Senator George W. Norris lived the art of innovation. He imagined new uses for existing materials, bringing electricity to rural areas and harnessing the power of water to create energy. His legacy lives today in rural placemaking efforts that bring longstanding communities into bright, prosperous, creative futures.

Central to placemaking in many rural areas are new presence and support for the arts. Art is fundamentally about bringing something into existence that wasn’t there before: the courage to create; the ability to fill space in new expressive ways.

McCook has a historical corridor like no other. Our train depot – McCook Station – is well-placed between urban centers Omaha and Denver. From there, McCook’s Bricks run up Norris Avenue with unique small businesses, beautiful architecture, and significant locations such as MNB Bank, the Morrison Building, Sehnert’s Bakery, the old Post Office, the Keystone Hotel, the Carnegie Library, the High Plains Museum, the Sutton House (Frank Lloyd Wright), the Nelson Home, the Norris Home, Norris Park, and McCook Public Library. This stretch of downtown excites the mind, eyes, and heart every step of the way.

To create a focal point for a new downtown plaza – Norris Alley – in McCook’s historical corridor was no small undertaking. True to Senator Norris’s legacy, it was a task best left to artists, those who see and speak beyond what’s known to bring about something new. For Norris Alley, this creative task was completed with the vision of Alley Poyner Macchietto Architects and artist Mike Nesbit.

In 2004, Mike Nesbit flew into Burbank airport after finishing his first professional baseball season with the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. As he got off the plane and made his way through the airport, he greeted the first person who walked past him with a friendly hello. Instead of a kind reply, he received a look of doubt and mistrust. He wasn’t in the Midwest anymore, but back in his hometown of Los Angeles. Although that simple greeting, or lack thereof, was brief and minor, it stuck with him. As his baseball career ended, and Mike pursued art and architecture, the Midwest called him back. Senator Norris wrote of “what hope a simple cloud along the horizon could stir,” and Midwestern clouds forever moved the direction of Mike’s creative practice. In 2017 he returned to the Midwest and began having conversations with Nebraska artist Thomas Prinz, a good friend and partner launching Maple St. Construct. Their conversations gained momentum, created a bridge between artists from Nebraska and California, and gave birth to a growing collection of work that captures and celebrates the sublime landscape of the Midwest. Senator Norris knew the beautiful relationship between landscape, individual, and community. Mike’s sculptural work ‘The Blues’ pays tribute to Senator Norris’s insights on interdependence of the Midwestern Landscape and its inhabitants. Rural community members watch the sky closely for promises of rain, and The Blues is a water feature for the 21st Century.

the Midwest not forgotten, but found

the Midwest not left over, but discovered

the Midwest not gray, but vibrant with a soul-searching blue

I find myself in the Midwest Landscape

walking above the fresh snow

while standing under the sublime of the Blue Sky

an alley that sits between history

the landscape of the Midwest positions itself for a moment

as a static presentation of her beauty