REE SCHONLAU KANEKO
The joke is old but still a good one: What do you call a struggling artist? Baroque. The struggle was real, though, for Ree (Schonlau) Kaneko after graduating from UNO in 1968 with a fine arts degree. A native Omahan, she had spent three years trying to make it as an artist on the East and West Coasts. Studio space, however, came at East and West Coast prices, so Kaneko returned home and continued to create art in her own gallery. Her legacy, though, might be helping to create artists. Kaneko in 1981 joined her husband, internationally renowned artist Jun Kaneko, Tony Hepburn and Lorne Falk in establishing an artist-in industry program called Alternative Worksite. Eventually, that became Omaha’s Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts. Located in Omaha’s Old Market, it offers a competitive residency program through which artists can hone their skills and talents and show their work in Bemis galleries — without having to worry about paying the rent. It frequently is cited as one of the world’s top residency programs, also offering artists private live/work studios, financial support and technical/ administrative assistance. To date, nearly 900 artists have participated in the residency program. Kaneko hasn’t stopped there, either. In 1998 she and Jun formed KANEKO, a nonprofit cultural organization in the Old Market that serves the community as an open space for creativity.