Gallery Talk with Andy Young
2025-03-12 12:30 - 13:00 (America/Chicago) | 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 Cohort member Andy Young for a poetry reading in Show & Tell: A Brief History of Photography and Text. This talk celebrates the closing of the exhibition with poems inspired by photography and the exhibition itself. The talk will be held at 12:30 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.

Musical Encounters: Dr. Michael White
2025-03-19 18:00 - 18:30 | New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA, 70119
On select Wednesdays, NOMA presents a new series of gallery talks featuring conversations with musicians about their creative processes, followed by a short, intimate performance inspired by a work on view at the museum.
This week, join Dr. Michael White at 6 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 the Artist
Dr. Michael White is an accomplished, multi-faceted New Orleans-based clarinetist, bandleader, composer, musicologist, jazz historian, and educator widely regarded as one of the leading authorities and culture-bearers of traditional New Orleans jazz music. He has performed in over two dozen foreign countries, played on over 50 recordings, received countless awards, made multiple national television appearances, and been featured in major media publications.

Passing It On: The Art of John T. Scott | Book Talk & Signing with Co-Authors Freddi Williams Evans & Anna Rita Scott
2025-03-20 17:30 - 19:30 | NOMA’s Lapis Center for the Arts
In celebration of the installation John Scott: Blues Poem for the Urban Landscape and the recent release of Passing It On: The Art of John T. Scott, join NOMA and The Helis Foundation John Scott Center for a conversation and book signing with co-authors Freddi Williams Evans and Anna Rita Scott in the museum’s Lapis Center for the Arts.
During the talk, the authors will explore the life, legacy, art, and innovation of John T. Scott, a MacArthur Genius Grant recipient and longtime Xavier University of Louisiana professor.
Registration is free, but seating is limited. Please arrive when doors open at 5 pm. Advance registration does not guarantee a seat. If you require special assistance, please email programs@noma.org before Tuesday, March 19, for access information.
Register Now
This program is presented in conjunction with NOMA’s book club, which members & non-members are encouraged to attend! Learn more about the book club here, or visit the NOMA Museum Shop in person or online to browse this year’s selections.

Program Schedule
5:30–7:00 pm | Conversation with co-authors Freddi Williams Evans and Anna Rita Scott, moderated by Brian Piper, NOMA’s Freeman Family Curator of Photographs, Prints, and Drawings. The talk will be followed by a Q&A with the audience.
7:00-7:30 pm | Book Signing with the authors

About the Speakers
Freddi Williams Evans is an arts educator, independent scholar, and author of award-winning books for children as well as adults. She is a native of Madison, Mississippi and a graduate of Tougaloo College and Hahnemann Medical College (now Drexel University). She is the author of Come Sunday: A Young Reader’s History of Congo Square and Congo Square: African Roots in New Orleans, which received the 2012 Louisiana Humanities Book of the Year Award and influenced the city ordinance that made “Congo Square” the official name of the historic landmark. She is the recipient of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities’ 2024 Lifetime Contributions to the Humanities Award for her scholarship on the Congo Square site. Her picture books include: Hush Harbor: Praying in Secret, The Battle of New Orleans: The Drummer’s Story, and A Bus of Our Own.
Anna Rita Smith Scott developed a love and appreciation for art, particularly the works of John T. Scott, during her 41-year marriage to him. She was born and reared in New Orleans, where she attended Xavier Preparatory High School before earning a degree in elementary education from Xavier University. As an educator, she taught elementary grades in public and Catholic schools of New Orleans as well as religious education at Epiphany Church. Today, Mrs. Scott manages the largest collection of her husband’s work. She enjoys reading, writing, creative crafts, and spending time with her five children, seven grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
About The Helis Foundation John Scott Center
The Helis Foundation John Scott Center presents expansive ideas of heritage and symbolism interpreted through the lens of artist, educator, and humanist John T. Scott’s life, art, and legacy while promoting opportunities that nurture connections and enhance human potential. Explore the John Scott Center online or visit the galleries in person at 938 Lafayette Street in New Orleans.

Tulane Maya Symposium Keynote Address with Dr. Marcello Canuto: "Precocious Pioneering, Steady Scholarship: M.A.R.I.’s Century of Indigenous Research and Partnership"
2025-03-21 18:30 - 21:00 | NOMA’s Lapis Center for the Arts
In celebration of the centennial of the Middle America Research Institute (M.A.R.I.), director Dr. Marcello A. Canuto gives a lecture in NOMA’s Lapis Center for the Arts: “Precocious Pioneering, Steady Scholarship: M.A.R.I.’s Century of Indigenous Research and Partnership.”
This program is free and open to the public. Registration is encouraged. Doors open at 6 pm. The talk is at 6:30 pm, followed by a reception in the Coleman Courtyard with small bites by Café NOMA.
Register Now
About the Lecture
Since 1924, the Middle American Research Institute (M.A.R.I.) at Tulane University has conducted groundbreaking research on Indigenous cultures across Mexico and Central America. From pioneering excavations at ancient Maya cities like Uxmal to cutting‐edge lidar surveys, robust collection digitization, and community‐based collaborations, M.A.R.I. has consistently advanced scholarship and preservation efforts. As M.A.R.I. celebrates its centennial, this presentation reflects on the Institute’s achievements, its continued dedication to honoring Indigenous perspectives, and its evolving role in highlighting Indigenous perspectives and bridging past and present.
About Marcello A. Canuto
Marcello A. Canuto is currently Director of the Middle American Research Institute and Professor of Anthropology at Tulane University. He received his BA from Harvard University in 1991 and his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 2002. Before coming to Tulane in 2009, he was an Assistant Professor at Yale University.
He has undertaken archaeological excavations in the Maya region, South America, India, Nnorth Africa, and the northeast US. His primary research interest in the Maya area has been on the integrative mechanisms that the ancient Maya used to build and maintain a socio-politically complex society throughout both the Preclassic and Classic periods. More broadly, his interests include household and community dynamics, the development of socio-political complexity in ancient societies, the definition of identity through material culture, and the modern social contexts of archaeology in Mesoamerica. His past research in Honduras investigated the nature of ethnic diversity at Copan.
He now co-directs a project in the understudied Northwest Peten, Guatemala where he investigates the construction of social categories and the mechanisms by which complex socio-political organizations develop and were maintained.
About the Middle American Research Institute
Founded in 1924, the Middle American Research Institute (MARI) at Tulane University strives to promote greater understanding of the vibrant and diverse cultures of Middle America. It stewards an extensive collection of textiles, artifacts, and an archive of letters, field notes, maps, and photographs from the scores of field projects it has sponsored and continues to sponsor. We strive to make these accessible to researchers and the general public through a variety of exhibitions, workshops, and symposia.
Furthermore, MARI continues to support anthropological, archaeological, ethnohistorical, linguistic, and ethnographic research projects throughout Mexico and Central America.

