Dr. H. Jason Combs: Nebraska’s Exaggeration Postcards, Giant Grasshoppers, and Two-Ton Potatoes Along with Other Facts about the Plains
Wednesday, January 23 • 2:00 p.m.
In the first few decades of the early 1900s, the United States was postcard crazy with thousands of cards exchanged daily. Many were simply a form of “self-congratulation,” often illustrating signs of development and progress. This program focuses on Nebraska postcards, specifically exaggeration postcards, cards that were not only used for communication and entertainment, but also intended to promote and “sell” Nebraska to a larger audience.

Dr. H. Jason Combs is Chair and Professor of Geography at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, his M.S. degree from Southwest Missouri State University, and a B.S. from Northwest Missouri State University.

Dr. Michael Hoff: Mosaics, Baths, and Pirate Treasure, The Excavations at Antiochia ad Cragum in Asia Minor
Wednesday, February 27 • 2:00 p.m.
Since 2005, the Roman-era city Antiochia ad Cragum has been undergoing excavation by the University of Nebraska. The city was founded on the former base of the famed late Hellenistic Cilician pirates who preyed upon ships throughout the Mediterranean Sea. This talk, explores the early history of the city, its pirate past, and extraordinary mosaics, and is the first forum in which the 2018 discoveries will be announced. These include a mysterious victim whose body was found in a Roman bath building, and a major hoard of over 3,000 mostly silver coins which may be loot from another era of pirates.

Dr. Michael Hoff is a Professor of Art History at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln specializing in Greek and Roman archaeology. He currently conducts research in Turkey where, from 1997 to 2004, he co-directed the architectural survey team of the Rough Cilicia Archaeological Survey Project. Since 2005, he has been serving as Project Director of the Antiochia ad Cragum Excavations in Rough Cilicia on the south coast of Turkey.

Susan Knight: The Power of Water in Art
Wednesday, March 27 • 2:00 p.m.
Water is complex, it is a fractal. “It’s one thing to read about aspects of water and quite another to discover them for myself through art.” Omaha-based paper artist Susan Knight devotes exclusive attention to the stories and science of water and the land around it by building constructions with her hand-cut materials.

Exhibiting nationally and internationally, her work has been featured in SciArt Magazine, Sculpture Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, and appears in the book, Art Inspired by Science: Imagining the Natural World, by Robert Louis Chianese. Knight is a recipient of a Nebraska Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship, and was awarded art-science residencies at AS IF Center, North Carolina; The Colorado Art Ranch and The Nature Conservancy, Hayden, Colorado; and art residencies at Ragdale Foundation, Lake Forest, Illinois; and the International School of Art, Montecastello di Vibio, Italy. She earned a B.F.A. degree from Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana; and attended The University of Notre Dame; The Glassell School of Art, Houston; and the School of The Art Institute of Chicago. Presented in conjunction with A River Runs Through It.

Humanities Nebraska provides major funding for this program. Humanities Nebraska receives support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Nebraska State Legislature, Nebraska Cultural Endowment, and private donations.

Kent Wolgamott: Contemporary Art Trends in Lincoln, Nebraska
Wednesday, April 24 • 2:00 p.m.
L. Kent Wolgamott, the arts and entertainment writer for the Lincoln Journal Star, has written about the visual arts, music, and film for Lincoln newspapers for 33 years. In 2009, he was one of 12 American fellows in the Nebraska Education Association/U.S. State Department’s International Arts Journalism Institute in Visual Art. In 2018, he received the Lincoln Mayor’s Arts Award – Literary. A native of Curtis, Wolgamott is a graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and worked as an aide to U.S. Senator Edward Zorinsky before beginning his newspaper career. His writings have appeared in Time, People, Rolling Stone, Spin, and Art Papers and he is a long-time Associated Press stringer, writing about Nebraska football and men’s basketball.