Campus attends special Joslyn event

UNMC Chancellor Harold M. Maurer, M.D., far right, talks with Joslyn Director J. Brooks Joyner, and Sandra Reding, director of the museum’s foundation, during the Passport Partners event last week.

More than 350 employees, faculty, students and family members of UNMC, University Medical Associates and The Nebraska Medical Center attended a special event at the Joslyn Art Museum on Aug. 31. The free event, which included tours, food and music by the Johnny Kotchian Trio, was part of the Passport Partners program.

Passport Partners enables UNMC, hospital and UMA employees, students and their families free admission to the museum and ticketed exhibits in 2005 by showing their identification badge at Joslyn’s entrance desk.

Joslyn Director J. Brooks Joyner, UNMC Chancellor Harold M. Maurer, M.D., and CEO and President of The Nebraska Medical Center Glenn Fosdick, were on hand to celebrate the partnership. Joyner said the partnership helped increase the museum’s membership from 10,000 to 19,000.

“For us, it’s a tremendous new constituency that comes to the museum from one of the elite medical organizations in the country,” Joyner said. “It’s an incredible opportunity for the museum. We’re grateful for the support which is invaluable to the museum to create and deliver these programs.”

Dmitry Oleynikov, M.D., UNMC assistant professor of surgery and Joseph and Richard Still Faculty Fellow in Medicine, and his wife, Sonja Kinney, M.D., UNMC assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology, were among about 350 who attended the recent Passport Partners event.

Participants had the opportunity to view the special exhibition “Russia’s Age to Elegance” and “Frederick J. Brown’s Portraits of Music I Love,” and received guided tours of exhibitions. The viewing of the Russian exhibit was historic as the exhibition in Omaha marked the first time it has been outside of Russia, as well as the first time it was viewed in the United States.

Dmitry Oleynikov, M.D., UNMC assistant professor of surgery and Joseph and Richard Still Faculty Fellow in Medicine, had a special interest in the exhibit. He was born in Russia.

“It’s wonderful that we in Omaha can bring this exhibit here,” Dr. Oleynikov said. “Russia has a great deal of artistic wealth that’s only now getting out of the country. Places like Los Angeles and other big cities haven’t even had this exhibit. It’s not easy to get these works here. It’s great. I’m excited about this.”

Medical students also took time to attend the event. “I wanted to see the Russia exhibit,” said Chris Smith, a second-year medical student. “I hadn’t been here since the Master’s exhibit.”

From Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, Joslyn will host “Picasso: Master Printmaker,” an exhibition of more than 90 of artist Pablo Picasso’s prints, and Out of the Wild: John James Audubon’s Four-Legged Mammals of North America. The exhibit will feature 80 prints from Audubon, a noted artist and naturalist, that show animals ranging from the common American wildcat, grizzly bear and red Texan wolf to the common mouse, grey rabbit and Oregon flying squirrel.

On Sunday, Oct. 30, from 1 to 4 p.m. the Passport Partners program invites UNMC, UMA and hospital employees and their families to visit the museum and view the Audubon exhibit, as well as participate in art-making activities and more.