Public Tours in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden Every Sunday
2025-07-06 10:30, 2025-07-13 10:30, 2025-07-20 10:30, 2025-07-27 10:30, 2025-08-03 10:30, 2025-08-10 10:30, 2025-08-17 10:30, 2025-08-24 10:30 (America/Chicago) and 2 more dates | Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans , LA, 70124
NOMA provides guided tours of the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden every Saturday. During these tours, you’ll learn about a selection of the 100 large-scale works installed in the garden.
No registration is required. NOMA’s Besthoff Sculpture Garden is free and open to all, seven days a week. Tours start at the main entrance gate to the Besthoff Sculpture Garden on Dueling Oaks Drive.

Gallery Talk with Tony Yeboah: "West African Ontology of Space and the Architecture of Community"
2025-07-09 12:30 - 13:00, 2025-07-09 18:00 - 18:30 | New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA, 70119
Every week, NOMA hosts gallery talks in the museum and the Besthoff Sculpture Garden led by curators, artists, and other special guests. These lively, participatory conversations provide a moment to take a close look at one work—or a selection of works—currently on view.
This week, join Tony Yeboah, Tulane University Faculty Fellow of African Art History, for a gallery talk on works in the exhibition New African Masquerades: Artistic Innovations and Collaborations. The title of his talk is “West African Ontology of Space and the Architecture of Community”
Yeboah will lead two iterations of this gallery talk: the first from 12:30-1:00 pm, and the second from 6:00-6:30 pm the same evening.
Included with museum admission, which is free for Louisiana residents every Wednesday courtesy of The Helis Foundation’s Art for All initiative. When you arrive at NOMA, check in at the admissions desk for directions to the appropriate location.

About Tony Yeboah
Tony Yeboah is Assistant Professor of African Art History at Tulane University. His current research supported by the Mellon Foundation and the Betty and Whitney MacMillan Center of Yale University, utilizes local-centered methodologies to reclaim African ontologies of space. Tony’s research examines the entangled themes of colonial power, the built environment, and community-making in one of the greatest West African capitals, Kumase. Tony is a contributor for the OER, (Open Educational Resources), a project of the Gates Ventures. His works have appeared in edited volumes and in numerous peer-reviewed journals and popular avenues including History in Africa, Journal of West African History, History Education Research Journal, the Conversation, and Nursing Clio.

Gallery Talk with Lavonna Varnado-Brown
2025-07-16 12:30 - 13:00, 2025-07-16 18:00 - 18:30 | New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA, 70119
Every week, NOMA hosts gallery talks in the museum and the Besthoff Sculpture Garden led by curators, artists, and other special guests. These lively, participatory conversations provide a moment to take a close look at one work—or a selection of works—currently on view.
This week, join Creative Assembly member Lavonna Varnado-Brown on the Second Floor Mezzanine to discuss the Black Madonnas in the exhibition Carlo Saraceni’s “Our Lady of Loreto” and Peruvian Viceregal Statue Paintings. Varrnado-Brown will highlight Saraceni’s work “Our Lady of Loreto/Nuestra Señora de Loreto,” exploring themes of the divine feminine, Syncretism, and the artist’s influences. We will reflect on the gradual process of adoption and adaptation of this iconography by Indigenous and Mestizo artists in Viceregal Peru in the creation of Marian images. In the past, “Our Lady of Loreto” has been exhibited as a Peruvian work created during the Viceregal Period (1542-1824), and NOMA has played a crucial role in exhibiting the work more accurately as Italian Baroque painting dated to 1600, created while the Venetian artist was active in Rome.
This talk will be held at 12:30 pm and 6:00 pm.
Included with museum admission, which is free for Louisiana residents every Wednesday courtesy of The Helis Foundation’s Art for All initiative. When you arrive at NOMA, check in at the admissions desk for directions to the appropriate location.

About Lavonna Varnado-Brown
Lavonna Varnado-Brown, Creative Assembly 2025
LaVonna Varnado Brown is a multidisciplinary artist and community worker.She earned a BA from Southeastern University Louisiana with a focus on Theatre and Liberal Arts. After studying abroad in London and Paris in the summer of 2009, LaVonna has worked 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. AfroFuturism is a cultural aesthetic that explores the intersection of art and history with intention to inspire action in the now by healing beyond trauma. In addition to creating multimedia works, LaVonna curates 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.