Gallery Talk with Curator Brian Piper
2025-04-02 12:30 - 13:00, 2025-05-07 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 Brian Piper, Freeman Family Curator of Photographs, Prints, and Drawings, for a gallery talk on the exhibition Delicate Sights: Photography and Glass. This talk will be offered at 12:30 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 Curator Amanda M. Maples
2025-04-09 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 Amanda M. Maples, Françoise Billion Richardson Curator of African Art, for a gallery talk on works in the exhibition New African Masquerades: Artistic Innovations and Collaborations.
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.

Cross-Cultural Conversations: Creative Assembly and ARCAthens
2025-04-09 17:00 - 19:00 | NOMA’s Lapis Center for the Arts
Join us in NOMA’s Lapis Center for the Arts for an enlightening evening of cross-cultural dialogue with ARCAthens resident artists Angelo Plessas and Steffi Stouri and two of NOMA’s Creative Assembly Cohort members, Carl Harrison Jr. and LaVonna Varnado-Brown. These artists with diverse backgrounds will share their experiences, perspectives, and creative processes.
Through an open exchange, attendees will gain insight into how art serves as a universal language, transcending geographical boundaries, and fostering connections among people from varied cultural backgrounds. In conversation with NOMA’s Creative Assembly Cohort members, the visiting artists will explore themes of identity, representation, and the power of artistic expression.
This program is included with with museum admission, which is free for Louisiana residents every Wednesday courtesy of The Helis Foundation.

ABOUT ARCATHENS
Based in New York City, ARCAthens was created in 2017 to provide opportunities and support to visual artists, curators, and scholars through its artist residency programs. The inaugural NOLA/NYC Research Fellowship gives Greek artists and curators the opportunity to focus on cultural exchange and community engagement in two American cities: New Orleans and New York City. Visit ARCAthens to learn more about the organization and their programs.
Learn More

About the Speakers
Angelo Plessas lives and works between Athens and Kymi, Greece. He explores the intersection of spirituality and the networked world, investigating how ancient, folk, and cybernetic histories intertwine. By weaving together elements from the spiritual and the online realms, Plessas creates spaces that challenge the notion of binaries—material versus virtual, human versus machine, past versus future—proposing instead a fluid reality where all these dimensions converge. His work spans performances, artist residencies, artist’s books, interactive websites, quilted sculptures, neon installations, and educational projects. His work has been exhibited in Documenta 14, the 8th Thessaloniki Biennale, the Onassis Foundation, the 8th Biennale of Gherdëina, the Serralves Foundation, and the 13th Gwangju Biennale in S. Korea. Other projects have also been exhibited in The Museum of Contemporary, Chicago; the Jeu de Paume, Paris; the DESTE Foundation, and the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens. He is the founder of the independent space P.E.T. Projects in Athens. He won the DESTE Foundation Prize in 2015.
Steffi Stouri is an independent curator and researcher based in Athens, specializing in feminist epistemologies, archival practices, and sonic art. With an academic background in Heritage and Museum Studies (MA, University of Amsterdam) and History and Philosophy of Science (BSc, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens), her work explores the intersections of gender, identity, and memory. Her curatorial projects often engage with embodied experiences and fragmented histories, aiming to challenge dominant narratives through collaborative practices and innovative exhibitions. Notable projects include Otherlands (2024) a site specific exhibition and sonic performance in the archaeological site of Heraion, Unboxing Callas (2023–2024), an archival and group exhibition exploring the legacy of Maria Callas in dialogue with the Greek National Opera’s archive, and From Cartography to Cookbooks (2021), a digital exhibition examining Dutch colonialism through cartography and culinary history. She has also curated sound-focused projects like Chase (2018), a sound installation exploring sonic performance and the body, and Symbiotic Degradation (2020), a hybrid exhibition addressing environmental degradation and its artistic representations. Her practice is deeply informed by a commitment to reparative curating, cultural exchange, and community engagement. Through the NOLA/NYC Research Fellowship, she seeks to expand her exploration of sonic art, while connecting the cultural histories and musical legacies of New York and New Orleans to her ongoing curatorial work.
Carl Harrison Jr. is a New Orleans–based filmmaker, artist, and urban farmer dedicated to preserving cultural heritage and promoting environmental sustainability. As the founder of the St. Roch Apiary and Food Forest, Harrison creates spaces for community engagement, combining urban farming with beekeeping to support local ecosystems and inspire others to reconnect with nature. His short film, The Buzz of St. Roch, won an Audience Award at the 2024 New Orleans Film Festival and highlights the beauty and resilience of his neighborhood. Currently, Harrison is touring The Buzz of St. Roch. His exhibition Echoes of the Hive was on view last year at the Tulane School of Public Health. Harrison also directed The Black Schoolhouse, a documentary exploring the intersection of art, activism, and education within New Orleans’ Black community.
LaVonna Varnado-Brown has worked as an installation artist, artist advocate, teaching artist, and tutor in and around New Orleans and with Beginning with Children, a Brooklyn–based college and career preparatory program). Varnado-Brown creates mixed-media visual art engaging with Afrofuturism, history, the divine feminine, and floral motifs. Varnado-Brown explores Afrofuturism as a cultural aesthetic to navigate the intersection of art and history and inspire action in the now by creating space for joy. Varnado-Brown finds inspiration in the community through facilitating workshops that create intentional space to engage in creative grounding practices that raise our spatial awareness and kinesthetic responses to one another and our environment.

