Prairie Art Field Trip

On January 20th, 2013, a group of thirteen students from Hastings College and I set out on a field trip to the Museum of Nebraska Art in Kearney, Nebraska.  However, this was anything but your typical field trip. Rather than taking a bus down I-80, we instead walked the roughly fifty mile distance along county roads that traced the historic Oregon Trail, pulling our supplies in a small, conestoga-inspired cart and documenting this atypical experience through a variety of artistic media.  

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The students called themselves the ‘Prairie Art Pioneers’ and were enrolled in a course titled Adventure-Art, which challenged them to use their own creativity and imagination in order to create exciting and remarkable expriences.  By walking the distance between Hastings and Kearney, we hoped to rediscover and re-mystify the Central Nebraskan landscape and highlight its overlooked beauty and potential for adventure. We then brought our findings and reflections to the Museum of Nebraska Art in hopes of learning something from the pioneers and artist-explorers from the past that came through this area.