Friday Nights at NOMA opens the museum’s doors for many interesting activities: live music, movies, children’s activities, and more.

• 5 – 8 p.m. Art on the Spot
• 5:30 – 8:30 p.m. Music by the BellaDonnas Jazz Band
• 6 p.m. “Masks and Identity in Casanova’s Venice,” a lecture by James H. Johnson
• 7:30 p.m. Italian film series curated by UNO professor Laszlo Fulop, The Wings of the Dove

ABOUT THE BELLA DONNAS JAZZ BAND

The Bella Donnas are an all-female jazz band playing traditional favorites known to New Orleanians.

ABOUT JAMES H. JOHNSON

In conjunction with the exhibition A Life of Seduction: Venice in the 1700s, James H. Johnson, professor of history at Boston University, will provide a spirited historical analysis of masking both during and outside of Carnevale in Venice. Johnson is the author of Venice Incognito, published by the University of California Press in 2011. He draws on a wealth of material to explore the worldview of maskers and reconstructs their logic: covering the face in public was a uniquely Venetian response to one of the most rigid class hierarchies in European history. This vivid account goes beyond common views that masking was about forgetting the past and minding the muse of pleasure to offer fresh insight into the historical construction of identity.

ABOUT THE WINGS OF THE DOVE

UNO professor Laszlo Fulop curates a series of three films set in the fabled Italian city of Venice beginning with The Wings of the Dove, a British-American romantic drama directed by Iain Softley and starring Helena Bonham Carter, Linus Roache, and Alison Elliott. The screenplay by Hossein Amini is based on the 1902 novel of the same name by Henry James. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards and five BAFTAs, recognizing Bonham Carter’s performance, the screenplay, costume design and the cinematography. Locations in Venice include St. Mark’s Square and the Palazzo Barbaro. (1997, Rated R, 1 hour 42 minutes)