Sacred Mothers Collage Workshop with Creative Assembly Artist LaVonna Varnado-Brown
2025-04-23 17:00 - 19:00 | New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA, 70119
In this program organized by Creative Assembly Cohort member LaVonna Varnado-Brown, join for for a gallery walk with curators Lisa Rotondo-McCord and Amanda M. Maples highlighting works on view at the intersection of Afrodiaspora and the Divine Feminine—followed by a collage-making workshop facilitated by Varnado-Brown and and a showcase of her work on the second floor of the museum.
From the artist: To take seriously each other’s vulnerability, fragility, and precarity with clear socio-emotional boundaries according to each one’s needs. To see one another with big, world absorbing eyes. To both honor and allow space for each one to show up as they are. To enact community with an intersectional lens and practice interdependency to empower each one to another. That is Afrofuturist kinship. That can open the path to enter the sacred mother space.
This program is free, but advance registration is required.
Register Now

LaVonna Varnado-Brown has worked as an installation artist, artist advocate, teaching artist, and tutor in and around New Orleans and with Beginning with Children, a Brooklyn–based college and career preparatory program). Varnado-Brown creates mixed-media visual art engaging with Afrofuturism, history, the divine feminine, and floral motifs. Varnado-Brown explores Afrofuturism as a cultural aesthetic to navigate the intersection of art and history and inspire action in the now by creating space for joy. Varnado-Brown finds inspiration in the community through facilitating workshops that create intentional space to engage in creative grounding practices that raise our spatial awareness and kinesthetic responses to one another and our environment.

Musical Encounters: Amina Scott
2025-04-23 18:00 - 18:30 | New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA, 70119
On select Wednesdays, NOMA presents a new series of gallery talks featuring conversations with musicians about their creative processes, followed by a short, intimate performance inspired by a work on view at the museum.
This week, join Amina Scott at 6 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.
Save the date for future Musical Encounters on June 25 and July 16.

From the Artist
Amina Scott, born and raised in Oakland, CA, is an upright and electric bassist, composer, and arranger. Her interest in music began at an early age when her grandmother began giving her piano lessons. From then, her love and passion for music has yet to cease, playing electric bass when she was 12 years old and was soon playing gigs with local bands in Oakland. She relocated to New Orleans in 2012 where she quickly became a part of the vibrant music scene. In 2017, Scott joined the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra led by Adonis Rose. Now based in New Orleans, Scott leads her own band and she has performed and toured with various artists including Nicholas Payton, Steve Turre, Joanne Brackeen, Don Vappie, Herlin Riley, Christian Scott Atunde Adjuah, and more. She currently tours with a quartet, spearheaded by Dee Dee Bridgewater, called WE EXIST!, as well as with the DDB Big Band where she serves as an arranger and as the bassist. Scott continues to forge her own path as a trailblazing artist, Ranging from many musical influences, she is able to express her journey into Black womanhood and capture the trials and tribulations of her career thus far. While staying true to the musical lineage as well as herself, Scott is able to captivate audiences around the world with her music and her story. Her debut album Where The Wild Seed Grows is out now on all platforms.

Gallery Talk with Artist Nicolas Floc’h
2025-04-30 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 Nicolas Floc’h for a conversation about the exhibition Nicolas Floc’h: Fleuves-Océan, Mississippi Watershed.
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.
Later this day, join curator Brian Piper and Floc’h for a program in the second-floor Frederick R. Weisman Galleries.

Tour with Curator Brian Piper
2025-04-30 17:30 - 18:00 | 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 Brian Piper, Freeman Family Curator of Photographs, Prints, and Drawings, for a tour of the exhibition Nicolas Floc’h: Fleuves-Océan, Mississippi Watershed.
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.
Following the tour, join Piper and artist Nicolas Floc’h for a conversation in the second-floor Frederick R. Weisman Galleries.

