New Orleans Museum of Art

Public Tours in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden Every Sunday
2026-04-19 10:30, 2026-04-26 10:30, 2026-05-03 10:30, 2026-05-10 10:30 (America/Chicago) | 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.

Tai Chi in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden Every Monday
2026-04-20 18:00 - 19:00, 2026-04-27 18:00 - 19:00, 2026-05-04 18:00 - 19:00, 2026-05-11 18:00 - 19:00 | Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans , LA, 70124
Experience wellness at NOMA with beginner-friendly, outdoor tai chi classes in the serene Besthoff Sculpture Garden. The first 30 minutes of class focus on simple celestial elemental Qigong forms, a gentle and accessible style of movement suitable for anyone. The second part of class explores progressive sequential movements from the “Tai Chi Easy” form developed by Roger Jahnke, O.M.D., director of Integral Institute of Tai Chi and Qigong Center.
In many martial, exercise, healing, and meditative traditions, attainment is the central aim. Our invitation is something different: to release, through the spirit of play, any obstruction that separates us from well being and harmony.
Class is $5 for members and $10 for the general public. Tai chi participants meet at the garden entrance on the corner of Collins Diboll Circle and Enrique Alferez Drive, across the street from Café NOMA. Please bring a digital or printed version of your ticket to class. Walk-ins are welcome and can pay with cash. If you are a member paying in cash, please also bring your membership card or member number.
REGISTER NOW
For Monday classes: register online by 3pm the day of class.
For Wednesday classes: register online by 3pm on the Tuesday before class.
These classes are outside and will be canceled for severe weather. Registrants will be notified of cancellation via email by 5 pm the day before class. Call 504.658.4128 or email education@noma.org with any questions.

Tai Chi in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden Every Wednesday
2026-04-22 09:00 - 10:00, 2026-04-29 09:00 - 10:00, 2026-05-06 09:00 - 10:00, 2026-05-13 09:00 - 10:00 | Louisiana

Gallery Talks Every Wednesday
2026-04-22 12:30 - 13:00, 2026-04-22 18:00 - 18:30, 2026-04-29 12:30 - 13:00, 2026-04-29 18:00 - 18:30, 2026-05-06 12:30 - 13:00, 2026-05-06 18:00 - 18:30 | New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA, 70119
Join us for weekly gallery talks every Wednesday at NOMA, featuring curators, artists, and other special guests. Talks take place at 12:30 pm & 6 pm and last 15-30 minutes. Talks in the Sculpture Garden are only offered at 12:30 pm. When you arrive at NOMA, check in at the front desk for directions to the appropriate gallery.
Free with museum admission. Louisiana residents receive free admission to NOMA every Wednesday, courtesy of The Helis Foundation’s Art for All initiative.

Gallery Talk: Earth Day 2026 in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden
2026-04-22 12:30 - 13:00 | New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA, 70119
Join us for weekly gallery talks every Wednesday at NOMA, featuring curators, artists, and other special guests. This week, join us in the Sydney and Walsa Besthoff Sculpture Garden at NOMA for a special gallery talk inspired by Earth Day 2026. In this talk, visitors will learn more about the abundance of seasonal plant life in the sculpture garden while gaining fresh insights into works on view. More information about guest speakers will be announced soon. Please check this page for updates.
This gallery talk will be held at 12:30 pm in the sculpture garden.
This talk is included with admission to the Besthoff Sculpture Garden, which is free for all visitors.

Yoga in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden Every Wednesday
2026-04-22 17:00 - 18:00, 2026-04-29 17:00 - 18:00, 2026-05-06 17:00 - 18:00, 2026-05-13 17:00 - 18:00 | Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans , LA, 70124
Experience wellness at NOMA with beginner-friendly, outdoor yoga classes in the serene Besthoff Sculpture Garden. Classes take place every Saturday morning and (beginning in late February 2026) every Wednesday evening. The instructor for this class is Donna Roubal.
Class is $5 for members and $10 for the general public. Enter at the main entrance gate to the Sculpture Garden on Dueling Oaks Drive. Please bring your own mat and a digital or printed version of your ticket to class. Walk-ins are welcome and can pay with cash. If you are a member paying in cash, please bring your membership card or member number.
REGISTER NOW
For Saturday Classes: register online by 3 pm the Friday before class.
For Wednesday Classes: register online by 3 pm the Tuesday before class.
These classes are outside and will be canceled for severe weather. Registrants will be notified of cancellation via email by 5 pm the day before class. Call 504.658.4128 or email education@noma.org with any questions.

About the Instructor
Donna Roubal is a dynamic multidisciplined instructor of many genres of fitness including yoga, mat pilates, reformer pilates, yogalates, personal training, zumba, bodypump, cycle, rpm, aerobics, step aerobics, kickboxing, as well as aquatics and numerous avenues of fitness through multiple sports. Roubal enjoys teaching a combination of Vinyasa flow and Hatha yoga. She loves finding the freedom of movement that yoga provides for the ultimate mind/body experience.

