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.

• 5 – 8 pm: Art on the Spot family activity table
• 5:30 – 8 pm: Retro Holiday Music by WWOZ DJ Neil Pellegrin
• 6 – 7 pm: Gallery Talk with John Lawrence on photographer Jay Dearborn Edwards in East of the Mississippi: Nineteenth-Century American Landscape Photography
• 6:30 pm: Cooking demonstration with Café NOMA executive chef Chris Montero
• 6:30 – 7:30 pm: Vintage Christmas dance performance by the New Orleans Dance Academy
• 7 pm: Screening of an Affair to Remember (1957)

ABOUT NEIL PELLEGRIN

Neil Pellegrin regularly hosts the Tuesday night 1950s’ Rhythm and Blues Show on WWOZ 90.7 FM. He developed an affinity for vintage R&B and rock ‘n’ roll as a teen (roughly 20 years ago). From there, he began digging deep for obscure artists and tracks from the mid-20th century. He will spin stacks of wax of vintage holiday tunes.

ABOUT JOHN LAWRENCE

John Lawrence is director of museum programs at The Historic New Orleans Collection, where he has worked since 1975, and a professional photographer. He has extensively researched the life and career of 19th-century New Orleans photographer Jay Dearborn Edwards. Edwards was was among the earliest photographers to document the city. In the three years leading up the Civil War, he appears to have made at least 118 “Views of New Orleans.” His vision of the city offers a remarkable compendium of construction, shipping, and business activity. Although he rarely focused on the human countenance, Edwards captured the full sense of the nation’s third-largest port at its antebellum height, and his work is represented in the current NOMA exhibition East of the Mississippi: Nineteenth-Century American Landscape Photography.

ABOUT CAFÉ NOMA COOKING DEMONSTRATION

Join Café NOMA executive chef Chris Montero for a special cooking demo featuring party appetizers and libations to impress your holiday guests. Featured items will include favorites from the café’s menu: golden beet sliders, Creole Country Italian sausage flatbread pizza, and hot cinnamon apple cider. Samples will be served.

ABOUT NEW ORLEANS DANCE ACADEMY

Established in 1990, the New Orleans Dance Academy offers instruction in classical ballet, flamenco, jazz, tap, and hip hop in a friendly, noncompetitive atmosphere. The children’s dance program consists of several levels of instruction and culminates with an annual spring performance. A troupe of five students will perform a vintage Christmas dance.

ABOUT AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER

Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr star in this romantic drama filmed in 1957 and nominated for four Academy Awards. Grant portrays Nickie Ferrante, a suave lady-killer whose return to New York to marry a rich heiress is well publicized as are his many antics and affairs. He meets a nightclub singer, Terry McKay (Kerr), who is also on her way home on board a cruise ship to reunite with her longtime boyfriend. She sees Nickie as just another playboy and he sees her as standoffish, but over several days at sea they soon find they’ve fallen in love. Torn by their obligations to others, the couple agrees that they will meet again in six months time atop the Empire State Building. This will give them time to deal with their current relationships. On the agreed date, Nickie is waiting patiently for Terry who is racing to join him. Fate intervenes, however, resulting in misunderstanding and heartbreak and only fate can save their relationship. (Not Rated | Watch the trailer)

Friday Nights at NOMA is supported in part by grant funds from the Azby Fund; Ruby K. Worner Charitable Trust; New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Foundation; and the Louisiana Division of the Arts, Office of Cultural Development, Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, in cooperation with the Louisiana State Arts Council as administered by the Arts Council of New Orleans.