Conversation with Artist Nicholas Floc’h and Curator Brian Piper
2025-04-30 18:00 | New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA, 70119
To celebrate the opening of Nicolas Floc’h: Fleuves-Océan, Mississippi Watershed, enjoy a conversation between artist Nicholas Floc’h and Brian Piper, NOMA’s Freeman Family Curator of Photographs, Prints, and Drawings, followed by a Q&A with the audience.
Included with museum admission, which is free for Louisiana residents every Wednesday courtesy of The Helis Foundation’s Art for All initiative.
Seating for the talk is limited and will be available on a first come, first served basis. Check in at the admissions desk in the Great Hall and then head to the second-floor Frederick R. Weisman Galleries for the program.

About the Exhibition
French photographer and visual artist Nicolas Floc’h’s Fleuves-Océan project traces the movement of water across our planet, exploring its flow through varied habitats and representing the ways we are all connected by water cycles and systems. This exhibition pairs vibrant monochromatic photographs of the color of water made under the surface with dramatic black-and-white landscape photographs made along the banks of the Mississippi and its tributaries—from Louisiana and across the country.
Learn More

The Role of Warrior Women in the Republic of Benin, Haiti, and New Orleans with Creative Assembly Artist Caleb Dowden and Her Royal Majesty Queen Mother Dr. Dowti Desir
2025-05-07 17:30 - 19:00 | NOMA’s Lapis Center for the Arts
This is a multi-part program organized by Creative Assembly resident artist Caleb Dowden beginning with a lecture by Her Royal Majesty Queen Mother Dr. Dowti Desir, who will discuss the intersections of spirituality and cultural traditions in Haiti, the Benin Republic, and New Orleans.
Guests will engage in a light body movement rooted in the warrior dance practice of the Agoojee, an all-female army of the Dahomey Kingdom, formerly the Benin Republic, which symbolizes strength and resilience.
Closing with a conversation with Her Royal Majesty Queen Mother Dr. Dowti Desir, moderated by Creative Assembly artist Caleb Dowden.
Discussion of the vital roles women of African descent have carried in the spiritual and cultural traditions of New Orleans, reinforcing the interconnectedness of these rich histories and highlighting the ongoing influence of the leadership of women in contemporary society.
This event is part of the series “Nana Benz: Reimagining the Black Feminist Future,” which seeks to deepen the understanding of Black women’s contributions and the cultural legacies they continue to uphold.
Included with museum admission, which is free for Louisiana residents every Wednesday courtesy of The Helis Foundation’s Art for All initiative.
About Creative Assembly Artist Caleb Dowden
Caleb Dowden is a choreographer and researcher from New Orleans, Louisiana. In 2021, she graduated from the State University of New York at Purchase with her BFA in dance. As a 2021 recipient of a Fulbright Independent research award from the U.S. Department of State and a Fulbright Hay’s fellowship with SUNY Purchase , Caleb’s choreographic work and research has been supported locally and internationally by the French Alliance of New Orleans, Le Centre ( Benin Republic), Borna Soglo gallery ( Benin Republic), University of New Orleans, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, International Dance Festival of New Orleans, The New Ohio Theatre , and the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography at Florida State University. As the Director of Dow-Dance Company, Caleb Dowden produces choreographic work at the intersection of African history and culture with a unique vision of (re)connecting the African Diaspora with the African continent.
About Her Royal Majesty Queen Mother Dr. Dòwòti Désir
Her Royal Majesty Queen Mother Dr. Dòwòti Désir, Sêmévo 1st of the Royal Palace of the African Diaspora, has been a prominent figure since her enthronement in 2022 as Queen Mother of the African Diaspora in the Benin Republic. Born in Haiti, she is the first Haitian to hold this title on the African continent and is recognized for her dedication to African spirituality, repatriation, and dual citizenship for members of the African Diaspora. An accomplished scholar with degrees from Barnard College, Bard College, and The New Seminary, her work includes founding the Imperial Corps Agoodjié, advocating for children’s rights, and engaging in various international initiatives. Dr. Désir has participated in notable events such as the Festival of the Diaspora in Colombia and has collaborated with organizations to foster connections between Africa and its Diaspora. As an educator at Dutchess Community College, she empowers youth through the Imperial Corps Agoodjié and its Youth Warriors program. Her commitment to reconnecting the African Diaspora with their ancestral roots and addressing critical issues has made her a recognized thought leader on a global scale.

Gallery Talk: New African Masquerades: Artistic Innovations and Collaborations
2025-05-14 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 for a gallery talk on works in the exhibition New African Masquerades: Artistic Innovations and Collaborations.
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.

Producer's Choice: The Talented Mr. Ripley and Conversation with Jude Law and Producer Meryl Poster
2025-05-21 18:00 - 21:00 | NOMA’s Lapis Center for the Arts
Films build community through shared experiences.
NOMA presents a series of films—selected by award-winning producer and filmmaker Meryl Poster—followed by insightful special guests. Don’t miss your chance to revisit or discover modern classics on the big screen and gain behind-the-scenes insight into the film industry from leading figures.
Discussions will draw connections to art more broadly and celebrate cinema as an essential art form.
NOMA will screen The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) for this program, followed by a conversation with actor Jude Law and Poster. Doors open at 5:30 pm, and the film screening starts at 6:00 pm.
Tickets are $10 for NOMA members and $15 for general admission.
Sold Out
View all events in the Producer’s Choice Film Series
Ticket Waitlist Policy
If tickets are sold out for a screening, there will be a first come, first served policy to fill any unoccupied seats:

At 5:30 pm, the waitlist will open at the Front Desk.
At 6:15 pm, we will count the number of vacant seats and begin to fill them with waitlisted individuals, who will be invited to purchase a ticket and be seated.
NOTE: There are no additional tickets available at the door. Waitlisted individuals will only be able to claim seats left open by no-show attendants. We cannot guarantee that individuals on the waitlist will be able to sit together.
The museum is open until 7:00 pm on Wednesday evenings. While waiting, waitlisted individuals are welcome to view NOMA exhibitions.

