By: Mars Johnson, Reporter
OMAHA, Neb. — The Union for Contemporary Art and Lund-Ross Constructors have been especially interested in working with BIPOC, women, and small and emerging businesses on the Black Box Theater Project.
North Omaha’s historic F.J. Carey Block building, which is being renovated for the project, is over 100 years old. It has been a home to laundry businesses and automotive body shops. Then, it was a daycare center. Now, it’s on its way to becoming a community and theater space. Renovation plans include a ticket lobby, 90-seat theater, set-design workshop, and an open space for rehearsals and gathering.
The Black Box Theater Project is meant to preserve history, create a space for community, and expand The Union for Contemporary Art’s Performing Arts Program.
Communications Director for the Union, Patrick Mainelli said, “Part of what this construction project is is making space for community, right–so it’ll be the primary home for our performing arts program, but also, this is a building that lives in the community and hopefully can be a multi-use gathering space for years to come. We want to have the community investment of course and for people to feel ownership and have some degree of contribution to making this thing a viable part of the community but also it’s critical to keep the funds in the community as much as we can–give work to the people that are looking to do good work.”
Mainelli said that the Union has two missions.
Mainelli said, “One is using the arts as a vehicle to inspire positive social change, but also being firmly rooted in our North Omaha community and doing what we can to contribute to that.”
Plays at the Union have frequently been about North Omaha’s history, and people in the neighborhood come to see it. The plays lead to conversations. Mainelli said it’s been amazing to see how in the past few years the performing arts program has been the nexus of The Union’s two missions.
Mainelli said, “That’s exactly what we’re about–I mean bringing people together to engage with art that asks critical questions and really is the beginning part of a larger conversation.”
The Union also plans to pay theater professionals and collaborators a total of 75-100 thousand dollars every year for the first several years of the Black Box Theater’s use. Theater professionals including actors, stage crew, directors, set building, lighting crew, sound designers, etc. will get paid. With more spaces comes more work and larger sets ranging from about 20-50 people per production.
Mainelli said, “We want to be able to plan ahead as much as possible but also fully aware there might be a COVID wrench thrown in things.”
Before COVID-19, the 40-50 seat capacity resulted in sold out shows where people had to be turned away due to lack of space. Mainelli said the program has outgrown its old space.
Mainelli said, “In order to really shine and grow in the way that the program itself needed to grow it needed more space.”
This new addition to North 24th Street will allow their performing arts program to branch out in its mission to uplift theater professionals and tell diverse and authentic stories as it relates to the African diaspora. The building has already been purchased. They’re beginning the public phase of the process of getting the funds they need to complete the project. Lund-Ross Constructors has become an important component.
There was a general request spread throughout Omaha outlining the needs of the project for general contractors proposals that resulted in several bids.
Mainelli said, “One of the things that made Lund-Ross stand out was their ability to meet our commitment to working with BIPOC subcontractors. They impressed upon us that they really understood how critical that was to this project that’s so rooted in community, and we felt that they were really on the same page that we were in making that core to what this project is about.”
President of Lund-Ross Constructors, Scott Thompson said, “For the most part, we’ve done a lot of work in both North Omaha, South Omaha and in the community in general. … It has been a focus of ours for years.”
Now, the second and last meeting for contractors and suppliers has concluded. These meetings are where contractors can bid on and find out about the project’s needs. The Union and Lund-Ross are wrapping up their search for contractors. It’s time to get to the next steps.
Thompson said, “We’ll go through every bid and qualify them at that point for scope and availability and some of those things. … Then we’ll award a subcontractor based on their proposals that they give us for the plans and specifications.”
Contractors will carry out their own unique contributions to the project.
Thompson said, “Couple of the gentlemen that were here [at the contractor meeting] already were concrete subcontractors. One does some carpentry work. There’s a painter here. So yeah, everyone here’ll look at different scopes of work and provide a proposal based on that scope of work.”
Mainelli said, The Union is thrilled and stoked about this project. He describes the historic F.J. Carey building as a “beautiful building that needs a lot of help.” When it comes to the design, they are excited about not only maintaining the character and longevity of the space but its expansion for more use–making it more versatile than its ever been.
Renovations are scheduled to start in May 2022 and last about one year. The Union is planning for productions to start in the summer or fall of 2023, but there is nothing specific to share yet.
