vista High School.

Olivia is one of many artists who contributed to this mural that now sits on the retaining wall between the Holland Performing Arts Center and the future Tenaska Center for Arts Engagement.

"I first really got involved when my art teacher reached out to me to be a part of this program known as the Kent Bellows Mentorship program," Harruff said.

From there she was put into the mural arts program. For Olivia art is way to express herself.

"While I can express myself with words being able to express it with things like very bright colors, very like very bold images, it's a lot more fun to me personally," Harruff said.

The project challenged the artists to find what the theme - nurture - means to them, to Olivia and her team, it was mother earth.

"When you think about nurturing you usually think about your moms’ hugs," Harruff said.

Hugo Zamorano - led this project working with several organizations including, Completely Kids at Jackson Elementary, the Intercultural Senior Center, Joslyn's Kent Bellows Mentoring Program, BFF and Pops Midtown Boxing.

"Working with different age groups as well was just very fruitful,” Zamorano said.

An opportunity for many firsts.

"Someone is always, this is my first time picking up a paint brush or I have never been part of a mural there is a lot of those firsts and those a really exciting because then that means that we are sharing our work as artists not only visually but also how our process and how we feel about everything," Zamorano said.

Creating a nurturing foundation for artists like Olivia.

"It's really cool to see your own piece be worked on and the progress, but for me personally what was even cooler than that was seeing all these other things further down being worked on and progressing as you progressed," Harruff said.

The mural will be removed before the end of the next year with the Tenaska Center for Arts Engagement expected to open in spring of 2026.