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. All galleries and Café NOMA remain open till 9 pm.

• 5 – 8 pm: Art on the Spot family activity table
• 5:30 – 8:30 pm: Music by Mia Borders
• 6 pm: Artist Perspective with Ceramicist Kevin John O’Keefe
• 7 pm: “The Indivisible and the Invincible,” a talk by Prospect.4 artist Odili Donald Odita

ABOUT MIA BORDERS

Born and raised in New Orleans, Mia Borders’ original music genuinely reflects the oft-referenced melting pot of her hometown.  Her catalogue of nine commercial releases spans from pop-rock-influenced “the ep” in 2007 to the R&B LP “Fever Dreams” in 2016. Heralded locally and nationally as one of New Orleans’ best talents, Borders has been featured on AXS.tv’s coverage of The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, and has performed at such renowned venues as Essence Festival, Brazil’s Bourbon Street Music Festival, House of Blues New Orleans, Tipitina’s, Santa Cruz Blues Fest, Chattanooga’s Night Fall, Voice of the Wetlands, Memphis’ Levitt Shell, Wakarusa, Long’s Park Amphitheater, 2012 Food & Wine Classic, and The Kennedy Center for Performing Arts.

ABOUT KEVIN JOHN O’KEEFE

Kevin John O’Keefe is an artist based in Gulfport, Mississippi. He has worked with master potter Jimmy Anderson and his son Peter Jr. in the preservation of the life and work of their forefather, Peter Anderson of Ocean Springs, Mississippi. O’Keefe has worked for the George Ohr Museum’s “Mud Daubers” arts camp and has also taught wheel-thrown and hand-built ceramics in many other studios. His work has been shown at the Museum of Art in Hattiesburg and the Andrew Jessup Gallery in Biloxi. In September of 2005 he was in the last stages of preparation for a large private installation at The University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Park Campus Library when Hurricane Katrina destroyed the campus and damaged this body of work. This show and samplings of his work can be seen at KevinJohnOKeefe.com. After regrouping with the help of The Mississippi Arts Commission, O’Keefe began refining undeveloped and unconventional techniques using salt. These works were promoted in various galleries on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and in New Orleans. Beyond ceramics, O’Keefe’s fresh, creative talent has led to a wide variety of projects, including artistic designs for a Mississippi manufacturer of drum sticks, graphic design of covers for several books and bibles, and logos and marketing packages for several businesses.

ABOUT ODILI DONALD ODITA

Odili Donald Odita is an African American abstract painter who lives and works in Philadelphia. Odita’s work explores color both in the figurative historical context and in the sociopolitical sense. His vibrant large-scale abstractions have been described as “showstoppers” and are considered to raise questions about race and society. Most of Odita’s work is inspired by the vibrant textiles of his home country, Nigeria mixed with patterns from Western modernity. His Forever mural, commissioned in 2011, fills an entire wall in NOMA’s elevator lobby on the first floor. For Prospect.4, he has created brightly multicolored flags installed at places of “cultural, racial and historical importance” around the city, and more of his work is on view aboard the Algiers ferry.

Odita is primarily a painter, but also works in photo-based pieces and installation art. He has experimented with a variety of media, but his works since the 1990s are often large-scale paintings on canvas and Plexiglass. He sometimes paints directly on walls to alter the perception of space. Often involving “complex interlocking geometries and contrasting hues,” his works are seen as raising significant questions about race and society.

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.