01. Context
Centered in Omaha, Nebraska, Common Senses Festival is a citywide platform for disability-centered art and culture, created to amplify disabled artists, expand access, and reimagine belonging in public space. Since launching in 2022, it has grown into an annual civic platform spanning performances, installations, conversations, screenings, and participatory experiences. Cause Lab’s role was to translate this expansive vision into a clear public identity and flexible narrative system that kept accessibility at the core for the 2025 iteration.
02. Creative Direction
Cause Lab shaped the festival’s creative direction and narrative framework, clarifying Common Senses as a celebration of human difference, shared experience, and access as a creative force. We developed a cohesive visual and messaging system across print, digital, and environmental touchpoints, supporting event discovery, partner communication, wayfinding, and public engagement. From campaign language to signage, social assets, and program collateral, each element reinforced the idea that access is not a barrier to creativity, but a source of it.
03. Partners
Common Senses Festival succeeds through coalition, bringing together artists, advocates, cultural institutions, science and technology leaders, universities, theaters, museums, funders, and community organizations across Omaha and beyond. Cause Lab helped align this broad partner network around one clear festival story while allowing each program to retain its distinct purpose. The resulting brand framework created cohesion across venues and experiences, giving partners a shared platform that felt unified, accessible, and flexible enough to support a wide range of events.
04. Impact
Common Senses Festival reframes accessibility as a cultural practice, centering disabled artists and audiences while expanding expectations for how public life can be designed. Cause Lab’s work helped establish a cohesive identity, clear voice, and scalable communications system that could grow with the festival’s ambition. Its impact extends beyond attendance, shifting access from compliance to belonging, inclusion from invitation to infrastructure, and disability-centered culture from a specialized offering to a model for more creative public experience.
35
Days of Programming
52
Events
28
Partners
8,966
Attendees
In The Press
NPR
Common Senses Festival Culminates With World Premier Opera, Kate Noble Weitz Explains on “Live & Local”
"This festival is for everyone."
KMTV 3
Celebrating art, science and belonging: The Common Senses festival
"Celebrating art, science and belonging, the Common Senses Festival is a chance for families to experience some of the neat things Omaha has to offer in a safe and inclusive environment."