As you approach Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus during these gray, bitter days of winter, the Great Hall glows with inviting warmth, beckoning visitors inside Philip Johnson’s masterwork. It is not a mirage; it is an oasis.

How fortunate we are to be able to escape the winter doldrums and explore the varied visual feast now on view in the museum. Sheldon is one of Nebraska’s great treasures and is fulfilling its promise to inspire curiosity and wonder about visual art, stimulating new ideas and critical thinking.

Currently on view at Sheldon are four varied exhibitions of regional and national importance. It is significant that each of them has its genesis at Sheldon.

“Winter Wonderland: Prints from the Collection of Norman and Judy Zlotsky” presents a century of printmaking in the United States from 1860 to 1960 through the work of dozens of artists focused on their winter worlds. The Zlotskys, Lincoln residents, have generously shared works from their extraordinary collection including Nathanial Currier, Grant Wood, Rockwell Kent and Dale Nichols.

“Art Farm @ Sheldon” is a wonderful exhibit by Jeff Day, who teaches architecture at UNL, and his students. Their creative designs are proposals for the development of Art Farm, a nonprofit art residency program situated on a 40-acre farm near Marquette. Art Farm recently received the Organizational Achievement Award at the Governor’s Arts Awards presentations. This large exhibition occupies the Great Hall, where a farm shed was disassembled, transported and reinstalled. Conceptual models are located in the Rain Gallery; and in the Print Study Room, the original contents of the shed have been reassembled, all on Sheldon’s first floor. It’s fascinating!

Ascending the grand stairway, “American Narratives” showcases Sheldon’s renowned permanent collection of American Art. The Rohman Gallery of Portraiture features a visiting masterpiece, John Singleton Copley’s portrait of “Nicholas Boylston” (1769), on loan from the Museum of Fine Art, Boston. Favorites now on view in the six permanent collection galleries include Georgia O’Keeffe’s “New York, Night”; Mark Rothko’s “Yellow Band”; Wayne Thiebaud’s “Salads, Sandwiches and Desserts”; and Sean Scully’s “Barcelona White Bar.” Moving across to the Second Floor North galleries is the breathtakingly beautiful exhibition “The Unknown Blakelock.” Conceived and organized by the Sheldon staff, the exhibition consists of 40-plus paintings. According to Norman Geske, Sheldon’s director emeritus and a Blakelock expert, this exhibition presents a new and more comprehensive view of the artist’s work. Next fall the exhibition will travel to the National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts in New York City

Through the hard work, dedication and generous gifts of thousands of Nebraskans during the past 120 years, Sheldon offers a legacy of education, culture, beauty and imagination.

Shake off the winter chill and join us. Sheldon welcomes you for personal encounters with great American art! We’ll be looking for you.

Rhonda Seacrest is president of the Nebraska Art Association.