Both Trace I and Trace II were created as part of the body of print monotypes created for Tributary, which is installed in the southwest corner of the gallery. However, these works specifically reference the summer of 2019 when Amanda Maciuba was an artist in residence at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts in Nebraska City. Maciuba arrived in Nebraska to find that she had again come to an area in the aftermath of historic levels of flooding. The Missouri River had flooded its banks in the spring of 2019, and the water had yet to recede in many of the areas she had planned to visit. Due to the flooded state of many of the parks and preserves as well as the fact that the closest bridge across the Missouri River was closed due to the flooding, Maciuba’s research needed to adjust in the moment. She spent the majority of the residency driving between different flooded locations as well as unexpectedly expanding her geographic research up the Platte River. These prints share some of the flooded farm fields and wetlands she witnessed during her time in Nebraska in 2019, and they consider how human manipulation of the Missouri and climate change has altered the Great Plains and will continue to change it moving forward. 

In addition to the flooded landscape south of Nebraska City, many of the prints in the exhibition reference multiple museums and parks throughout Nebraska. These include the Missouri River Basin Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center in Nebraska City, Indian Cave State Park in Shubert, Wehrspann Lake at Chalco Hills Recreation Area and the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge in Omaha, and the Schramm Park State Recreation Area in Gretna.

Additional locations outside of Nebraska that are referenced throughout this exhibition are the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in Strong City, KS; the Konza Prairie Biological Station in Manhattan, KS; the Baker Wetlands in Lawrence, KS; Maxwell Wildlife Refuge in Canton, KS; Kaw Point Park in Kansas City, KS; Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge in Prairie City, IA; Freda Haffner Kettlehole State Preserve in West Okoboji, IA; the Cayler Prairie Wildlife Management Area in Spirit Lake, IA; Spirit Mound Historic Prairie in Vermillion, SD; Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge and Seneca Meadows Landfill & Wetland Preserve in Seneca Falls, NY; Long Point National Wildlife Area in Norfolk, Ontario, Canada; and the Big Creek National Wildlife Area in Port Rowan, Ontario, Canada.

Photo by Bill Ganzel, Ganzel Group Communications

Watershed, Great Plains Art Museum, curated by Ashley Wilkinson, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE.