Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts will not hold its annual Honors Day celebration in April.
The recipients of our annual awards will be announced on our website and social media (@UNLArts) on Friday, April 23.
The following Alumni Board Awards have been announced:
• Maurice M. Dixon, Jr.
B.F.A. 1970; M.F.A. 1973
Alumni Achievement Award in Art
Maurice Dixon received his B.F.A. and M.F.A. from Nebraska, where he studied painting, ceramics and art history. Since his graduation, he has accumulated an extraordinary and diverse record of achievement. Simply put, he is a renaissance man.
Since his graduation, he has concurrently been a rancher, businessman, entrepreneur, developer, curator, designer, painter, master tinsmith and scholar.
He has resided in Santa Fe, New Mexico, for more than 40 years and is immersed in the historical and contemporary culture of the region. In 1990, he co-authored with Lane Coulter the book New Mexican Tinwork 1840-1940 that has since become an influential reference source for artists and scholars. As a result of additional research, he authored in 2015 the book The Artistic Legacy of Higinio V. Gonzales: A Tinsmith and Poet in Territorial New Mexico. The book received extensive critical acclaim, numerous awards and resulted in the exhibition “The Artistic Odyssey of Higinio V. Gonzales” at the Albuquerque Museum, which he curated. He is currently working on a new book about the work and life of Southwestern ceramicist Rick Dillingham.
• Robert Krueger
B.M.E. 1984; M.M. 1994
Alumni Achievement Award in Music
Krueger began his teaching career in 1984 at Omaha North High School. In 1985 he accepted a position as Director of Instrumental Music at Lincoln Southeast High School, retiring in the summer of 2020 after 35 years with the Lincoln Public Schools.
Krueger has been the recipient of several teaching awards, including the Nebraska State Bandmasters Association Jack Snider Outstanding Young Band Director Award and the American School Band Directors Association Stanbury Award as the nation’s outstanding young band director. He was instrumental in starting the All-State Jazz Band in Nebraska and was one of the co-founders of the NSBA State Concert Band Festival, which he organized for the first several years of its existence.
• Kara Thomson
M.F.A. 1998
Alumni Achievement Award in Theatre & Film
Kara Thomson is Faculty and Head of the Theatrical Design, Technical and Management program at Mesa Community College’s Department of Theatre and Film Arts. In 2011 she received the Kennedy Center Excellence in Theatre Education Award.
She has designed for Arizona Broadway Theatre, Actor’s Theatre, The Bridge Initiative, The Nebraska Repertory Theatre, The Illinois Shakespeare Festival, University of Nebraska, 24th Street Theatre of Los Angeles, Dolly Parton, and Arizona State University.
Her television work includes more than 4,000 aired hours for the television networks ABC, NBC and CBS. She has received Emmy honors for her work on Days of Our Lives and an Emmy nomination for her work on General Hospital.
• Johnny Carson Foundation
Award of Merit
The Johnny Carson Foundation’s Board, which includes Allan Alexander, Larry Witzer, Jeff Sotzing, Lawrence Heller and Steve Sotzing, have transformed not only the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts, but the entire University of Nebraska–Lincoln with their philanthropy.
In November 2015, the Johnny Carson Foundation made their largest and most transformative gift yet to the University of Nebraska–Lincoln—a $20 million gift to create an academic program and facility focused on interdisciplinary learning, creativity and research in emerging media that would be called the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts.
Their investment in us is not just about money. They have also generously given their time, energy and support, meeting with students and faculty regularly. The Johnny Carson Foundation genuinely cares about our students, faculty and staff and are our biggest fans, wanting us to be successful while carrying on the legacy of the great Johnny Carson.
• Rebecca Nederhiser
Student Leadership Award
Nederhiser is a candidate for the DMA degree in orchestral conducting in the Glenn Korff School of Music. She has served as instructor of record for Campus Orchestra and music theory. Under her leadership, the Campus String Orchestra has experienced a 100% membership growth within the last two years. She also co-founded the Trace Chamber Society in 2019, which performed a chamber arrangement of Leos Janacek’s “The Cunning Little Vixen” in collaboration with the UNL Opera Program last fall.