Creating More Hours: A Temporal Commons offers humanly-scaled models for combining creative practice, social connection, and mutual caregiving. During a series of workshops designed to expand and reclaim time through cooperative caregiving, the gallery space functions as a "temporal commons" for caregivers and their children.
The public opening of Creating More Hours on Friday, March 8th from 6pm - 9pm is free and open to all. During the opening, Omaha based poet, caregiver, printmaker, and project organizer Amanda Huckins will guide a community printmaking workshop that encourages participants to consider the currency of their time.
After the opening, caregivers with children between the ages of 3- and 12-years-old are invited to participate together in any or all of the free workshops below. Collaborative care that allows participants to cycle between caregiving and artmaking is an integral part of each workshop. Workshop participants should expect to share in both caregiving and artmaking activities! Each workshop can accommodate ten participants.
Workshop Schedule:
March 16th, 2pm - 4pm
Workshop #1: Poetic Expression w/ Maritza N. Estrada
Consider the letter as a container for wonder, possibility, transformation, and healing with poet Maritza N. Estrada and write your own letter to something or someone.
March 23rd, 2pm - 4pm
Workshop #2: Interactive Audio w/ Ameen Wahba
Explore how touch, connection, and shared experiences using musical technology can build meaningful relationships with musician and therapist Ameen Wahba.
March 30th, 2pm - 4pm
Workshop #3: Resourceful Printmaking w/ Kelly Seacrest
Learn how to do relief printing with traditional media and easy-to-cut alternatives in order to create postcard sized duplicates of your very own design with printmaker Kelly Seacrest.
April 6th, 2pm - 4pm
Workshop #4: Cookie Decorating w/ Artur Melika
Polish your piping with artist Artur Melika and learn cookie decorating techniques that lead to beautiful and tasty results.
April 12th, 6pm - 8pm
Creating More Hours: Panel Discussion
Join us for our next Alternate Currents panel discussion at Generator Space and hear Creating More Hours workshop participants talk more about practicing mutual caregiving and its potential to build solidarity within creative communities.
Generator Space is wheelchair accessible and located on a fairly busy street with a decent amount of traffic. Please use crosswalks for safety. Unmetered street parking is available on Vinton Street, 18th Street, and neighborhood streets to the north and west of the space.
Generator Series programming is presented with support from the Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.
About the Artists:
Amanda Huckins is a Nebraskan poet whose work has been published in booklet form as "Trying to End the War" (merrily merrily merrily merrily, 2017) and featured in A Dozen Nothing (adozennothing.com), amongst other places on paper and online. In her weekday hours, Amanda assists multiple infants as they adjust to being. She deeply loves working alongside fellow community members to build self-determination, forge non-transactional relationships, and create radical free spaces (such as past projects The Commons in Lincoln, NE and Media Corp. in Omaha). She is also a letterpress printer who produces postcards (and other ephemera) in her garage print studio, where she teaches typesetting to anyone who wants to learn.
Maritza N. Estrada earned her MFA in Creative Writing at Arizona State University. Estrada’s recent poem “Audience” was published in the Academy of American Poets—the nation’s leading champion of American poets and poetry. Born in Toppenish, Washington to Mexican parents, she calls Phoenix, Mexico City, and Paris, home. ¡Liberar Palestina!
Ameen Wahba (he/him) is an arab-american multidisciplinary artist and psychotherapist living in Omaha, NE - the ancestral homeland of the Omaha, Ponca, Otoe-Missouria and Ioway tribes. He is interested in exploring the liminal space between synthetic and organic modes of being in his art, activism, and therapy practice.
Kelly Seacrest is an educator and artist. With her husband Peter Stegen, she founded Wild Learning in 2020, a Democratic Self Directed learning place for kids. As a facilitator at Wild Learning, she supports kids' learning by practicing democracy, engaging in conflict resolution, creating curriculum and being playful with them. Kelly also practices her art and loves painting, drawing and printmaking.
Artur Melika is an Omaha-based, queer, Ukrainian-American artist. Melika received his BFA from University of Nebraska Omaha in December of 2022. Art’s current work explores the vastness of the queer experience and how it manifests for individuals coming from different backgrounds. His primary focus is in 2D mediums including printmaking, drawing and painting. Melika is also exploring guerrilla style performance-based work, in public and gallery settings.