Jazz on the Green is moving

Jazz fans will have to head east on Thursday evenings this summer.

Joslyn Art Museum’s Jazz on the Green — a 25-year tradition on the grounds of the pink marble building at 22nd and Dodge Streets — is getting a new sponsor and a new downtown home.

Starting this summer, Omaha Performing Arts will take over the popular music festival.

Concerts now will take place on the green space directly east of the Holland Performing Arts Center at 13th and Douglas Streets.

Denise Hallquist, a Joslyn spokeswoman, said the festival has outgrown the museum’s lawn. Hallquist estimated that as many as 8,000 people attended some of last summer’s concerts.

“We had more people than could comfortably sit in our sculpture garden,” Hallquist said.

Joslyn opened the Peter Kiewit Foundation Sculpture Garden at its east entrance last June. The 1.2-acre garden, which had a $7.5 million budget, features the work of such world-renowned artists as Jesús Moroles, Jun Kaneko, Betty Woodman and John David Brcin/Matthew Placzek, among others. The grounds are immaculately landscaped.

Hallquist said more than just space prompted the change.

“The crowds were pretty hard on the garden,” said Hallquist, noting that the turf was often matted down after concerts. But the jazz fans were respectful of the art and there was no vandalism, she said. Only a few late-night skateboarders had to be removed from the park last summer.

Longtime fans of the 25-year-old music series said they were disappointed with the move.

"It’s not going to be the same,” said Diane Kaye, an Omaha fan who has attended for 24 years.

“There were more places to sit around the Joslyn, more places to park, and it was just a more beautiful environment.”

Nick Eastland said he has attended for at least 15 years and was having a hard time imagining the festival outside the Holland.

“The view at the Joslyn was spectacular,” Eastland said. “There was shade, and we could enjoy dinner with a little wine and great music.”

Hallquist said the museum wanted to focus on its core mission of educating the public about the visual arts.

So Joslyn will remain open on Thursday evenings this summer, offering various arts programs for adults and children. Program details will be announced in the spring.

Jazz on the Green will remain on Thursdays. Hallquist said the museum wasn’t concerned about the competition.

“We’re going to be offering educational programs and will be looking for a different audience,” she said.

News of expanded summer programs at the museum did little to console many Jazz on the Green fans.

“People would go and look at the exhibits before and during the concerts,” Kaye said. “That won’t happen anymore.”

Despite the change, Kaye and other jazz fans said they would continue to attend the event.

“Live music is as important to me as breathing,” Kaye said.

That’s good news for Joan Squires, president of Omaha Performing Arts. She said the Joslyn approached her about the switch.

“Jazz on the Green has a great tradition, and we were thrilled to take it on,” Squires said.

She said Omaha Performing Arts had been looking for ways to expand its summer offerings. It hosted an outdoor movie series in its courtyard last summer along with a small number of concerts.

Squires also wanted to find a use for the 1.4-acre green space on the Holland Center’s east side.

“We have a little more space than the Joslyn, so we’re confident we can accommodate the crowds,” she said.

Omaha Performing Arts will relocate some of the trees on the space and make a few other minor landscaping changes this spring. That should make it a pleasant place for people to enjoy their picnics while dancing to the music.

Squires said Jazz on the Green should be a natural fit for the Holland Center, because Omaha Performing Arts already has a jazz series.

Most of the acts appearing at the Holland –– concerts this season include the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Jane Monheit and Béla Fleck –– fall into the big-name, high-end category.

Squires said Omaha Performing Arts will probably continue Joslyn’s tradition of bringing in fun outdoor acts such as Dwayne Dopsie and the Zydeco Hellraisers, singer Ida McBeth and saxophonist Bobby Watson to Jazz on the Green.

“We don’t want to change a winning formula,” Squires said.Concerts now will happen on the green space directly east of the Holland Performing Arts Center at 13th and Douglas Streets.

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