OMAHA –  The University of Nebraska Omaha opened the Samuel Bak Museum:  The Learning Center in February with the idea of creating spaces for discussions that the paintings of a world-renowned artist and Holocaust survivor could provide.

Samuel Bak’s work was earlier shown at UNO in 2019 but Museum Curator Alexandra Cardon said a gift of 512 paintings offered a new opportunity to share the artist’s vision and the progression of his career.

Cardon, a former UNO art teacher, said the museum will have a profound impact on the university in terms of student and teacher engagement.

Cardon: “It has given a space in which we can host conversations that might be better done around paintings, in order to alleviate the tension of those conversations. It also allows us to engage at a different level than just the purely theoretical. Because, when you hear 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust , you go okay but you don’t understand the depth of it unless  you’re looking at one of Sam’s paintings and you realize the human scale.”

 

The museum also held outreach sessions with screenings of animated films from Humanity in Action. Thursday’s film, My Father’s War, was about three generations impacted by the Holocaust.

Cardon described the emotions of the art exhibit from powerful, moving and even tear-jerking.

Cardon: “People react in very different ways. They are attracted to the colors in the artwork at first and then they realize the depth of the subject matter, so there is an initial reaction that is of pleasure, when you see the pinks and blues, and then you realize the way of history as Sam tells his story.”

The museum will re-open Aug. 12 with a show called “Flight in Hope” that will pick up on Bak’s story after the war and how he experienced forced migration from Lithuania, through Germany and France to arrive in Israel.

The show will conclude with case studies indicating ways Nebraskans can help people who have been displaced.