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First Fridays at NOMA
Fri, February 4th, 2022 at 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM
#ExploreNOMA after hours.
The museum is open late night for an evening packed with musical performances, gallery tours, special pop-ups, and a full bar.
Check out this month’s line-up below:
- Musical performance by the Lilli Lewis Project in NOMA’s Lapis Center for the Arts at 7:30 pm
- Gallery tours of NEW at NOMA: Recent Acquisitions in Contemporary Art by curator Katie Pfohl
- An exclusive sneak peek at Steve Lands’s upcoming Rearranging the Planets
- DJ set from Felice Gee
- A special service project in collaboration with Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative
- Food from Original Thought Market*
- And a full bar from Café NOMA*
$25 General Admission | $15 for Members
*Please note that food and drinks are not included in the ticket price. They are available for purchase directly from our partner vendors.
About First Fridays at NOMA
Each month, the museum presents First Fridays at NOMA, an after-hours inclusive programmatic mix of live DJs and bands; local creatives speaking about their favorite works of art; a range of performance and dance; and unique experiences of all kinds in response to art from across time and place. Participants will meet artists, get creative, and immerse themselves in New Orleans’s creative community.
The Lilli Lewis Project
Lilli Lewis. Photo by Liz Hogan.
As the story goes, Lilli Lewis should never have been. Before she was born, Lewis’s mother was told her baby probably wouldn’t survive due to lung trouble, so the fact that Lewis now makes a living singing with those same lungs is a gift she never takes for granted. Lewis uses her voice to bring what she calls sacred songs into profane spaces, and though she’s abandoned trying to define her sound, she hopes her audiences leave shows knowing two things: that they are brilliant as they are, and that they have the ability to use that brilliance to make a better world.
The Lilli Lewis Project is more than a band. It’s a pan-generational cult of radical decency that delivers heart-throbbing, earnest rock and soul that “makes you want to put your hands in the air, shout hallelujah and shake your booty for the rest of the night, with enough energy to power a large city” (Jamie Anderson, indie-music.com).
Lewis is said to have “Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s virtuoso commitment to her instrument and Odetta’s vocal power, creating a show that is a force of nature.” The Louisiana Red Hot Records artist has two releases on the label of Dumpstaphunk, Honey Island Swamp Band, and 2018 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Cyril Neville.
The regular LLP lineup is a cosmic swarm of fellow idealist music nerds: Smokey Brown (Think Less, Hear More), Wade Hymel (Dash Rip Rock), Ryan Murray (Marina Orchestra, Bloco Jacare), Ole Oddlokken (Noisewater) and master composer/virtuoso bassist Dr. Jimbo Walsh. Willing to traverse any musical terrain, LLP bears the spirit of days when everyone still believed music could change the world.
In the Galleries
Keith Duncan (American, b. 1967), Grambling State University Drum Major 2, 2020, Acrylic on wallpaper mounted to canvas, Museum purchase, P. Roussel Norman Fund, E-2021-14.1, Courtesy of the artist and Fort Gansevoort © Keith Duncan
NEW at NOMA: Recent Acquisitions in Contemporary Art spotlights contemporary art recently purchased or gifted to the museum, focusing on works by BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and female-identifying artists. The second in a series of exhibitions that began in 2017, NEW at NOMA reflects the museum’s ongoing commitment to make the art on its walls more reflective of the community that it serves. The installation, which will rotate over time, features work by local, national, and international artists, and champions the work of emerging and underrepresented voices, including those within New Orleans.
In 2020, NOMA dedicated its available acquisition funds to purchasing works by BIPOC artists; more than half of the 20 works acquired are by artists from or working in New Orleans. As NOMA strives to become even more equitable and inclusive, the museum’s commitment to addressing exclusions in the past by collecting through new acquisitions will continue through 2021 and beyond.
About Rearranging the Planets
Creative Assembly Cohort member Steve Lands presents Rearranging the Planets, a new musical performance reinterpreting composer Gustav Holst’s influential orchestral suite The Planets.
With his original composition, Lands uses Holst’s work as a jumping off point to explore the varied relationships civilizations have had to the heavens over time. While Holst structured his suite—which premiered at the Queen’s Hall in London in 1918—around the Solar System and its Greco-Roman mythological namesakes, Rearranging the Planets casts a broader net to consider how societies around the world have looked to the stars. In the words of planetary scientist Carl Sagan, “We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.”
About Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative
Jane Place Neighbrohood Sustainability Initiative is a community land trust and housing rights organization committed to creating sustainable, democratic, and economically just neighborhoods and communities in New Orleans.
Covid-19 Safety Guidelines
NOMA’s primary concern is the health of our visitors, staff, and community. At this time, visitors to the museum ages 12 and up are required to show proof of two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine (or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine), or negative results of a Covid-19 test taken within 72 hours of your visit. Visitors ages 5–11 are required to show proof of one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine or negative results of a Covid-19 test taken within 72 hours of your visit.
Check our visitor information page for guidelines and information about your visit.