Ming Toy Gallery, owned by Teresa Gleason and Tim McMahan, was founded as the little gallery in Omaha, Neb., in 2015. Our original home was located at 5917 Maple Street in downtown Benson. After outgrowing our space, we moved down the block to 5901 Maple Street until the pandemic hit. In order to keep our doors open, we downsized and moved to Omaha’s Blackstone District in late fall of 2021 and operated there until the end of February 2022.

We reopened at our new location - 6066 Maple Street in downtown Benson right next door to Au Courant - in February 2023.

Our new name, Ming Toy, is an homage to Tim’s grandparents, who owned and operated the Ming Toy Cafe at 45th and Military back in the day. Legend has it that the Cisco Kid once ate there, along with a plethora of movie stars who were just passing through town. Our new location is only a stone’s throw (if you’ve got an excellent arm) from the original cafe building, which still exists.

The English translation of Ming Toy - unless someone cares to correct us - is daughter of happiness. We hope our gallery, dedicated to exploring the creative potential of new, nontraditional and established artists, will bring happiness to all who visit and all who display their work with us.

Ming Toy Gallery is powered by Polecat Communications.

At right: inside the original Ming Toy Cafe.