Gallery Talk with Laura Moreno
2025-07-23 12:30 - 13:00 | New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA, 70119
Every week, NOMA hosts gallery talks in the museum and the Besthoff Sculpture Garden led by curators, artists, and other special guests. These lively, participatory conversations provide a moment to take a close look at one work—or a selection of works—currently on view.
This week, join Museum Educator Laura Moreno for a conversation about Carlos Rolón’s “Losa Criolla” located in the NOMA 2nd Floor elevator lobby. This talk will be held at 12:30 pm.
Included with museum admission, which is free for Louisiana residents every Wednesday courtesy of The Helis Foundation’s Art for All initiative. When you arrive at NOMA, check in at the admissions desk for directions to the appropriate location.

Gallery Talk with Owen Canter
2025-07-23 18:00 - 18:30 | New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA, 70119
Every week, NOMA hosts gallery talks in the museum and the Besthoff Sculpture Garden led by curators, artists, and other special guests. These lively, participatory conversations provide a moment to take a close look at one work—or a selection of works—currently on view.
This week, join Owen Canter for a conversation about the history of Palissy ware. This talk will be held at 6:00 pm in the Decorative Arts galleries.
Included with museum admission, which is free for Louisiana residents every Wednesday courtesy of The Helis Foundation’s Art for All initiative. When you arrive at NOMA, check in at the admissions desk for directions to the appropriate location.

Gallery Talk with Jer'Lisa Devezin
2025-07-30 12:30 - 13:00, 2025-07-30 18:00 - 18:30 | New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA, 70119
Every week, NOMA hosts gallery talks in the museum and the Besthoff Sculpture Garden led by curators, artists, and other special guests. These lively, participatory conversations provide a moment to take a close look at one work—or a selection of works—currently on view.
This week, join Creative Assembly member Jer’Lisa Devezin for a conversation about Leonardo Drew’s piece Number 59S. This talk will be held at 12:30 pm and 6:00 pm.
Included with museum admission, which is free for Louisiana residents every Wednesday courtesy of The Helis Foundation’s Art for All initiative. When you arrive at NOMA, check in at the admissions desk for directions to the appropriate location.

About Jer’Lisa Devezin
Jer’Lisa Devezin, Creative Assembly 2025
Jer’Lisa J. Devezin is an artist and educator born and raised in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans, LA. She earned her BA from Dillard University and MFA from Southern Methodist University. Heavily influenced by her upbringing in the city, Jer’Lisa’s work engages research through a black feminist lens centering identity, sexuality, Black studies, and Southern culture, specifically focusing on New Orleans and socioeconomics. Devezin’s practice integrates ceramic and sculptural processes such as welded steel, woven forms, cast slip, plaster, and metal. Her research on materials like clay, metal, and fibers engages with the function of materiality and is intentionally used to coexist and initiate conversations between the viewer and the work. Devezin is based in New Orleans and works as an Assistant Professor of Art at Tulane University.

Gallery Talk with Dawn DeDeaux
2025-07-30 12:30 - 13:00, 2025-09-03 18:00 - 18:30 | New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA, 70119
Every week, NOMA hosts gallery talks in the museum and the Besthoff Sculpture Garden led by curators, artists, and other special guests. These lively, participatory conversations provide a moment to take a close look at one work—or a selection of works—currently on view.
This week, join artist Dawn DeDeaux for gallery talks on her work Rushed in Near Ten (2015), now on view in the Great Hall. DeDeaux’s talks will take place at 12:30 and 6:00.
Included with museum admission, which is free for Louisiana residents every Wednesday courtesy of The Helis Foundation’s Art for All initiative. When you arrive at NOMA, check in at the admissions desk for directions to the appropriate location.

Gallery Talk with Thameur Mejri
2025-07-30 18:00 - 18:30, 2025-08-13 12:30 - 13:00 | New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA, 70119
Every week, NOMA hosts gallery talks in the museum and the Besthoff Sculpture Garden led by curators, artists, and other special guests. These lively, participatory conversations provide a moment to take a close look at one work—or a selection of works—currently on view.
This week, join artist Thameur Mejri for a conversation about works in the exhibition Afropolitan: Contemporary African Arts at NOMA, which features Mejri’s 2018 work titled “Untitled (Eroded Grounds).” This talk will be offered at 12:30 pm and 6:00 pm.
Included with museum admission, which is free for Louisiana residents every Wednesday courtesy of The Helis Foundation’s Art for All initiative. When you arrive at NOMA, check in at the admissions desk for directions to the appropriate location.

