We’re Ready To Hang!

Tugboat Gallery Collective is composed of artists Peggy Gomez, Nolan Tredway, Keith Buswell, Toan Vuong, Kat Marrow, and Luci Packard. Since 2005, Tugboat Gallery Collective has been providing exhibition opportunities for artists in various professional stages. The goal of Tugboat is to exhibit high quality exciting artwork, inside and outside of Nebraska. Together we create a safe-space, which highlights local, exciting, and relevant art every First Friday. We are a grass-roots organization. We are a non-commission gallery that combines all of our efforts completely on a volunteer basis and existing solely on the public generous donations.

The 240 square-foot gallery was first established in 2005 by Peggy Gomez, Jake Gillespie, and Joey Lynch. Together they sanded the floors, painted the walls, installed the lights, and marketed their first exhibition event. In 2008, they self-renovated a space in the historic Parish building in the heart of Downtown Lincoln. Since that time, several dedicated organizers and interns have helped exhibit more than 500 artists around the midwest.

Our gallery has been a haven for emerging, mid-career, and esteemed artists like Keith Jacobshagen and Karen Kunc. It has had a long standing creative relationship with other community collectives such as Live Yes Studios, the South of Downtown Community Development Organization, and UNL. We have collaborated with local businesses and residential homes, around and adjacent to downtown Lincoln, displaying art in windows and on porches offered by small businesses and intercity residents. Despite the temporary closure of the gallery space during the pandemic, we have worked to rethink the way gallery-goers view and interact with art in their city.