[dropcap]F[/dropcap]or the past seven years, Omaha has been home to an arts awards program called the OEAA, or Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards. I spoke to Emily Engles, the Live Music Chair for the 2013-2014 OEAA Board of Directors, to find out more about this annual event.

Seeds: So how did the awards start? Could you tell me a little bit about their history?

Emily Engles: So, as you know, this is our eighth awards show, so it started seven years ago, I believe. It started with a music and arts collective meeting where people would just go and talk about the community and the music scene and this and that, and it turned into, “Hey, we should have something that recognizes all of these arts, whether it be performing arts, visual arts, or live music.” And John Heaston of The Reader has been behind that all along. He’s been the one who’s kept it going all of these years. So it kind of just started with a meeting of the minds.

Seeds: What are the different categories that are given awards?

EE: Well, there are three different categories: there’s live music, and then there are the visual arts (the painting, sculptures, and displays), and then there’re the performing arts-the actors and actresses, plays, musicals and things like that. And within each category, there’re multiple awards. Just like the Oscar’s, there’s best actor, best actress, then they break up into comedies, musicals, and drama, and then there’s best dance production. Live performing arts are probably our largest category. And then we have visual arts, like 3D artists, 2D artists, and best new artist… And then with live music, there’s every genre. There’s hard rock, rock, jazz, blues, everything you can think of. Similar to the Grammies, we like to say. And then there’s best album, artist of the year–those are really cool categories.

Seeds: Yeah, I looked through the list of nominees, and it’s 17 pages long.

EE: Yeah.

Seeds: So what kinds of things go into planning an event that nominates almost 200 artists?

EE: It is a lot of work that goes into it! We have a board of directors, and there are 10 or 12 people on it. It’s broken up into committees–music, visual, and performing–which helps us break up the task of hunting down nominees, finding people to perform at the awards show, getting people to perform at the nominee showcases, which are where we make all of our money to put on the awards show. Then there’s a lot of extra stuff for the actual awards show-you need to work with the venue, there’re stage managers, production managers, all that sound equipment for the live performances. There’s sending out the invitations, ordering the trophies…It’s a lot of work! For being a non-profit, and we’re all just volunteers doing this because we love the music and we love the arts so much, but it’s actually kind of fun. It’s pretty stressful this time of year leading up to the awards, but then the night of, it’s like, “Ah. It’s so worth it.” I do that to myself all the time with the nominee showcases. I get myself all worked up about it–it’s like 80 bands and five venues in one night. And that’s our fall showcase. Our summer showcase, it’s like 5 venues, it’s like 100 or some bands-it’s everyone who wants to be nominated. It’s like, “Hey, academy, look at us play!” And then in the fall, it’s more “Hey, you’re nominated, come play so that the academy can check you out and see you.” So putting those together is even more stressful, because there’s five or six people in each band-it’s a lot of people to coordinate. But the night of, it’s so worth it.

Seeds: So it sounds like you’re working really, really hard for this night.

EE: Oh, we do. But we love it.

Seeds: So can you tell me a little bit about the nomination process? I read that the public chooses the nominees through an open ballot, but how are the winners chosen?

EE: Like you said, the nomination process is public nominations, by going to a website and saying, “Hey, I want to nominate this person, or band, or what-have-you.” As for the voting process, that happens with an academy. So each committee, music, visual, and performing, puts together a voting academy of, we call it “industry folk,” so for music it’s sound guys, bartenders–people who are just huge supporters of the local music scene and go to a lot of shows. I think we have about 50 voters on the music side, and it’s the same thing with performing and visual. Who goes to the art shows? Who goes to see these productions, these plays, and these musicals? Who’s in the scene, and has a good opinion? Not just somebody who doesn’t know what they’re voting for. So that’s how that process is handled. Open nomination for the public, but there is an informed voting decision being made-it’s not just anybody voting for anybody.

Seeds: So it’s kind of like the Oscars-people who are involved in the arts.

EE: Yeah.

Seeds: So you said you’re involved in music. Is that your favorite category?

EE: Yeah, I worked at casinos for years, putting on shows, and that’s how I first got involved. And now I also manage a couple of bands and do promotions for others. So I’m very involved with the local music scene, just with the bands. So this opportunity came up about three years ago, and I wanted to get more involved and learn more about the local music scene and the awards, so I hopped on the board. This is the first year I’ve been more involved with the overall process, not just my role with music, but working more with the visual arts and performing arts communities to put on the awards show. So I’m broadening my horizons.

Seeds: What’s your favorite part of the awards themselves?

