Success Story
Kara Weander-Gaster
Museum Director
Family can be powerful, an irresistible force that no one member can ignore for too long. Kara Weander-Gaster says it was the main reason she returned to Nebraska. Weander-Gaster, now the director of the Norfolk Arts Center, said she vowed during her days in high school in Wayne that she would never come back to Nebraska after graduation.
“I was young and rebellious in those days,” Weander-Gaster said. “I didn’t know how free I really was here in Nebraska. Now I know better.”
She was born in Sidney, but the family moved to Wayne when she was 4 years old. Weander-Gaster has two older siblings who also live in Nebraska. Her brother, Lee, is a pastor of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Norfolk. Their sister, Kim Warner, is a full-time mother in West Point. Her husband is also a Lutheran pastor.
Weander-Gaster spent nearly her entire life in Wayne. She graduated from high school there in 1989. Once she left, her parents moved to Columbus in 1991. Weander-Gaster said she wanted to get out of the Midwest but was attracted to the arts program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
“I didn’t really know what I wanted to do,” Weander-Gaster said. “I loved the arts, so I gave the university a look.”
She ended up becoming a Cornhusker and graduating in the spring of 1994 with a degree in art history and minors of English, history and anthropology. While at UNL, she worked at the University of Nebraska State Museum for two years and interned at the Sheldon Art Gallery her senior year. After finishing her undergraduate degree, she went to Syracuse, N.Y., to get a master’s in art history. She was nearly done with the required work in late 1996, when she received the news from back home that her father had been diagnosed with cancer.
“I thought I was done with rural Nebraska, probably never going back,” Weander-Gaster said. “When my father became ill, however, I knew I had to go back to help.”
She came back and moved in with her mother. Weander-Gaster said she didn’t have time for a job but did meet her future husband through a group of old friends from Wayne.
“I had no idea what I was going to do for money when I came back,” Weander-Gaster said. “I didn’t think I was going to have time for anything, especially love. Well, it worked out.”
She married David Gaster, a residential contractor, in November 1997, about 10 months after her father died. They moved to Omaha after spending six months in Norfolk early in 1998. She worked at the Malibu Art Gallery for self-publishing photographer Rick Anderson for six years.
Weander-Gaster said she soon began to tire of city life. The stress of her husband’s contracting job and the vacant spot of arts director in Norfolk made her think about relocating. They decided to pack up their belongings and move back to Norfolk in the fall of 2004. Weander-Gaster said she took the director’s position so she could show off the area’s young, local talent.
“I heard about the director’s job in the early autumn of 2004,” Weander-Gaster said. “I thought that sounded perfect for me. I actually worked as the director out of Omaha at first, and then became full time once we moved back. I thought it was the perfect opportunity.”
The couple’s first child is due in late April.
“I want them to do what they want and be happy,” Weander-Gaster said. “I hope that they will either stay nearby or move somewhere cool so I can visit.”
- Story Courtesy of the Norfolk Daily News
