I arrived in Omaha Monday evening. Tuesday (3/18/2014) was a busy day. First up was a talk in the Holocaust class run by Dr. Waitman Beorn. My talk, “The #mrynecki Project” focused on the importance of the role of the internet in general and social media in particular in my quest to find and learn more about my great-grandfather’s life and lost art. The students asked fabulous questions in the Q&A – clearly an engaged and thoughtful crowd! The classroom talk was filmed by Aaron and Molly, the lovely and fabulous owners of The Silver Screen, an Omaha video production company. Molly and Aaron also spent some time with me outside on the quad after the talk so we could get some nice footage of me walking on campus in front of academic buildings as well as the UNO campanile.
Tuesday evening I spoke at the Kaneko, “a non-profit cultural organization, exploring and encouraging the process of creativity, and how it impacts our lives.” The space is absolutely amazing! Located in three historic warehouse buildings in Omaha’s Old Market District, the Kaneko shows many different art exhibitions and offers a variety of original programming that brings in speakers and events that take advantage of its spaciousness and projection space. My talk, “Chasing Portraits: A great-granddaughter’s search for her lost art legacy” is an introduction to my great-grandfather’s body of work, an overview of Holocaust era art looting and restitution, and my efforts in the last decade to find my great-grandfather’s lost paintings. I took this photograph (bottom right) before the seats filled up – I would say that ultimately there were over 100 people in attendance!
Here are some more photos from yesterday:
Top Row:
Selfie in front of a University of Nebraska, Omaha, academic building.
Group-selfie in the Holocaust class where I spoke
Selfie with Aaron and Molly – my in class film crew
Bottom Row:
A big shout out of thanks to Dr. Waitman Beorn who brought me to Omaha! Waitman and I after the classroom talk.
Dan, myself, and Dave – my on-site film crew at the Kaneko
The Kaneko space where I spoke before the crowd arrived