It wasn’t until she moved to Valley County that Katie Walmsley realized that her dream of being a professional singer – a fantasy she once limited to big cities – could become reality in Nebraska. Before moving to Ord, Walmsley had not sung for anyone since junior high school. Now, she regularly performs at open mic nights, community celebrations, and even an unlikely visit by the United Nations Foundation.
She’s not alone in finding her voice in this Sandhills town. Walmsley and artists from across Nebraska have found a home at The Golden Husk. That theater, named for its walls lined with sound-damping corn husks, celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2025. That’s a major milestone for artists and the organizations that support them, such as the Valley County Community Foundation Fund, an affiliated fund of Nebraska Community Foundation (NCF). To this day, the theater remains dedicated to shining a light on local talent and creativity, continuing its mission to cultivate community pride, culture, and belonging.
“Bringing the theater to life with local talent of all ages is truly exhilarating,” said Dahn Hagge, director of the Valley Performing Arts Theater board and an Ord native. “The Golden Husk provides a vibrant platform for discovering creative gifts and building deeper connections among neighbors. It’s more than just a performance venue – it’s a gathering space for celebrating our shared stories and spirit.”
Those deeper connections have made the theater a second home for creatives like Walmsley.
“I was never open to the idea that you can do this in Nebraska,” she said. “Now, I can’t imagine what my life would be like without a place like the Husk.”
A space with history
For a long time, there was no place like the Husk in Valley County.
At the turn of the 20th century, Ord’s town square lacked the marquee and lights of the now beloved theater. In its place Mamie Siler and Sarah McLain operated the Peoples Store, which sold general goods and other household items. The store changed hands in 1919 with new owners overseeing the operation until 1930, when it burned down the night before Easter.
The fire started in the basement, which made it difficult for firefighters to reach effectively. They chopped holes in the sidewalk, according to contemporaneous reports, and poured water through the holes in hopes of squelching the flames. The fire gutted the store and dealt $55,000 in damage – or $1 million when adjusted for inflation.
Roughly a month later, Martines Biemond of Loup City purchased the building and announced that the structure would be torn down, according to an article in the Ord Quiz. In its place would rise the “finest motion picture theater in Central Nebraska.” The new Ord Theater opened in February 1931 with advanced sound technology designed to get the most out of the then-revolutionary talkie pictures. The first picture shown at the theater was “Whoopee,” a “musical riot” starring Eddie Cantor and Eleanor Hunt.
Over the ensuing decades, the new theater became a regular attraction for families in Central Nebraska and a hangout for teenagers. A glance through newspaper archives reveals many stories of theater managers dealing with unruly youth smoking in the balcony – sometimes even starting a small fire or two.
“People still ask if the balcony is there,” Hagge joked.
By 2011, the space had changed hands and identities. For many years the building had been privately owned and operated by families, each of whom had brought their own ideas into the theater. In late fall of the following year, the theater was empty. Instead of lamenting the empty space, Valley County leaders saw room for a dream.
Local attorney Bob Stowell and his wife Jean leased the theater in 2013, which allowed the community to plan, dream, and to become intentional about what they envisioned for the future. Bob and Jean were no strangers to the arts, having been mentored by Clark Yanda, a gifted submariner-turned-music-teacher who touched their lives several decades ago as high school students in Ord. Yanda inspired Bob so profoundly that while attending the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, he found himself singing in the Glee club and playing the tuba in the student band.
“Mr. Yanda brought military-style discipline to music, but with deep compassion. We always understood that he cared about us,” Stowell said. “He built community with music. It made a real difference.”
That inspiration stayed with the Stowells and many of their contemporaries. It also had a positive effect on generations that followed. Residents knew there was a potential opportunity to explore local passion for live performance in the theater.
From 2013 to 2015, residents discovered a shared belief that the space could be so much more for the community. In that time they experimented with using the building for traveling plays, community conversations, visits from teaching artists, and much more. They learned there was a real desire from the town and the county for cultural and artistic outlets and events.
Theater artist and community builder Becky Boesen worked with residents as they made plans for a revitalized theater. Now, as NCF’s Director of Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD), she sees the process as a powerful example of community empowerment.
“The people of Valley County saw more than an old theater,” Boesen said. “They saw possibility. Recognizing it as a shared community asset, a generous group of residents came together and began contributing their time, talents, and resources to restore it into a place that now belongs to and benefits the whole community.”
In 2015, with the support of community leaders serving on the Valley County Community Foundation Fund, the building was purchased with a shared vision of bringing something truly special to the heart of the community, Hagge said.
“That vision has grown into a place where people generously give their time, talents, and hearts towards the greater good of the community.”
Some communities may have been deterred by such a large task, but those core memories inspired a vision to bring new life to a beloved piece of the county’s history.
“It wasn’t like any of us knew anything about running a performing arts center,” Hagge said. “We just knew we had a community asset we didn’t want to lose.”
Sharing gifts, building community
When Valley County celebrated the grand opening of newly renamed The Golden Husk in 2015 they didn’t bring in a touring artist. They recruited singers, musicians, and artists from the community to put together Valley County’s Got Talent, the venue’s opening night performance. Among the performers were a returner to Ord who had just spent 10 years in Nashville, a family band, a singer who returned from California, and a 15-year-old high school student who performed magic for the first time in front of a large audience. The evening set a precedent that the Husk would seek to amplify homegrown talent.
Walmsley’s Golden Husk journey began offstage, volunteering to work at the merch table for the Talbott Brothers, an Americana act out of Imperial formed by eponymous brothers, Nick and Ty. The experience proved to be the beginning of an ongoing relationship with the arts community. Her first performance on the stage was with a local choir. Soon, she found herself enmeshed in Valley County’s robust arts scene.
