Several people affiliated with the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts were announced as recipients of the Mayor’s Arts Awards, renamed this year to the Lincoln Arts Awards. The awards will be presented Aug. 27 by the Lincoln Arts Council.
Congratulations to the following recipients:
• Rhonda Seacrest: Medici Award for Arts Philanthropy. The unique award was created this year in light of Seacrest’s extraordinary generosity. Her life passion is to make sure that all young people in Nebraska have the opportunity to be encouraged, successful and make their communities better.
• Aaron Holz: Lincoln’s Choice Award. Holz is professor of art in the School of Art, Art History & Design. He has exhibited work in New York and throughout the United States. He was included in “100 Painters of Tomorrow,” published by Thames and Hudson in 2014.
• Susan Levine Ourada: Artistic Achievement Award—Performing Arts. Ourada is associate professor of dance and director of dance studies in the Glenn Korff School of Music and interdisciplinary coordinator for the Hixson-Lied College. She has been involved in many projects across disciplines both in and out of the arts.
• Keith Buswell (B.F.A. 2018): Artistic Achievement Award—Visual Arts. Buswell works with various printmaking processes such as screenprinting, intaglio and mono printing and dabbles in drawing and multimedia. His is currently a member of Karen Kunc’s Constellation Studios, where he creates his prints.
• Constellation Studios: Outstanding Arts Organization Award. Cather Professor Emerita of Art Karen Kunc is the founder and owner of Constellation Studios, a creative worksite for artist residencies, collaborations and workshops in print, paper and bookmaking. In 2007 she received the Printmaker Emeritus Award from the Southern Graphics Council International, the largest organization for print artists in the world.
For more information and a full list of recipients, visit https://artscene.org/lincoln-arts-awards-2025/.