About the Film
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999, 2h 19m)
A social-climbing psychopath insinuates himself into a wealthy man’s life. Chilling.
About Meryl Poster
Meryl Poster is an award-winning producer and filmmaker. Starting as the second ever female trainee in the William Morris Agency mailroom, she has since led and developed a slate of groundbreaking, critically acclaimed films, including the Oscar-winning Chicago, Chocolat, Cider House Rules, Cop Land, Beautiful Girls, Bounce, Kate and Leopold, and An Unfinished Life.

Producer's Choice: Cinema Paradiso and Conversation with Producer Meryl Poster
2025-05-28 18:30 - 22:00 | NOMA’s Lapis Center for the Arts
Films build community through shared experiences.
NOMA presents a series of films—selected by award-winning producer and filmmaker Meryl Poster—followed by insightful special guests. Don’t miss your chance to revisit or discover modern classics on the big screen and gain behind-the-scenes insight into the film industry from leading figures.
Discussions will draw connections to art more broadly and celebrate cinema as an essential art form.
NOMA will screen Cinema Paradiso (1989) for this program, starting with a conversation with Poster. Doors open at 6:30 pm, the talk begins at 7:00 pm, and the film screening starts at around 7:45 pm.
Due to pending weather conditions, this program will now take place in NOMA’s Lapis Center for the Arts.
Seating location is on a first-come, first-served basis. Popcorn, bites, beverages, and special cocktails by Café NOMA are available for purchase. No outside food or drinks are permitted.
Tickets are $10 for NOMA members and $15 for general admission.
Note on Ticket Availability
Due to pending weather conditions and indoor capacity limitations, tickets for this program are no longer available for purchase online.
View all events in the Producer’s Choice Film Series

About the Film
Cinema Paradiso (1989, 2h 35m)
A prominent movie director returns to his Sicilian home village for the first time in many years to attend the funeral of the town’s former film projectionist, who served as the filmmaker’s mentor when he was a young boy.
About Meryl Poster
Meryl Poster is an award-winning producer and filmmaker. Starting as the second ever female trainee in the William Morris Agency mailroom, she has since led and developed a slate of groundbreaking, critically acclaimed films, including the Oscar-winning Chicago, Chocolat, Cider House Rules, Cop Land, Beautiful Girls, Bounce, Kate and Leopold, and An Unfinished Life.

Spring Festival: New African Masquerades
2025-05-31 10:00 - 16:00 | Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans , LA, 70124
Celebrate the special exhibition New African Masquerades: Artistic Innovations and Collaborations at NOMA’s Spring Festival, a day of activities for all ages.
This year’s Spring Festival will take place on Saturday, May 31st, from 10 am to 4 pm.
$5 for Members
$10 for General Admission
Free admission for people ages 19 and under
Register Now
Please note: the New Orleans Museum of Art will be CLOSED after Spring Festival ends at 4 pm on Saturday, May 31st. There will be no public admission to the museum after 4 pm this day.

Event Details
Live Music from Local Acts Young Guardians of the Flame and ÌFÉ
Listen and dance along to live performances by the Young Guardians of the Flame at 10:30 am and electronic music artist ÌFÉ at 2:45 pm.
Guided Tours of New African Masquerades, Afropolitan, and More
Explore all three floors of the museum with guided tours of our New African Masquerades and Afropolitan exhibits, as well as our permanent African Art collection on the 3rd floor. Enjoy docent-guided tours of the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden throughout the day. Tours are all ages, with youth- and teen- focused tours scheduled throughout the day, as well.
New African Masquerades-inspired Arts and Activities
Enjoy art-making activities and demonstrations inspired by New African Masquerades.
Conservator-Led Workshop on Document and Photo Preservation
Join NOMA’s Conservator of Photographs and Works of Art on Paper, Nayla Maaruf, for an invaluable workshop titled “Preserving Family History: Disaster Prep at Home for Family Photos and Documents.”
Connect with Our Community
Meet and mingle with a variety of community partners, learn about their programs and projects, and get creative.
Enjoy Food and Drinks All Day
Enjoy food from local vendors, including Tanjariné and Café NOMA. Food will be available for purchase throughout the event.

About New African Masquerades: Artistic Innovations and Collaborations
New African Masquerades: Artistic Innovations and Collaborations spotlights the work of four contemporary artists working in cities across West Africa: Chief Ekpenyong Bassey Nsa, Sheku “Goldenfinger” Fofanah, David Sanou, and Hervé Youmbi. Read more.
About ÌFÉ
New Orleans-based African American producer and percussionist ÌFÉ blends elements of Afro-Cuban folklore and Yoruban religious music with the sounds of modern day Jamaican Dancehall, Trap and AfroBeats. The single most important electronic act in Afro-Caribbean music today, ÌFÉ’s long awaited sophomore album 0000+0000 was released to worldwide critical acclaim in November of 2021. His new album is scheduled for release in the Spring of 2025.

Gallery Talks Every Wednesday
2025-06-04 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.
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.