“I met some of my best friends through that opportunity,” Walmsley said. Her early experiences at The Golden Husk inspired her to take singing lessons. Her goal was to perform at an open mic night in O’Neill, which she achieved with ease. Since then, she’s performed many more times, started teaching herself guitar, and began writing her own original songs.
The Talbott Brothers believe Valley County has something unique in the Golden Husk. To them, it’s always felt like “more than just a venue.”
“Everyone shows up not just to hear songs, but to connect, support the arts, and celebrate life in rural Nebraska,” they said in a joint email. “You can feel the pride and care that’s gone into restoring and maintaining the theater and you can see the way it inspires both the audience and the artists who perform there. We’re grateful to have been a small part of its story over the years, and we hope to be back again down the road.”
Walmsley has seen the Golden Husk’s magic trickle out into the community at large, creating a circle of support that can be difficult to track down in larger cities.
“There is something magical about watching your neighbor or pastor perform,” she said. “I think that makes it more special for our community.”
For Hagge, the Husk is cultivating a sense of belonging for many people in the Loup Valley region. She views the theater as neutral ground, a space where people can share who they really are; and she believes that it radiates to community life.
“The theater offers a space many may have felt missing in their lives,” she said. “It fosters belonging and purpose; lifting up individuals and the greater community.”
Seeking artists and those who ‘do things a little differently’
The Golden Husk’s mission is to cultivate a self-sustaining creative community in Ord and beyond. Leaders with Valley Performing Arts Theater are not interested in being a venue for solely well-known artists. They want to be a hub where artists can establish themselves; to build that culture, they consulted Valley County Community Foundation Fund’s playbook and found inspiration in asset-based community development. The ABCD community-building approach is, in essence, the practice of leveraging a place’s existing assets to create dynamic, thriving neighborhoods, hometowns, and counties. Among all affiliated funds in the NCF network, Valley County is a leader in identifying and unleashing assets – so it made sense to use that lens on the arts.
In 2020, with assistance from Nebraska Community Foundation, Valley County residents started seeking the spark in the arts and cultural community. The search began with an open invitation to all artists, creatives, and art enthusiasts in the county: join us in a conversation about the arts in Valley County and share your talents. The research team didn’t limit their definition of a creative to traditional artists, musicians, etc., instead expanding it to include innovators, entrepreneurs, and people who “do things a little differently.”
Interviewees frequently shared the names of neighbors who inspired them, or of residents who had talents they mostly kept to themselves. They shared important moments in Valley County’s arts and cultural history. They talked about the places that made them who they are. From these conversations, the local team had what they needed to build out a map of artists, enthusiasts, and supporters who could be invited to share their gifts with the community, empowering themselves and the place they call home. By the end of the process, they had put together an asset map consisting of 76 individuals, 56 places, and 55 groups that participants identified as “creative, artistic, innovative, or cultural.”
Such a process is called asset mapping, and professors, authors, and ABCD innovators John Kretzmann and John McKnight considered it essential for anyone seeking to build community in their place. Asset mapping takes us beyond the obvious to highlight the magic behind the scenes.
“But beyond the more professional groups, community builders focus on those who produce ‘culture’ simply because they love to do so,” Kretzmann and McKnight write in Building Communities from the Inside Out, a foundational ABCD text. “These are the local individuals and groups who are eager to teach what they do, to tell stories about the community’s history to younger people, to add music and poetry and dance to local meetings. These are the people who can contribute the spirit and vision to the community building project.”
Zoom in on Valley County’s cultural asset map and the points begin to transform into people. Real people with real dreams and real talent. People like Walmsley, Hagge, and all of the community members who have joined the cast or crew of a production in the last 10 years.
Jesse Rosberg, who has directed many of the Husk’s productions, thinks the way the theater brings people together from different stages of life and different walks of life creates a unique sense of family. On the Ord Chamber of Commerce’s podcast, he said that environment empowers people to discover gifts they may not have known they had.
“Being able to just get up in front and share what you’ve got is a beautiful thing.”
Beyond the stage
In late July some of Valley County’s most involved, influential, and active residents filled the Golden Husk for a special event. That evening, Ord welcomed a representative from the United Nations Foundation who had reached out to NCF to learn more about community-building success in Nebraska. A local entrepreneur catered a meal of pork nachos, the protein furnished by a young Valley County business owner who also served as the evening’s emcee. After dinner, guests heard from local leaders expounding on the various ways Valley County has cultivated an environment of community philanthropy, creativity, and care.
The evening was not the first community gathering held at the Husk. The space is more than a theater, offering a setting for meetings, festivals, and lowkey conversation. Melani Flynn, chair of the Valley County Community Foundation Fund Advisory Committee, thinks one of the theater’s most influential impacts is the way in which it brings generations of families together. Her young children have grown up inside the building and on its stage.
“They see the Husk as a really cool place to go,” she said. “It is beautiful to see their connection to the space and their love of the arts at such a young age.”
She hopes the next 10 years further strengthens the impact of the theater, which already draws people from hours away to participate in various events and performances. It’s hard to overstate the theater’s significance, but its absence would certainly be felt.
“People are craving a space like this,” Flynn said. “A space where they can let their light shine and do so alongside their neighbors.”
When Hagge imagines the future of the Golden Husk, the prospects are so bright that it’s hard to see through the glare. The theater’s role in the community has grown so much in the last decade, it’s hard to imagine it slowing down. These days, it’s not uncommon for more than 80 people to audition for community theater roles – the first ever production only courted 18.
“It’s really phenomenal,” Hagge reflected.
As new leaders join the VPAT board, Hagge is excited to see how they shape the future.
“We are inspired by a new generation of leaders and artists who give so much of themselves to the heartbeat of the theater,” she said. “Their vision, generosity, and passion are energizing our work today and ensuring a vibrant future!”