Yoga in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden Every Saturday
2026-05-02 08:00 - 09:00 | Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans , LA, 70124
Experience wellness at NOMA with beginner friendly, outdoor yoga classes in the serene Besthoff Sculpture Garden. Classes take place every Saturday morning and (beginning in late February 2026) every Wednesday evening. The instructor for this class is Sara Lyon.
Class is $5 for members and $10 for the general public. Enter at the main entrance gate to the Sculpture Garden on Dueling Oaks Drive. Please bring your own mat and a digital or printed version of your ticket to class. Walk-ins are welcome and can pay with cash. If you are a member paying in cash, please bring your membership card or member number.
REGISTER NOW
For Saturday Classes: register online by 3pm the Friday before class.
For Wednesday Classes: register online by 3pm the Tuesday before class.
These classes are outside and will be canceled for severe weather. Registrants will be notified of cancellation via email by 5 pm the day before class. Call 504.658.4128 or email education@noma.org with any questions.

About the Instructor
Sara Lyon, LPC-S RYT ‘03, teaches an eclectic “slow flow” integrating dynamics in breath work, mindfulness, balance, strength and flexibility. Lyon pulls from various teaching styles to create predictable sequencing that allows for attunement; practicing discomfort with alignment and breath for increased capacity.

Teen Book Club 2026
2026-05-08 13:00 - 14:00 | New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA, 70119
NOMA’s Teen Book Club is a summer reading and discussion group for teens ages 13-18, designed to build literary engagement and connect young people to the museum through storytelling, culture, and community.
Teen Book Club runs from May through August, with book selections from May through July relating to art and teen interests. In August, just in time for back to school season, our Teen Book Club selection will be a book that is included on the Louisiana English Language Arts required reading list.
Teen Book Club meetings will take place on Fridays from 1-2 pm. Participants can join in person in the Art Studio located on NOMA’s second floor, or via Zoom.
This program is free for all participants. You must be between the ages of 13 and 18 to participate. Participants must bring their own copy of each month’s book.
Register for May 8’s Discussion
Register for June 12’s Discussion
Register for July 24’s Discussion
Register for August 7’s Discussion

Reading Selections and Meeting Dates
Friday, May 8: Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon
A quick, inspiring read that helps creators navigate the fine line between inspiration and imitation.
June 12th: Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender
An empowering contemporary young adult romance about identity exploration, unexpected connections, and recognizing the love you deserve.
July 24th: Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older
The first in the Shadowshaper Cypher series, a 2015 American young adult urban fantasy novel that follows Sierra Santiago, a Brooklyn graffiti artist who discovers her family uses art as a form of ancestral magic.
August 7th: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Just in time for back-to-school, this month’s book comes from the Louisiana English Language Arts required reading list. An 1890 philosophical fiction and Gothic horror novel about a handsome young man who becomes obsessed with his own beauty.

Yoga in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden Every Saturday
2026-05-09 08:00 - 09:00 | Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans , LA, 70124
Experience wellness at NOMA with beginner friendly, outdoor yoga classes in the serene Besthoff Sculpture Garden. Classes take place every Saturday morning and (beginning in late February 2026) every Wednesday evening.
Class is $5 for members and $10 for the general public. Enter at the main entrance gate to the Sculpture Garden on Dueling Oaks Drive. Please bring your own mat and a digital or printed version of your ticket to class. Walk-ins are welcome and can pay with cash. If you are a member paying in cash, please bring your membership card or member number.
REGISTER NOW
For Saturday Classes: register online by 3pm the Friday before class.
For Wednesday Classes: register online by 3pm the Tuesday before class.
These classes are outside and will be canceled for severe weather. Registrants will be notified of cancellation via email by 5 pm the day before class. Call 504.658.4128 or email education@noma.org with any questions.

The Embodied Magic of Nature Journaling: Illustrating, Observing, and Recording the World Around You
2026-05-10 10:00 - 13:00, 2026-05-17 10:00 - 13:00 | Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans , LA, 70124
Beau Romeo hosts a springtime journaling workshop series at NOMA. In this beginner-friendly course, participants will be guided in journaling with their preferred medium through each session’s focus—Observing, Illustrating, Inquiry, and Embodiment—letting their creativity support them in this exploration.
Through each session, participants will tune into the seasonal plant life of NOMA’s Besthoff Sculpture Garden. These exercises in curiosity, observation, and recording can be applied to one’s own home and the natural world around us in New Orleans and beyond.
This workshop series will be hosted on March 22, April 12, May 10, and May 17. Each date in this series is a unique, stand alone class, so you can attend just one or all four to build on your skills.
Workshop registration is $25 for NOMA members and $30 for General Admission (materials not included). Advance registration is required to receive relevant prep materials. In the case of inclement weather, sessions will be rescheduled.
Register for March 22’s Observation workshop
Register for April 12’s Illustration workshop
Register for May 10’s Inquiry workshop
Register for May 17’s Embodiment workshop
Materials for this workshop series are also available for purchase through the NOMA Museum Shop, where members receive a 10% discount on their purchases.
Purchase Materials