Women in Masquerade Panel Discussion: Women Cultivating Legacy
2025-06-04 17:00 - 19:00 | New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA, 70119
In Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, the Ivory Coast, and New Orleans, women in masquerade carry the power and culture of the women before them, ensuring their histories live on in future generations. Through performances involving elaborate ornamentation, women create and use ornate suits to commemorate, uphold, and progress the role of women in cultural traditions on the continent of Africa and throughout the diaspora.
This program, presented in connection with the exhibition New African Masquerades: Artistic Innovations and Collaborations, offers a fresh perspective on how women’s power and presence span the scope from silent architects shaping practice to influential leaders in cultural expression. Cherice Harrison-Nelson and Tribal Queen Bee will be joined by moderator Kristiana Rae Colón for this important conversation on the legacy of women across global masquerade arts.
Admission and registration for this event are free.
Register Now
NOTE: Registration guarantees you a seat until the beginning of the program. Standing room will be allowed.

Bios
Cherice Harrison-Nelson is an educator, artist, and arts administrator who co-founded and curated the former Mardi Gras Indian Hall of Fame. She is the co-editor of eleven publications and coordinator of numerous exhibitions and discussions focused on West African-inspired cultural traditions in New Orleans. She contributed to original, hand-beaded Carnival Day ceremonial attire, worn by her son and later acquired by the Smithsonian Institution, Anacostia Museum in Washington, DC. Production credits include the award-winning narrative short film, “Keeper of the Flame.” She is the recipient of several honors, including: Fulbright Scholarship to study at the University of Saint-Louis in Senegal and the University of Ghana at Accra, Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Teacher of the Year, Mayor’s Arts Award, and 2016 United States Artist Fellowship. She approaches her art with the specific intent to engage observers through performance that simultaneously explores femininity, classism, and confining norms. She uses imagery from her family history, ancestral homeland, and personal experiences. To quote, “I am not masking when I debut my ceremonial attire on Carnival morning, I am revealing my authentic self, naked and rooted in the strength of my personal history. I cannot mask as myself.” She has a solo exhibition, Maroon Queen, on view through August 31, 2025, at the New Orleans African American Museum in the Historic Treme neighborhood.

Tribal Queen Bee was born Littdell S. Banister in New Orleans, Louisiana, on October 5, 1934. She is the Tribal Queen of the Creole Wild West Tribe (hailing from Uptown New Orleans) and is the Senior actively masking Queen in the New Orleans Mardi Gras Indian tradition. Tribal Queen Bee is 90 years old and started masking in 1973. After starting her six-year-old son, Honey, on the Indian path, Tribal Queen Bee joined the Creole Wild West tribe, where her son is now Flag Boy of the Tribe. Due to his young age, Queen Bee chaperoned Honey for three years as he traveled throughout the Black Masking Indian terrains. The Tribe’s Big Chief invited her to join the group because she was committed to the practice and consistently present in the culture’s circles, and thus began her journey as a Mardi Gras Indian. She later ascended to the position of Tribal Queen, which, as she explains…”It’s different from a Big Queen. A Big Queen is the Chief’s Queen and must always be next to the Chief. A Tribal Queen is over the entire Tribe.” Tribal Queen Bee and her son Flag Boy Honey have been masking for over fifty years.

Kristiana Rae Colón is a poet, playwright, actor, educator, producer, curator, creator of #BlackSexMatters, co-founder of the #LetUsBreathe Collective, and Writer/Producer on Showtime’s hit series The Chi. Her plays have been produced in London, New York, Chicago, and the USA. Kristiana’s collection of poems titled “promised instruments” won the inaugural Drinking Gourd Poetry Prize and was published by Northwestern University Press. Her play Tilikum won a Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Play. Published plays include “Octagon” and “but i cd only whisper”. She appeared on the fifth season of the Home Box Office (HBO) Def Poetry Jam. Kristiana writes, produces, and organizes to cast spells for the embodiment of liberated futures.

Producer's Choice: The Wings of the Dove and Conversation with Susan Taylor and Producer Meryl Poster
2025-06-04 18:00 - 21:00 | NOMA’s Lapis Center for the Arts
Films build community through shared experiences.
NOMA presents a series of films—selected by award-winning producer and filmmaker Meryl Poster—followed by insightful special guests. Don’t miss your chance to revisit or discover modern classics on the big screen and gain behind-the-scenes insight into the film industry from leading figures.
Discussions will draw connections to art more broadly and celebrate cinema as an essential art form.
NOMA will screen The Wings of the Dove (1997) for this program, followed by a conversation with Susan Taylor, the Montine McDaniel Freeman Director of NOMA, and Poster. Doors open at 5:30 pm, and the film screening starts at 6:00 pm.
Tickets are $10 for NOMA members and $15 for general admission.
Purchase Tickets
View all events in the Producer’s Choice Film Series
Ticket Waitlist Policy
If tickets are sold out for a screening, there will be a first come, first served policy to fill any unoccupied seats:

At 5:30 pm, the waitlist will open at the Front Desk.
At 6:15 pm, we will count the number of vacant seats and begin to fill them with waitlisted individuals, who will be invited to purchase a ticket and be seated.
NOTE: There are no additional tickets available at the door. Waitlisted individuals will only be able to claim seats left open by no-show attendants. We cannot guarantee that individuals on the waitlist will be able to sit together.
The museum is open until 7:00 pm on Wednesday evenings. While waiting, waitlisted individuals are welcome to view NOMA exhibitions.

