About Us
The Art Garden FAQs
The Art Garden is both an art retail store and a place for individuals over 21 years of age, who experience autism and other developmental disabilities, to learn pre-vocational skills and begin building their resumes! The Art Garden is open to the public as a place to buy incredible hand-crafted art goods, craft designs, woodwork, paintings, craft jewelry, glassware, and more – items you are unlikely to find anywhere else! For the most unique gifts or home and garden décor, The Art Garden’s ever-evolving inventory of one-of-a-kind art is a wonderful place to purchase items created with love and care. And as a bonus, you’ll be supporting the mission of The Art Garden and the Autism Center of Nebraska, Inc. (ACN): To support and enhance the quality of life for persons with autism and other developmental disabilities and their families.
Who are the Artists?
Our artists are individuals served by ACN’s vocational services or adult day programs who spend a large portion of their time creating the unique artwork and specialty crafts sold at The Art Garden. Not only are they artists, these creative individuals are also part of the daily retail business operations for The Art Garden. With just a bit of help and supervision from ACN, these incredible, creative adults are the driving force behind every aspect of the business – from creating the art goods sold, to running the cash register. The Art Garden provides a unique adult day service that hones vocational skills and offers an inclusive environment where our artists build confidence to enter the workforce in the future. We currently serve more than 35 adults, growing relationships, talent and opportunities.
For more information on the job-readiness training and pre-vocational skills our adult day services teach, please see our Pre-Vocational Skills for Adults page.
How are the Profits from the Art Sales Allocated?
ACN is a non-profit, 501(c)3 organization. All of our retail arts, crafts, and home and garden décor is sold at reasonable prices, with 100% of the profits split among the artists. That means when you purchase any of our art goods and specialty crafts, you automatically become a direct financial supporter of the artists! We are incredibly economical when it comes to amassing our art supplies, as we acquire materials largely through donations and encourage our staff and artists to “go green” and recycle or upcycle all the craft supplies used in our business. Therefore, when you purchase art from The Art Garden, you’re also supporting an eco-friendly business!
What Kind of Art Do You Sell?
The Art Garden serves as an “art co-op” or “artists collective” with most of the individual art pieces created as a collaboration of several artists and staff working together on each art project. Due to the fact that each piece of jewelry, glass artifact, woodworking project, or painting is created entirely from scratch, largely composed of recycled materials, the creation process can be very time-consuming. That is why the end result is so rewarding and means so much to both the artists and the potential buyers. There are no limits to the creativity of our artists and generally no two items are alike. So when you see something you might like, we encourage you to purchase it quickly! It could be gone tomorrow, and there is no guarantee that what you see in our Gallery is currently in stock. Some of the unique art designs we sell include:
- Canvas paintings
- Woodwork designs
- Glassware
- Garden décor
- Home décor
- Baskets
- Wall art
- Specialty and craft jewelry
- Seasonal art
- And much, much more! (See our Gallery for more examples)
How do I Make a Donation?
We GLADLY accept both monetary donations as well as donations of arts and craft supplies, particularly wine bottles of interesting colors/shapes, costume jewelry that can be taken apart or repurposed, wood, wine corks, glass, cloth, canvas, beads, and anything else that could potentially be made into something new and fabulous!
Who Makes The Art Garden Possible?
The Art Garden was founded through the immense generosity of organizations and donors, and we could not be more proud of the Omaha community for embracing the vision of The Autism Center of Nebraska, Inc. in creating this unique adult pre-vocational skills training opportunity. We thank ALL of our generous contributors – those who have volunteered their time, skills, resources, or finances to this incredible cause. Here are just a few of the organizations and businesses that have partnered with us or made contributions to our success:
- The Enrichment Foundation
- United Health Care
- Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services Division of Developmental Disabilities
- HSP Construction
- Peterson Painting
- Dan Thomas Electric, Inc
- Localmize
The Art Garden is an artists collective – part of the pre-vocational adult day services for the Autism Center of Nebraska, Inc. (ACN). Call us today or visit our art store for amazing handcrafted art goods or for more information on our pre-vocational adult day services.