Sheldon Statewide is an annual exhibition and outreach program of Sheldon Museum of Art at the University of Nebraska. As part of the land-grant research institution, Sheldon shares the university’s mission of extending its offerings across the state. More than 370,000 people in twenty-five Nebraska communities have viewed original artworks from Sheldon’s collection since the exhibition program began in 1987.

Sheldon Statewide 2023–2024
A Day's Work

How do we visualize labor? How can art contribute to, as well as challenge, our understanding of labor? A Day’s Work invites viewers to examine our expectations about who engages in particular types of work and what kinds of jobs are valued and by whom. It also encourages us to question labor’s mental, physical, social, political, and economic effects.

Early twentieth-century photographs by Lewis Hine and Dorothea Lange documented and raised awareness about harsh and unsafe working conditions, such as child labor and agricultural labor, while more recent artworks by Fernando Salicrup and Jay Lynn Gomez encourage us to think critically about workers’ rights and visibility. Artworks by Edward Arcenio Chávez, Christina Fernandez, and Marguerite Stuber Peterson show quieter scenes of working and moments of rest during the workday. Several images were made as part of the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project, a New Deal program from the 1930s and ’40s that supported artists during the Great Depression, when unemployment was high.

While the artworks in this exhibition vary in medium, time period, and message, together they illuminate an expanded understanding of what it means—and what it looks like—to labor.

Support for Sheldon Statewide is provided by Farmers Mutual Insurance Company of Nebraska, Rhonda Seacrest, and Sheldon Art Association.

For information about Sheldon Statewide, please contact Curator of Academic Engagement Erin Hanas at erin.hanas@unl.edu or 402-472-3541.

2023–2024 Sheldon Statewide Exhibition Schedule

Chadron State College, Chadron
August 30–September 27, 2023

Prairie Arts Center, North Platte
September 30–October 26, 2023

Museum of the High Plains, McCook
October 28–November 29, 2023

Grand Island Public Library, Grand Island
January 5–31, 2024

Cornerstone Bank, York
February 2–28, 2024

Beatrice Public Library, Beatrice
March 1–28, 2024

Gallery 92 West, Fremont
March 30–April 28, 2024

Stadler Gallery, Falls City Library and Art Center, Falls City
April 30–May 30, 2024