About the Film
The Wings of the Dove (1997, 1h 42m)
A scheming woman exploits a friendship with a dying heiress to attain her goals in this handsome adaptation of Henry James’s novel.
About Meryl Poster
Meryl Poster is an award-winning producer and filmmaker. Starting as the second ever female trainee in the William Morris Agency mailroom, she has since led and developed a slate of groundbreaking, critically acclaimed films, including the Oscar-winning Chicago, Chocolat, Cider House Rules, Cop Land, Beautiful Girls, Bounce, Kate and Leopold, and An Unfinished Life.

Gallery Talk with Erika Witt
2025-06-11 12:30 - 13:00, 2025-06-11 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 Erika Witt, Director and Chief Curator of Southern University at New Orleans Museum of Art, for a gallery talk on works in the exhibition New African Masquerades: Artistic Innovations and Collaborations.
Witt 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 Erika Witt
Erika Witt is the Director and Chief Curator of the Southern University at New Orleans Museum of Art (SUNOMA) and serves as an adjunct professor in SUNO’s Master of Arts in Museum Studies program. She specializes in traditional African art and Egyptology, with a focus on preserving and interpreting African material culture within museums and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Erika’s work emphasizes the importance of accessibility, representation, and cultural continuity across academic and museum settings. Her mission is to make museums and global heritage inclusive and accessible—particularly for communities historically excluded from institutional narratives. Through exhibitions, public programming, and academic engagement, her curatorial practice foregrounds representation, cultural stewardship, and diasporic storytelling.

Producer's Choice: Chocolat and Conversation with Robert Nelson Jacobs and Producer Meryl Poster
2025-06-11 18:00 - 21:00 | NOMA’s Lapis Center for the Arts
Films build community through shared experiences.
NOMA presents a series of films—selected by award-winning producer and filmmaker Meryl Poster—followed by insightful special guests. Don’t miss your chance to revisit or discover modern classics on the big screen and gain behind-the-scenes insight into the film industry from leading figures.
Discussions will draw connections to art more broadly and celebrate cinema as an essential art form.
NOMA will screen Chocolat (2000) for this program, followed by a conversation with screenwriter Robert Nelson Jacobs and Poster. Doors open at 5:30 pm, and the film screening starts at 6:00 pm.
Tickets are $10 for NOMA members and $15 for general admission.
Purchase Tickets
View all events in the Producer’s Choice Film Series
Ticket Waitlist Policy
If tickets are sold out for a screening, there will be a first come, first served policy to fill any unoccupied seats:

At 5:30 pm, the waitlist will open at the Front Desk.
At 6:15 pm, we will count the number of vacant seats and begin to fill them with waitlisted individuals, who will be invited to purchase a ticket and be seated.
NOTE: There are no additional tickets available at the door. Waitlisted individuals will only be able to claim seats left open by no-show attendants. We cannot guarantee that individuals on the waitlist will be able to sit together.
The museum is open until 7:00 pm on Wednesday evenings. While waiting, waitlisted individuals are welcome to view NOMA exhibitions.

About the Film
Chocolat (2000, 2h 1m)
A mysterious woman opens a sweets shop in a 1950s French village and immediately causes a romantic and societal stir among the uptight townsfolk.
About Meryl Poster
Meryl Poster is an award-winning producer and filmmaker. Starting as the second ever female trainee in the William Morris Agency mailroom, she has since led and developed a slate of groundbreaking, critically acclaimed films, including the Oscar-winning Chicago, Chocolat, Cider House Rules, Cop Land, Beautiful Girls, Bounce, Kate and Leopold, and An Unfinished Life.

Musical Encounters
2025-06-25 18:00 - 18:30 | New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA, 70119
On select Wednesdays, NOMA presents a new series of gallery talks featuring conversations with musicians about their creative processes, followed by a short, intimate performance inspired by a work on view at the museum. This iteration of Musical Encounters will feature music by Sam Dickey.
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.

Kolaj Fest at NOMA
2025-06-26 10:15 - 17:00 | New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA, 70119
Kolaj Fest New Orleans—a multi-day festival and symposium about contemporary collage and its role in art, culture, and society—heads to the museum for a day full of conversations, tours, and more.
The event brings together collage artists and art professionals to elevate the status of collage through panel discussions, exhibitions, and activities. Attendees will meet, network, and share community, camaraderie, and fellowship, all while developing new ideas for artmaking, writing, and curatorial projects.
Get inspired to champion collage in the year to come.
LEARN MORE ABOUT KOLAJ FEST
This event is free with museum admission. Museum visitors are invited to join in on the day’s programs.