EE: [Seeing everybody] is probably the best part. Everybody shows up, and there’s a cocktail hour, and everybody just listens to music. It’s so much like prom, or some high school event where you finally get to see everybody in one place. It’s Sunday night, so there’s no live music happening. We plan it so there’s nothing else happening so every nominee can attend. It’s really cool to see all these bands that you only see once or twice a month, if at all, because they’re busy playing shows so much. So it’s so great to see all these hard rock bands, you know, hanging out with these jazz bands and hanging out with the R&B bands-it’s really cool. And then you have all the visual artists, who are these eclectic, creative people, and the performing artists, who-they treat it like the Oscars, they’re in tuxedos and ball gowns. A band member might have on black jeans rather than the holey blue jeans that he normally has on. It’s a really cool variety of people to be in one place. And it’s really cool to see all of that-everybody together.

Seeds: That sounds like so much fun.

EE: It is! And then we have live music performances, two nominees playing the cocktail hour-very unique, just different kinds of artists, an artist that plays the neck of the guitar, so kind of like a Spanish guitar. And then a girl named [Edem] she does this African drum, it’s so cool, and sings like her chants. It’s really really cool. They’re nominated. And then to start the show we have Omaha Pipe and Drums, which is bagpipes and drums like a parade-that kind of music’s like “Hey! The show’s starting, everybody take your seats!” It’s going to be so cool. And then we have three performances during the show. Nominees, and then we have two poets who will perform, and Clybourne Park is a nominated play that they’ll do a little excerpt from. And then we’ll somehow hand out maybe 80 awards, all in about two hours.

Seeds: That seems like it’s really unique, to get people from all parts of the art world gathered in one place.

EE: It is, and we get about 800 people attending the show every year. Just think about how many nominees there are, and then they just bring one family member. That place fills up fast.

Seeds: How do you see the OEAAs benefitting the entire community?

EE: The goal of any non-profit is to better the community, and we do better every year than we did before. The recognition that people receive is outstanding. I can speak to Jon Larson best because I manage him. He bought his first guitar five or six months ago. He’s brand new to the music scene. He played at a bunch of open mics, and got nominated, and after the nomination the word of mouth and that buzz gets him more shows, gets him better shows, so it’s helping him become a better artist by playing more to a crowd, not to mention making a few bucks here and there to help pay for that guitar that he’s still paying for. Just the recognition that someone gets for their art just pushes them even further. I think that speaks to any visual artist as well as any performing artist. It’s that recognition and being appreciated that will push them to be even better and do better. In the long-term, that makes the Omaha arts community even better as well.

Seeds: That’s awesome. I also noticed that there’s a lot of involvement with local businesses. Can you tell me a little bit about how local businesses contribute or could contribute if they wanted to?

EE: Yeah. As for the showcases in the summer or the fall, all of those venues that we’ve worked with–like the Waiting Room and Burke’s Pub and the Maple Street Pizza Shoppe–they all give us the space to use. That helps us, so then what we can do is promote them and say, “Hey, look at what these venues did for us,” and then add them as a sponsor to the showcases. And it’s the same thing–I work for a company called Audio Visions, where my company paid for the postage to mail the invites so we didn’t have to pay that out of pocket. It was a donation, and we’ll be listed as a sponsor now for the awards show. We’re looking for sponsors. Anyone out there. A good example is a music store. What better way to promote yourself than to be a sponsor of the awards show and have your name plastered all over in front of 500 musicians? It’s always something out there to benefit them and to help out a non-profit.

Seeds: Oh, yeah. I noticed, especially in the theatre/performing arts, there are nominations for student theatre or children’s theatre, which I think is great.

EE: Definitely. I think it’s really cool that we stretch beyond just the adult scene.

Seeds: I think it’s really cool that you can encourage young people to follow a career in arts, because I think a lot of times, especially in college, people think that’s not a viable option.

EE: Yeah, and you know, what better way for, my example, back to music, is Mojo Bag. They’re all at least under 18, I don’t know them personally, but I know they’re really young because their parents are the ones who respond to their messages about playing showcases. Think about how young they are and they can come to an awards show–winning or not–they’re going to see other Omaha bands get nominated and win, like Conor Oberst and Bright Eyes [did]. These bands from Omaha that have actually gotten out of just the local scene and have won Grammies, let alone winning an OEA, which is pretty cool for a band like Mojo Bag to see. It’s like, “Okay, well, I’m nominated for an OEA, and so was Conor Oberst? Could I be at the level of Conor Oberst someday?” It gives them this level playing field: “Well, if he can do it, I can do it.” I think it gives them hope that yeah, you’re right, once you do go to college it’s not the end of your art. Your art could be your career someday.

The Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards will take place on Sunday, February 16, 2014, 7:00 p.m. at the Double Tree Hotel in Omaha.