This isn't just your normal collection of art. In 1979, the State Legislature unanimously passed a bill that officially declared MONA Nebraska's official visual art collection.

If it's produced by a Nebraska artist or has Nebraska as the subject matter, there's a good chance you'll find it here. Around these parts they affectionately refer to the Museum of Nebraska Art as MONA.

Many years ago, the vision of the Museum of Nebraska Art was got created by a group of Kearney state college professors.

"They started in 1976 with really fewer than 30 pieces of art and a dream that reflected the culture of Nebraska and to house it in a beautiful location,” said Mark Foradori, director of development.

And the building that fits that description perfectly, It sits majestically in downtown Kearney.

"In 1986 this building became available, they happened to be looking for a home for their collection and it was a great marriage of the old post office that had served Kearney since 1911,” he said.

The building is an impressive adaptation of a historical building structure that holds a lot of memories for those that grew up in Buffalo County.

“The building was opened in 1911as the Kearney Post Office and Federal Building. A lot of old-timers here remember walking up the stairs and looking at the draft board on the second floor," he said.

"Well, over here are the Robert Henri paintings and of course Robert Henri is one of Nebraska's favorite sons in terms of being an artist,” Foradori said.

And Robert Henri's originals represent just a fraction of the museum's valuable artworks.

"MONA has a permanent collection of about 5,000 artworks. Like museums all over the country, there's no way everything that we have available, so we rotate our shows fairly frequently. We do about 20 different shows every year, and that way people that come to MONA three or four times a year will always see something new and different,” he said.

And even with 5,000 artworks already in the collection, the museum adds about hundred new works every year.

"This is a fiber work by artist Sheila Hicks who was born in Hastings, Nebraska," he said.

"Sometimes people are surprised by the wonderful artwork and the wonderful artists that have either been natives of Nebraska or have come through Nebraska at various times and have done art about our state. And it's amazing to people come through the museum and look at a piece of art and say 'I know exactly where that is,' there aren't a lot of museums where you can do that and this is one of them,” he said.

The added bonus is you can see it for a fee of absolutely nothing -- the charge for admission to the museum is free. You will find no better deal in the state of Nebraska.