About
BFF Omaha builds community through arts engagement. What began as a monthly art walk has grown into a year-round organization supporting artists, creative businesses, and neighborhood-based cultural work. Today, BFF leads programming, education, and creative placemaking efforts that contribute to Benson’s identity as a state-designated Creative District and a hub for accessible, artist-driven activity.
BFF’s History
BFF Omaha was founded in June 2012 by Alex Jochim and JD Hardy as Benson First Friday, a grassroots effort to create consistent opportunities for artists and creative businesses to connect with the community. After three years of organizing monthly art walks, the organization gained nonprofit status in July 2015, marking a shift from a single monthly event to a broader vision for daily arts engagement.
As the organization grew, so did its scope. BFF expanded beyond First Fridays to include public art projects, gallery operations, youth and education programs, regional outreach, merchandise, and artist support initiatives. In 2019, the organization officially adopted the name BFF Omaha, reflecting its evolution beyond a single event and its deeper commitment to community-building through the arts.
More than a decade later, Benson is now an official Creative District, and BFF Omaha continues to grow in scale and impact, gaining regional attention while remaining rooted in neighborhood-led, artist-centered work.
Mission + Values
Building Community Through Arts Engagement.
What We Do and How We Get There
Values
BFF supports the Arts & our Community through Advocacy, Education, Inclusion, Opportunity, and Unique Experiences. AEIOU! (We’d like to buy a vowel!)
Vision
While continuing to build community in Benson and Omaha, BFF envisions using our 14-year history as a guiding template to expand the mission to build community through arts engagement in other neighborhoods and cities.
Belief
We believe that everyone has the right to create, experience, and cultivate the arts in our communities.
BFF Core Values
Here at BFF, we'd like to buy a vowel! Because AEIOU! stands for: Advocacy, Education, Inclusion, Opportunity, and Unique Experiences.
Advocacy
BFF encourages advocating for social justice, positive progression, artist support and retention, and an overall more cohesive and collaborative community.
Education
BFF strives to provide education through workshops, youth engagement, interactive elements, intern programs, and by working with emerging artists, curators, and community activists.
Inclusion
BFF invites all communities and peoples to join in and engage in our projects and programming. Diversity, equity, accessibility and inclusion for all keeps BFF vibrant and flourishing.
Opportunity
BFF gives opportunities to artists, businesses, volunteers, youth, communities and organizations by bringing them together and providing an arena for engagement and interaction.
Unique Experiences
Keepin’ “Benson Bent” & “Good Weird,” BFF encourages originality, novelties, and perhaps unconventional ideas and strategies to support the arts and the neighborhood.
Staff
Coming Soon….
BFF Code of Conduct
The BFF Code of Conduct reflects our daily operations, core values, and overall culture.We expect all volunteers, employees, guests, artists, partners, other representatives,and associated members to abide by this code. Download the BFF Code of Conduct below.
Land Acknowledgment
BFF Omaha acknowledges the historical legacy of colonialism by honoring and paying respect to the land, which was taken by conquest, along with the domination of the people who inhabited the land, and the imposition of white supremacy. We do it to raise greater public consciousness of Native sovereignty and cultural rights as a small step toward equitable relationship and reconciliation.
We acknowledge the historical legacy of colonialism and non-western ways of knowing that holistically link mind, body, spirit, and the human and non-human.
We acknowledge that the space we are in, and the land we are on, are part of who we are and how we know the world. Here in Omaha we are on native UmoHo (Omaha) and Ochethi Sakowin land.
“Ni Bthaska” is the UmoHo term for “flat water.”
Press
A collection of articles, features, and media mentions highlighting BFF Omaha and the work happening in the Benson Creative District.