Friday Nights at NOMA opens the museum’s doors for many interesting activities throughout the year: live music, movies, children’s activities, and more. Regular admission prices apply—NOMA members are FREE—but there is no extra charge for programs or films.

The exhibition Pride of Place: The Making of Contemporary Art in New Orleans opens to the public featuring more than eighty works donated to NOMA by renowned gallerist Arthur Roger.

• 5:30 – 8:30 pm: Music by Sabine McCalla
• 5 – 8 pm: Art on the Spot family activity table
• 6 pm: Artist Perspective with Simon Gunning

ABOUT SABINE MCCALLA

Sabine McCalla is an American folk singer. Born in New York City to Haitian immigrant parents, she was strongly encouraged to learn how to play music from an early age by her mother. She grew up playing classical violin in orchestras. But as she grew older she found her true talent lay in her voice. McCalla began to sing ballads, listening to old-time and country music. In 2014 she joined her sister in New Orleans and began writing and singing her own songs. Her music is based off of her own experiences, poetry, and the people who have effected  her life. Her music raises a series of issues about womanhood, perseverance, poverty, fear, and love. McCalla is currently working on a self-produced E.P. recorded by Mash Potato Studios in the Holy Cross.

ABOUT SIMON GUNNING

In conjunction with Pride of Place, on select Fridays throughout the run of the exhibition artists represented in Roger’s collection will discuss their careers and influences.

Australian-born Simon Gunning has lived in New Orleans’ Bywater neighborhood for more than 30 years. His appreciation for the local scenery has never waned, as is evident in his renowned, intricately-composed oil paintings of the Southern Louisiana landscape. His compositions reflect familiar scenes — lush swamps interrupted only by egrets, ibises and anhingas; ships lined up in the winding Mississippi river; industrial cargo lifts and cranes dotted with spotlights reflecting in the placid water; dogs and cats frolicking in streets lined with shotgun homes and jutting stoops. Despite his veneration, his compositions are never sentimentalized. His edgy style of painting has been described as “an iconic personal statement about life, death, sorrow, and a love affair with an exotic land.” He has a startling ability to capture scenes at the most felicitous time of day, rendering the light and color that is so unique to the landscape.

Simon Gunning was born in Sydney, Australia in 1956. He studied painting and drawing from 1976-1978 at the National Gallery School of Art and the Victorian College of Art in Melbourne, Australia. In 1999, he was awarded a Visual Artist Fellowship by the Louisiana Division of the Arts. His work is included in many public and private collections including the New Orleans Museum of Art, Percent for Art Collection at Louis Armstrong International Airport, and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, all in New Orleans; as well as in private and corporate collections in Paris, London, Los Angeles, and Australia.