Kolaj Fest at NOMA
Kolaj Fest New Orleans—a multi-day festival and symposium about contemporary collage and its role in art, culture, and society—heads to the museum for a day full of conversations, tours, and more.
The event brings together collage artists and art professionals to elevate the status of collage through panel discussions, exhibitions, and activities. Attendees will meet, network, and share community, camaraderie, and fellowship, all while developing new ideas for artmaking, writing, and curatorial projects.
This event is free with museum admission. Museum visitors are invited to join in on the day’s programs.
Schedule
Check in and Kolaj Fest Info Table in Great Hall + Open collage in the Lapis Center for the Arts
10 AM to 1 PM
Daily Collage Congress: Welcome to Kolaj Fest New Orleans
10:30 to 11:15 AM | Lapis Center for the Arts
Kolaj Institute Director Ric Kasini Kadour will officially open Kolaj Fest New Orleans at this opening event. Guests will hear from a number of artists about projects, activities, and exhibitions taking place during the festival. The event also features the “New Orleans-Magic and Protection” fashion show by Massachusetts artist Nikola Janevski, where he will debut a collection of collage jackets made in collaboration with New Orleans artists during his Solo Residency at Kolaj Institute.
Presentation: “We Are All Collaborators In Someone Else’s Journey: Robert Rauschenberg & Process” by Carolyn Oliver & Robin Sanford Roberts
11:15 am to 11:45 AM
During this presentation, Carolyn E. Oliver (Carlsbad, California) and Robin Sanford Roberts (San Diego, California) will present an overview of Rauschenberg’s life, work, and process. Oliver will share her experience with fashion designer Jason Wu, whose 2026 Spring/Summer Fashion Show at the Brooklyn Navy Yard paid homage to Rauschenberg. Rauschenberg’s transfer works were printed on large acrylic panels as the models wove in and out. Oliver wrote, “Wu’s art of layering and deconstructing fabrics offered the viewers a visual enchantment of distortion and fragmented beauty.” Rauschenberg’s art and Wu’s fashion created a “double document” of global interest. Set designer and professor Robin Sanford Roberts will share views of her theatrical set designs inspired by Rauschenberg.
“Divas, Blues, & Memories: Beau McCall”
12:00 to 12:30 PM
Nayla Maaruf, NOMA’s Conservator of Photographs and Works of Art on Paper, will share her knowledge on disaster preparation at home for family photos and documents, which also applies to artists with a paper-based practice. Maaruf will also entertain questions from artists who have material concerns about their artwork.
Gallery Talk: Robert Gordy: Outside the Mainstream
12:30 to 1:00 PM
Gallery talk hosted by Lisa Rotondo-McCord, Deputy Director of NOMA, on Robert Gordy: Beyond the Mainstream in connection with Beau McCall lecture. Hosted in Templeman Galleries on the second floor.
About Kolaj Fest 2026
Kolaj Fest returns to New Orleans on 10-14 June 2026. Kolaj Fest New Orleans is a multi-day festival and symposium. Since the festival was first presented in 2018, its goal has always been to bring together collage artists and art professionals to elevate the status of collage. The festival is presented by Kolaj Institute, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in New Orleans, whose mission is to support artists, curators, and writers who seek to study, document, and disseminate ideas that deepen our understanding of collage as a medium, a genre, a community, and a 21st century movement; and Kolaj Magazine, a quarterly, printed, art magazine reviewing and surveying contemporary collage with an international perspective, founded in 2012.
About the Kolaj Institute
Kolaj Institute Gallery in New Orleans is an exhibition gallery, residency center, artist studio, library and archive. The mission of Kolaj Institute is to support artists, curators, and writers who seek to study, document, & disseminate ideas that deepen our understanding of collage as a medium, a genre, a community, and a 21st-century movement. We operate a number of initiatives meant to bring together community, investigate critical issues, and raise collage’s standing in the art world.