Lincoln’s courthouse square has a steady stable of small businesses that have kept downtown bustling. There’s a quaint coffee shop, a butcher store, brewery and a standalone Hallmark store. The city’s main tourist attractions include a telephone booth on the roof of city hall—a relic of mid-century weather watching and a nod to the city's branch of the National Weather Service—and a gigantic covered wagon, purported to be the world’s largest.
Lincoln is a stop off for Route 66 voyagers, Atlas Obscura hunters and those looking for a not-too-crowded getaway. Beginning this week, downtown’s Third Fridays are the place to be.
“The whole downtown is closed off,” said Marcia Cook, co-owner of Lincoln Art Institute. “There’s a bunch of vendors. There’s a band. There’s food—a bunch of games for the kids. Then we have a little arts area.”
The Institute is flanked by Lincoln’s post office and the Logan County Farm Bureau. Their 1915 building was once a lodge, built by the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. It’s been a car showroom, a furniture store and a newspaper. The Lincoln Courier operated out of the basement from 1930-1945.
“There’s a freight elevator on the back of the first floor that goes just from the first floor to the ground level,” said co-owner Jason Hoffman. "I imagine that’s how they got all their heavy presses down to the basement.”
Anton Michael “Toby” Prange, referred to as Moses Pinkerton, and his wife, Polly Powers, created the Art Institute in 2008, converting the then-vacant building into a gallery. Pinkerton and Hoffman launched Logan County Arts Group in 2011, housing monthly art exhibitions which Hoffman and Cook kept up for a few years after Pinkerton died in 2020 and they bought the building. But curating a new show every month, plus their full-time jobs didn’t leave much time to address ongoing renovations and their long-term plans for the building.
“And it just didn’t make sense either with participation of people coming in,” said Cook.
“We were putting seven, eight shows on a year, and I think in order to be a gallery that’s what you have to do,” said Hoffman. “You have to be consistent with your showings, your openings—everything about it needs to be consistent. If you’re not going to be full in on it, there’s no point in doing it because you’re not going to have a draw.”
They now have permanent collections installed in galleries on the first and third floors and are open by appointment, plus Third Fridays. And they host an art fair in August, over the same weekend as Lincoln’s Balloons Over 66 Festival. Classes may come back eventually. Plans for a music venue in the third floor ballroom are in the works.
“And then who knows what else,” Cook said. “It’s always evolving.”
The Institute’s mission is to provide an environment for people to thrive by engaging in the arts—but thriving hasn’t been easy. There was the pandemic, of course, the steady decline of arts funding and, in Lincoln specifically, a sieve.
The pending closure of Logan Correctional Center will eventually displace many workers and their families. And Lincoln’s art scene centered around Lincoln College, which closed in 2022, removing artists and musicians from the community who visited the gallery often. Student performances took place at Lincoln Art Institute. Instructors showed their work there. Three years later, it’s still a raw wound.
“That’s missed,” said Cook.
“They supported a lot, absolutely,” said Hoffman.
Diversify, diversify, diversify
One key to Lincoln Art Institute’s survival has been avoiding nonprofit status, which would have made them eligible for grants and donations—and ineligible for other revenue sources like the Airbnb apartments on their second floor.
“We never relied on art,” said Hoffman. “We knew better. You have to have other streams of income. It just can’t be this, unfortunately.”
Two artists rent studio space. Cook’s niece runs a small boutique called Em’s Gems in a pocket-sized room on the second floor, beside a rental suite that has begun gaining traction as a unique place to stay—and the only option in the heart of downtown Lincoln.
“I think it’s been more exciting than I realized it would be,” said Cook. Many guests, she said, are looking for a weekend getaway somewhere new. “And then of course when we have basketball tournaments and stuff like that in town, people are looking for spaces to stay—sold out everywhere else.”
Hoffman and Cook are throwing most of their effort into setting up more Airbnb apartments, with plans for themed rooms to create more of an experience for guests. The third-floor gallery is dedicated to Pinkerton and features work by young artists created at Third Fridays. There’s a mix of works by artists from Springfield and Bloomington.
“I don’t think a lot of Bloomington and Springfield artists get an opportunity to talk and connect,” Hoffman said. “We’re just right in the middle between them both. Maybe we’ll get back to that. There’s just a lot of work to do in this building.”
Behind the gallery is Hoffman’s primary to-do list: a massive renovation to a massive ballroom he hopes to finish while he’s still young enough to do the work himself. They hope to convert the space into a music venue, which will draw more people into the building and, as a bonus, see the art—creating cultural capital for a city that might not otherwise have it.
“In the end, it’s more about this building and restoring this building more than it is about the arts,” said Cook. “Not too many people are taking on efforts to restore buildings like this by themselves, so it’s amazing I think.”
“I guess I am fortunate that I’m able to do this because it would cost us a fortune,” said Hoffman. “We just chip away at it, and I guess when it doesn’t become fun that’s when we sell the building. It’s exciting; that’s what drives me is the excitement.”
Third Fridays take place from 5:30-8:30 p.m. May 16, June 20 and July 18 in downtown Lincoln. The Balloons Over 66 weekend, including a barbeque contest and the Lincoln Art Fair all take place August 22-24.