Schedule
Daily Collage Congress: Welcome to Kolaj Fest
Lapis Center for the Arts
10:15 am
Hear from a number of artists about projects and exhibitions taking place during the festival. Andrea Lewicki from the Special Agent Collage Collective will introduce the Locative Collage Project taking place during the festival. Nikola Janevski will present their collaboration with Andrea Burgay that looks to bring collage into the fashion world.
Sacred Mother Space Gallery Walk with Creative Assembly member LaVonna Varnado-Brown
First Floor, Ella West Freeman Galleries
11:15 am – 12:15 pm
LaVonna Varnado-Brown will lead a gallery walk of the museum that “honors the Divine Mothers through visual spellcasting. The tour will include some works in the New African Masquerades exhibition as well as works in the Afropolitan: Contemporary African Arts at NOMA exhibition. Varnado-Brown is a 2024-2025 Creative Assembly artist-in-residence. “NOMA’s Creative Assembly residency promotes community engagement by welcoming artists to collaborate throughout the year with the museum’s permanent collection, special exhibitions, and programs.” During the Sacred Mother Space Gallery Walk, Varnado-Brown will share her experience as a resident artist.
Preserving Family History workshop with Nayla Maaruf
Second Floor, Frederick R. Weisman Galleries
11:30 am –12:15 pm
Nayla Maaruf, NOMA’s Conservator of Photographs and Works of Art on Paper, will share her knowledge on disaster preparation at home for family photos and documents, which also applies to artists with a paper-based practice. Maaruf will also entertain questions from artists who have material concerns about their artwork.
Victorian Scrapbook House for Paper Dolls with Beverly Gordon
Lapis Center for the Arts
1:00 pm –1:30 pm
During her thirty-year career in academia, Englewood, Florida artist, writer, and educator Beverly Gordon focused a global lens on art identified as domestic and “women’s work”. In this session, Gordon will present on collages found in late Victorian scrapbook houses. She writes: “These were collage book albums, ostensibly made as paper doll houses, which featured double-page spreads representing different rooms in a house. The cover of a given album served as the front door, the next pages represented the front hall, and so on into the inner rooms of the home and garden. The furnishings of the rooms consisted of images cut out from trade catalogs, newspapers and other visual material, which was ubiquitous in the late 19th century. Scrapbook houses are related to Victorian photocollage, but the genre stands alone as a particularized tradition.”
Gallery Tour of Nicolas Floc’h: Fleuves-Océan, Mississippi Watershed with Curator Brian Piper
Second Floor, Zita and Luther Templemann Galleries
1:oo pm
Brian Piper, Freeman Family Curator of Photographs, Prints, and Drawings, will lead a gallery tour of the exhibition Nicolas Floc’h: Fleuves-Océan, Mississippi Watershed. French artist Nicolas Floc’h’s Fleuves-Océan project traces the movement of water across our planet, exploring its flow through varied habitats and representing the ways we are all connected by water cycles and systems. On display are vibrant monochromatic photographs of the color of water made under the surface paired with dramatic black-and-white landscape photographs made along the banks of the Mississippi and its tributaries—from Louisiana and across the country. Floc’h documented the entire span of the Mississippi during a 2022 Villa Albertine artist residency in the United States in collaboration with the Camargo Foundation and Artconnexion. This exhibition, organized by the New Orleans Museum of Art, illustrates the importance of a network of water that links people across the entire continent. Floc’h’s photography translates important scientific concerns—such as climate change and the looming water crisis—into an overwhelming aesthetic experience, without sacrificing any urgency or insistence.
Learn more about the exhibition here.
Symbols on a Cave Wall: Storytelling & Collage with Andrea Lewicki, Carolyn E. Oliver, Jordan Cerminara, Kirk Read, and Erica Trabold
Lapis Center for the Arts
1:45 pm – 2:45 pm
Storytelling is a fundamental part of the human experience. Every culture does it, sometimes in wildly different ways. From painted symbols on a cave wall to role playing video games, people are telling stories but also sharing vital information, conveying ethics and morality, or building a cosmology that explains the world in which we live. In this panel, we will hear from artists whose practice is deeply involved with storytelling and collage.
Docent guided Tour of New African Masquerades: Artistic Innovations and Collaborations
First Floor, Ella West Freeman Galleries
2:00 pm
New African Masquerades: Artistic Innovations and Collaborations is a major exhibition presenting the works of four contemporary artists working in cities across West Africa: Chief Ekpenyong Bassey Nsa, Sheku “Goldenfinger” Fofanah, David Sanou, and Hervé Youmbi. Learn more about the exhibition here.
For collage artists and enthusiasts, New African Masquerades is an opportunity to see artwork by contemporary African artists whose practice is rooted in ancestral traditions, embedded in communities, performed live for people in performances, processions, and other ceremonies. “Looking at these artworks through the lens of collage, we can see how the artists are creating a bridge between the past and the present, mixing contemporary media with a traditional visual language, and creating dynamic experiences for the viewers they encounter. What does it mean to think of art objects as living entities?” said Kolaj Institute Director Ric Kasini Kadour. “The exhibition also invites us to reflect on how we think about historical and contemporary art from Africa and how these objects make their way into European and North American institutions.”
Where are we?: Collage Artists & a Sense of Place
Lapis Center for the Arts
3:00 pm – 4:00 pm
In Lure of the Local, Lucy Lippart wrote, “When we know where we are, we’re in a far better position to understand what other cultural groups are experiencing within a time and place we all share.” Where are we? Modern life is fundamentally diasporic in nature. Understanding place is critical to survival and resilience in the 21st century where hostile factors of climate change, late-stage capitalism, and rising authoritarianism threaten community cohesion already stressed by Modernity.
Each of the four artists in the New African Masquerades exhibition contribute to a sense of place in their communities. They draw on traditions, folklore, and religious practices. They use symbols and imagery familiar to their communities. Their performances bring people together and offer the opportunity to connect with ancestral traditions and create shared memories for the future. All of these things foster a sense of place. And each of these artists operate from the now, putting that sense of place in conversation with the Modern lives in which their communities exist.
In this session, we will hear from four artists whose work also speaks to a sense of place.

About Kolaj Institute
Kolaj Institute is a 501c3 Louisiana-based, non-profit organization whose mission is to support artists, curators, and writers who seek to study, document, & disseminate ideas that deepen our understanding of collage as a medium, a genre, a community, and a 21st century movement. The institute also publishes Kolaj Magazine, a quarterly, printed, art magazine reviewing and surveying contemporary collage with an international perspective.

Public Tours in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden Every Sunday
2025-06-28 10:30 | 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 | 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.
