NOMA’s Art Thrives program creates opportunities exclusively for adults ages 55 and up to learn new skills while building community and having fun. Reflect on and create art inspired by the themes explored in Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined with a special guided tour of the exhibition and collage-making session led by teaching artist LaVonna Varnado Brown. In this workshop, participants will learn about the range and depth of Mutu’s practice across her influential career, and trace the thematic through-lines and progressions in the artist’s work from the mid-1990s to today. Attendees will consider process and aging, archiving and legacies, naming yourself, and the language of life.

This program is free with advance registration. 

This program is sold out.

About LaVonna Varnado Brown

LaVonna Varnado Brown is a multidisciplinary artist and community worker. Varnado Brown earned a Bachelor of Arts from Southeastern University Louisiana with a focus on Theatre and Liberal Arts. After studying abroad in London and Paris in the summer of 2009, Varnado Brown works as an installation artist, artist advocate, teaching artist, and tutor in and around New Orleans. LaVonna creates mixed media visual art that is Afrofutiristic in aesthetic with odes to history, the divine feminine, and floral daydreams abounding. Afrofuturistic is a cultural aesthetic that explores the intersection of art and history with the intention to inspire action in the now by healing beyond trauma. In addition to creating multimedia works, Varnado Browncurates intentional workshops and expos with a focus on healing and raising spatial awareness. Through her work, she hopes to uplift the narrative of rest, joy, resistance, and abundance.