Summer Snow: A Celebration of Landscape

“How much it must mean to a man to love his country like this . . . ." – One of Ours, Willa Cather

The cottonwood tree is a familiar feature of Willa Cather’s novels. Though the native tree was often considered a nuisance in Nebraska, Willa Cather championed the preservation of the oldest trees, recalling how the “pioneers feel the cottonwoods are bound up with their lives.” She notes too, as she wrote during World War I, the incredible damage done to the trees of Europe and the emotional toll that the decimated landscape took on the people there. As she writes in One of Ours, the cottonwood was a common bond between the Nebraska prairie and war-torn France. The first week of June generally marks the period when cottonwoods begin to go to seed, airborne tufts of silky “snow” carrying the seeds of the native trees across the prairie. As we commemorate the service of so many American men in Europe, we will fill our auditorium with your interpretations of the cottonwood—growing wild, planted in formal allees, on the prairie, or abroad. 

Featured Artists

Jeremy Daniels, Ben Darling, Mike and Mary Dixon, Susan Drey, Deb Kubik, Barb Kudrna, Christi Lewis, Gwen Lewis, Jane Marie, David McCleery, Jorn Olsen, Amy Springer, Gregory Summers, Tracy Tucker, Jenine Wilhelms, and Linda Woodward.