THE NEW ORLEANS MUSEUM OF ART ANNOUNCES THE 2023–24 CREATIVE ASSEMBLY COHORT
Eight local artists will participate in the museum’s Creative Assembly residency and develop collaborations with NOMA’s collection, exhibitions, programs, and staff.

NEW ORLEANS – Today, the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) announced the eight New Orleans-based artists who will participate in the institution’s Creative Assembly residency for the 2023–24 year. NOMA’s Creative Assembly initiative fosters community engagement by inviting artists of all disciplines for year-long collaborations with the museum’s permanent collection, special exhibitions, and programs.

“As one of the largest fine arts museums in the Gulf South, we are honored to serve as a space for inspiration and innovation for the creative thinkers who define our current moment,” said Susan M. Taylor, The Montine McDaniel Freeman Director of NOMA. “While the museum’s scope is global, NOMA’s Creative Assembly Cohort underscores the importance of supporting local artists who continue New Orleans’s legacy as one of the most culturally rich cities in the world.”

Members of the 2023–24 Creative Assembly Cohort are:

• Multidisciplinary artist and songwriter Charm Taylor
• Novelist, poet, and translator Daniel Fitzpatrick
• Cultural activist and Black Masking Indian Dianne Honoré
• Photographer Jourdan Barnes
• Rapper and lyricist Kr3wcial
• Dance choreographer Lauren Messina
• Painter Paige DeVries
• Performer and writer Simone Immanuel

“Each of the artists in this year’s cohort offers a new perspective on the creative expression of our city’s past, present, and future through mediums including painting, music, literature, and performance,” said Dr. Redell Hearn, Chief Educator at NOMA. “Their innovative work at the museum furthers our commitment to community engagement and being a forum for various arts in New Orleans.”

The museum will introduce the Creative Assembly Cohort at the upcoming NOMA at Night program this Friday, November 3. Visitors are encouraged to connect with each of the artists during activities throughout the evening.

The artists for the Creative Assembly Cohort were selected from a pool of applicants with the goal of amplifying a diversity of artforms and highlighting artists’ individual definitions of community.

“This year, the Creative Assembly Cohort is taking inspiration from New Orleans’s neighborhoods, which are vital clusters of creativity, community, and tradition in our city,” said Kelci Baker, Community Engagement Manager at NOMA. “Our hope with this program is to work with artists to foster a space of belonging where visitors can see reflections of their own neighborhoods and find themselves at home in the museum.”

This year’s residency program kicked off in September with a series of professional development workshops, including meeting NOMA staff, considerations of trauma-informed practices, and introductions to important legal concepts in the art world.

Over the next year, the Creative Assembly Cohort will develop on-site and off-site public offerings that connect different neighborhoods across the city.

Projects from artists in the previous Creative Assembly Cohort included the debut of a composition by trumpeter Steve Lands exploring cosmology around the world, an original performance by pop art band People Museum underneath Louise Bourgeois’s iconic Spider in the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden, in-gallery activations by musician Joseph Darensbourg responding to special exhibitions on view at the museum, and a demonstration by food justice activist Courtney Clark looking at healthier alternatives to classic New Orleans cuisine.

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About NOMA and the Besthoff Sculpture Garden
The New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) and its Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden are home to innovative exhibitions, installations, educational programs, and research. Exploring human creativity across time, cultures, and disciplines, the global scope of the museum’s initiatives open a vibrant dialogue with the history and culture of New Orleans. The museum stewards a collection of nearly 50,000 works, with exceptional holdings in African art, photography, decorative arts, and Japanese art, as well as strengths in American and French art, and an expanding collection highlighting contemporary artists. The museum’s exhibitions and dynamic learning and engagement offerings serve as a forum for visitors to engage with diverse perspectives, share cultural experiences, and foster a life of learning at all ages. Recent exhibitions include Black Orpheus: Jacob Lawrence and the Mbari Club, Called to the Camera: Black American Studio Photographers, The Orléans Collection (an exhibition of forty European masterpieces from the collection of the city’s namesake, Philippe II, Duc d’Orléans), East of the Mississippi: Nineteenth Century America Landscape Photography, Changing Course: Reflections on New Orleans Histories (seven contemporary art projects focusing on reimagining stories from the city’s past), and Ancestors of Congo Square: African Art in the New Orleans Museum of Art.

NOMA’s 12-acre Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden expands visitors’ experiences of the museum with one of the most notable sculpture gardens in the country. The Besthoff Sculpture Garden, free and open to the public seven days a week, has nearly 100 sculptures and outdoor works of art situated in a unique landscape featuring Spanish moss-laden live oaks and a sinuous lagoon surrounded by an expansive ecosystem of native plants. The works in the garden range from the 19th to the 21st centuries, with pieces by Auguste Rodin, Henry Moore, Louise Bourgeois, Ida Kohlmeyer, Claes Oldenburg, Sean Scully, Maya Lin, Do Ho Suh, Ugo Rondinone, Wangechi Mutu, Hank Willis Thomas, and many others. The Besthoff Sculpture Garden features contemporary design elements—including a sculpture pavilion, an amphitheater, and an architecturally significant canal link bridge connecting the garden’s original 2003 footprint with a 2019 expansion. Its water management practices support the health and resiliency of New Orleans City Park and the surrounding environment. Throughout the year, NOMA hosts outdoor programs in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden including festivals, performances, wellness classes, tours, and more.

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Press Contact

Charlie Tatum, Director of Marketing and Communications
New Orleans Museum of Art
ctatum@noma.org