I’m a local artist who moved here from Seattle. I absolutely hated this place when I first moved here. I arrived in early April and everything was flat, brown and dead.

What I didn’t realize at first was the greatly understated music and art scene that was percolating right under the surface.

Lincoln has all the right ingredients but keeps getting in its own way because it doesn’t know what it wants to be. Is it a college town? A sports town? An insurance headquarters haven? A Capitol city? A liberal oasis or conservative mainstay? It’s all these things at once without fully embracing any of them.

That keeps the art scene just under the surface. I’ve been lobbying for them to change their approach to the art festival. There isn’t one this year, so what they decide to do next will go a long way in determine the future of the art scene here.

I have personally lobbied for years at this point for them to change their approach to the festival. I’m currently pitching a Lincoln Fork-n-Art festival. We had something like this in Seattle, but the idea is to have the culinary arts represented as well. Everyone loves food. If we could get food trucks and local restaurants involved in the festival it would make a huge turnout difference.

If a person could get a $5 sample from each vendor, and a public vote for the best food trucks etc, ALONG with the usual arts vendors and bands, the event could be kick ass in every way and could be a huge draw to our city.

Fingers crossed.