About Thameur Mejri

Thameur Mejri investigates complexities of human existence by identifying parallels between paradoxical ideas of violence, innocence, guilt and shame. He blurs the boundaries between public and private in an effort to confront individual and collective values, particularly in contemporary Tunisian society. Mejri examines what happens in the painting and through the painting, where indifference bids farewell, and affect becomes activated; it strikes back with force.
He has exhibited widely, including the 13th Cairo Biennial, Cairo, Egypt / Dakar Biennale of Contemporary African Art, Dakar, Senegal / The New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, USA / The Museum of Contemporary Art in Lyon, France / N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art, Detroit, USA / New York International Independent Film and Video Festival, New York, USA / Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) L.I., New York, USA. He also has had solo exhibitions at Jack Bell Gallery, London, UK / Gallery 1957, Accra, Ghana / Selma Feriani Gallery, Tunis, Tunisia / B7L9 Art Station. The Kamel Lazaar Foundation, Tunis, Tunisia / Montague Contemporary, New York, USA / Uitstalling Art Gallery, Genk, Belgium.
Mejri’s graduated from the Institute of Fine Arts in Tunis, and he is currently teaching at the Higher Institute of Fine Arts in Nabeul.

Gallery Talk with Dapper Bruce Lafitte
2025-07-30 18:00 - 18:30, 2025-08-20 12:30 - 13:00, 2025-08-20 18:00 - 18:30 | New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA, 70119
Every week, NOMA hosts gallery talks in the museum and the Besthoff Sculpture Garden led by curators, artists, and other special guests. These lively, participatory conversations provide a moment to take a close look at one work—or a selection of works—currently on view.
This week, join New Orleans artist Dapper Bruce Lafitte for two gallery talks on works in the exhibition Dapper Bruce Lafitte: A Time Before Katrina, currently on view in the Great Hall. These talks will take place at 12:30 pm and 6:00 pm.
Included with museum admission, which is free for Louisiana residents every Wednesday courtesy of The Helis Foundation’s Art for All initiative. When you arrive at NOMA, check in at the admissions desk for directions to the appropriate location.

Gallery Talk with Elenora “Rukiya” Brown
2025-08-06 12:30 - 13:00, 2025-08-06 18:00 - 18:30 | New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA, 70119
Every week, NOMA hosts gallery talks in the museum and the Besthoff Sculpture Garden led by curators, artists, and other special guests. These lively, participatory conversations provide a moment to take a close look at one work—or a selection of works—currently on view.
This week, join us for a gallery talk led by local artist and designer Elenora “Rukiya” Brown on works in the exhibition New African Masquerades: Artistic Innovations and Collaborations.
Rukiya will lead two iterations of this gallery talk: the first will take place from 12:30-1:00 pm, and the second from 6:00-6:30 pm the same evening.
Included with museum admission, which is free for Louisiana residents every Wednesday courtesy of The Helis Foundation’s Art for All initiative. When you arrive at NOMA, check in at the admissions desk for directions to the appropriate location.

About Elenora “Rukiya” Brown
Rukiya is an artist and designer, recognized among her peers and protégés for fusing both historical influence from People of Color traditions with contemporary times. She is internationally known for making beautiful “soft sculptures” Mardi Gras InJun suits. Featured with her is one of her personal dolls from the Unclaimed Memories Hurricane Katrina collection.
Rukiya calls her art a type of therapy—that healing begins with herself and goes out to others. All of her artwork is an offering to the community of Color, to inform and inspire based on her research, weaving in the majesty of life. Rukiya treats none of her creations as a “job” in the traditional sense; it’s more the joy of the experience while doing. She is perhaps then a mixed media artist in the truest form.
Gifted as a quilter and storyteller of quilts, art and fashion designer, and master beader as well, her talents are sought by novices, major art enthusiasts, and wealthy collectors. Rukiya has participated in New Orleans JazzFest for many years, winning numerous awards. She is acknowledging her Chahta American Indian bloodline ancestry. She masks with Big Chief Monk Boudreaux’s Golden Eagles tribe, and she fully represents the New Orleans culture of masking Mardi Gras InJun.
Rukiya’s Mardi Gras InJun suit When People Could Fly (2014) was acquired by the New Orleans Museum of Art. The White Buffalo Calf Woman (2017) suit is a part of the permanent exhibit at the Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, in Paris, France. The Metamorphosis (2013) was featured in Tina Freeman’s award-winning book, Artist Spaces:NEW Orleans (Louisiana Artists).
