On November 13, 2010, the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) debuted the exhibition Great Collectors/Great Donors: The Making of the New Orleans Museum of Art, 1910 – 2010_at the 45th annual Odyssey Ball. The theme for this opulent gala was Art Lives.

Great Collectors/Great Donors: The Making of the New Orleans Museum of Art, 1910 – 2010 opened to the public on Sunday, November 14. The exhibition walked visitors through the history of NOMA, decade by decade, honoring the collectors and donors who helped to form the museum’s permanent collection. The exhibition was on view in the Ella West Freeman Galleries through January 23, 2011 and was generously sponsored by the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel.

The Odyssey Ball and the Great Collectors exhibition celebrated the beginning of NOMA’s centennial year, which is 2011. The first exhibition at the Isaac Delgado Museum of Art (named the New Orleans Museum of Art in 1971) consisted of 400 paintings and works lent by local collectors. NOMA has since grown to thirteen times its original size and has a permanent collection of world art numbering over 35,000 works.

The exhibition showcased NOMA’s diverse permanent collection and honored donors Dr. Russell Albright, Sydney and Walda Besthoff, Melvin P. Billups, Dr. Siddharth Bhansali, Brooke Hayward Duchin, Muriel Bultman Francis, Dr. Kurt Gitter, Mrs. Benjamin M. Harrod, Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Hills, Alvin Howard, Mr. and Mrs. Chapman H. Hyams, Shirley Latter Kaufmann, Victor K. Kiam, Samuel H. Kress, the Kuntz Family, Clarence John Laughlin, Dr. and Mrs. E. Ralph Lupin, Mr. and Mrs. P. Roussel Norman, Bert Piso, Mr. and Mrs. R. Randolph Richmond, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Shelton, Perry E. H. Smith, Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Stafford, Edith Rosenwald Stern, Mr. and Mrs. John Weinstock, Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Whitecloud and Morgan Whitney.