The Great Plains Art Museum is open late for Lincoln’s First Friday Art Walk on May 6, 5-7 p.m.  and we’re launching a brand new T-shirt design featuring endangered animals of the Great Plains!

For the newest T-shirt celebrating the Great Plains (and available at the Great Plains Art Museum), we’re highlighting several of the Plains’ endangered species. A portion of every shirt sold will go to Spring Creek Prairie Audubon Center for wildlife and habitat conservation efforts. Available for purchase in-store only at the Great Plains Art Museum starting May 6. Available through our online store after May 9.

Featured species: Black-footed Ferret, Salt Creek tiger beetle, Western fringed prairie orchid, interior least tern, blowout penstemon, and pallid sturgeon.

Also on view:

Contemporary Indigeneity 2022
April 1–Aug. 20, 2022

The fourth iteration of this group show will feature work by 28 artists from across the Great Plains who address the contemporary Native American experience in the region.

Star Body, Star Breath
March 4–August 6, 2022

Star Body, Star Breath features new and recent work by Sarah Rowe, the museum’s 2022 Elizabeth Rubendall Artist in Residence. Rowe is an Omaha-based multimedia artist of Lakota and Ponca descent whose work opens cross-cultural dialogues by utilizing methods of painting, casting, fiber arts, performance, and Native American ceremony in unconventional ways. Her work is participatory, a call to action, and re-imagines traditional Native American symbology to fit the narrative of today’s global landscape.

More about the endangered/threatened species:
Endangered species of the Great Plains

For the newest T-shirt celebrating the Great Plains (and available at the Great Plains Art Museum), we’re highlighting several of the Plains’ endangered species. A portion of every shirt sold will go to Spring Creek Prairie Audubon Center for wildlife and habitat conservation efforts.

Black-footed ferret

One of North America’s most endangered mammals, the black-footed ferret was once thought to be extinct. It was rediscovered on a ranch in Wyoming in 1981, brought in by a rancher’s dog. A huge effort involving breeding programs, habitat protection, cloning, and reintroduction has helped restore 300 animals back to the Great Plains. One of the keys to recovering the species further will be the availability of the ferret’s main food source: prairie dogs. Prairie dog populations across the plains are at risk due to habitat loss and disease within the prairie dog colonies.

Salt creek tiger beetle

This big-eyed beetle is only found in remnant saline marshes near Lincoln, Nebraska, making it one of the rarest insects in the world. More than 90 percent of its habitat has been destroyed or downgraded due to the development of the nearby city, leaving it with only 15 acres of land that is not highly degraded. The name tiger beetle is a nod to the way it grabs its prey.

Western fringed prairie orchid

A member of the orchid family, this wildflower was once found abundantly throughout the Great Plains grasslands from Manitoba, Canada, south to Oklahoma. Its complex relationship with native fungi and pollinator species makes it particularly dependent upon a thriving habitat.

Blowout penstemon

This perennial plant with dark lavender flowers is only found in the Nebraska Sandhills and northeastern Wyoming in a specific type of habitat called a blowout. Blowouts are depressions in sand dunes where the grass has been removed by wind, grazing, or fire. Controlled fire and grazing makes bare sand less common in the Sandhills today, which means reduced habitat for the flower.

Interior least tern

Recently removed from the federal endangered list, this species is still endangered in Nebraska, but has recovered in several areas across the country. This small bird nests alongside rivers and nests on open sandbars. The population fell due to river interventions (such as dams and reservoirs) that destroyed sandbar areas. In the past 30 years, better river management and successful habitat restoration has increased their numbers.

Pallid sturgeon

One of the oldest species of fish on Earth, the pallid sturgeon is native to the Missouri and lower Mississippi rivers. This hefty, ancient-looking fish averages between 30 and 70 inches in length and weighs up to 85 pounds. The species struggles due to damming and channeling of the Missouri River drainage system. Because of the huge length of the rivers, multi-state conservation efforts are underway.


Sources: World Wildlife Fund, “Wild Again: The Struggle to Save the Black-Footed Ferret” by David Jachowski, Xerces Society, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Nebraska Game and Parks, BiologicalDiversity.org, U.S. National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.