By Mark Coddington
mark.coddington@theindependent.com

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Independent/Barrett Stinson The Wings Over the Platte Art Show is currently on display at Stuhr Museum through April 11. The art, which reflects life on the Platte River and its tributaries, includes ³3 Cranes² by Dean Vavak < a Merit Award winner in the two-dimensional category. Independent/Barrett Stinson Sally Bussı ³River Round² is Best of Show in the three-dimensional category of this yearıs Wings Over the Platte Art Show. Independent/Barrett Stinson At the entrance to the Stuhr Building, Loi Van Voıs ³Dance of Life² can be found. The piece is a Merit Award winner in this yearıs Wings Over the Platte Art Show. Click Thumbnails to View

The event began in 1989 as a weekend festival celebrating the cranes' arrival in the Central Platte River Valley, with an art show in conjunction.

Over the years, the festival fell away, but the art show grew in size and prestige.

This year, with Crane Meadows Nature Center closed for crane season, Stuhr has dipped back into working with the cranes' coming far beyond an art display.

The museum, along with the Grand Island/Hall County Convention and Visitors Bureau, is serving as a clearinghouse for area crane watchers. And last Saturday, its volunteers got "crane training" to be able to answer visitors' questions about the birds.

"We've really kind of reached back out into the community," said Kari Stofer, the museum's curator of exhibits. "It's just been fortuitous in a way because it's been something that's been really well received."

That's not to say the art is getting any less attention. In fact, this year's show is one of the most ambitious in the event's history.

The show, which runs through April 11, includes a work from nearly every featured artist in its history 21 in all.

Stofer said tracking down the past featured artists was a difficult task, but once reached, virtually every artist was excited to participate.

The show also has its own featured artist, Lincoln painter and photographer Hal Holoun, a native of Ord and former Stuhr program director during the 1970s.

Holoun is primarily a landscape painter, though he has done a series of photos for Stuhr's collection.

The show also includes another 60 pieces illustrating the wildlife and landscapes of the Platte.

Joe Black, Stuhr's executive director, said that though the show's subject matter has remained largely the same, it's interesting to see artists branch out into new styles and techniques.

"It just keeps getting better," Black said. "It has a real vital feeling. There's a real sense of motion."

Jorn Olsen of Hastings, who won Best of Show in the event's photography division, agreed that the quality of the show is improving.

He said the show is a good chance to see the work of local artists and recognize the beauty that's right in Central Nebraska's backyard.

"There's always something going on with wildlife," Olsen said of the river. "It adds a variety to what I can do."

Stuhr's show isn't the only art show on the cranes in town this month. Prairie Winds Arts Center is hosting a "Spirit of the Cranes Show" through March 31 that features the work of Grand Island bronze sculptor Doug Jensen, along with Prairie Winds members and students at Grand Island Senior High.

The public is invited to a reception to meet the artists from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Friday at the art center.