About the Sessions and Required Materials
Class 1 – Observation: Participants will orient themselves to the plants and landscape of the sculpture garden. There we will develop and explore the practice of having a sit spot. Tapping into our sensory awareness, we start to build the internal framework that guides how we choose to record the worlds around us. We will learn basic introductory botany so as to more deeply familiarize ourselves with what we are recording.
Class 2 – Illustration: Participants will develop a language of illustration and/or visual representation (watercoloring, markers, pencils, etc.) for their journals. They will learn the basics of drawing from life, botanical illustration, and more importantly be encouraged to find the path of least resistance in order to gain confidence in the pursuit. All skill levels encouraged and all mediums, demonstrations will be in watercolors.
Class 3 – Inquiry: Now that some participants have spent some time in the garden, we are seeing seasonal shifts take place. As new cycles of life emerge before us, we fine tune our natural curiosities into scientific inquiries of our garden observations. We build a practice of story telling to convey what we are seeing, feeling, observing over a period of time.
Class 4 – Embodiment: Drawing from the skills we’ve learned in previous classes, (and introducing them for our first time students) – we will incorporate our new practices. What is it to be embodied and present in a place, how do we use a journal to capture this? Participants will become cartographers as they make a map that is relevant to their journalistic practice throughout the series.
Material requirements:
Journaling should be affordable and accessible. If you already have a journal that’s been languishing in your closet for years or colored pencils getting dusty in the bottom of a drawer, by all means bring them to share with your fellow students for the duration of the class. Markers, materials for collage, whatever gets you excited. The only requirement is to bring a journal (or spare paper), pencil, and eraser. The NOMA Museum Shop will have supplies available for purchase with a discount for registered attendees.
Registrants will receive an email with suggested materials and where to purchase them as well as readings ahead of the class date. Each session in this four part Embodied Magic of Nature Journaling series can be a stand alone class, but participation in all four is encouraged to get the most out of this journaling practice and observe the change of the seasons. This is an outdoor class, so dress appropriately to spend the full class time outdoors.

About Beau Romeo

Beau Romeo is a botanical illustrator, naturalist, field botanist, and farmer living between New Orleans and Mississippi where they co-run Rotglow Research Farm and Nursery. They are passionate about the living world and want to inspire people of all ages to get out in it. They believe in demystifying and opening up scientific fields to be accessible to people of all skill levels and backgrounds. They can be found canoeing through the swamps to collect seeds for their nursery, organizing classes at Rotglow Farm, or drawing for the new edition of the Earthbound Farmers Almanac.
Instagram: @rotglowfarm
Email: rattlesnakeorchid@gmail.com

Book Club: Beyond Blue and White: The Hidden History of Delftware and the Women Behind the Iconic Ceramic by Genevieve Wheeler Brown
2026-05-14 12:00 - 13:00 | New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA, 70119
NOMA’s book club meets monthly to discuss fiction and non-fiction books related to art in the museum’s collection and exhibitions.
This month’s book club selection is Beyond Blue and White: The Hidden History of Delftware and the Women Behind the Iconic Ceramic, an absorbing work of cultural history by Genevieve Wheeler Brown that reveals the stories behind one of the world’s most coveted and beloved ceramic.
Register Now

About NOMA’s Book Club
NOMA’s book club is an informal group open to anyone on a month-to-month basis. You do not have to attend every meeting or read every book to participate. In addition to monthly book discussions, the book club meets periodically for curatorial programs related to the book selections.
Books are selected in advance and planned according to the museum’s exhibition schedule. Participants are expected to procure their own copy of the titles. Selections are also available at the NOMA Museum Shop, where museum members receive a 10% discount.
Meetings are held in person or via Zoom. All meetings begin at 12 pm. For more information or questions, please email programs@noma.org.

About the Book
Beyond Blue and White: The Hidden History of Delftware and the Women Behind the Iconic Ceramic
NPR Here and Now Editor’s Pick
When over seventy-five pieces of rare and intriguing 17th and 18th century Delftware are rediscovered in an historic Manhattan townhouse, decorative art advisor and writer Genevieve Wheeler Brown quickly recognizes that, together, these pieces tell an amazing story. What begins as a curatorial exercise quickly evolves not only into an exploration of this colorful, expressive, and sometimes even humorous decorative art, coveted for hundreds of years, but also an unexpected uncovering of forceful female lives yet untold.
Connecting the accounts of women across centuries, Beyond Blue and White allows us to craft a more complete picture of female experience through the lens of material culture. We meet female Delftware makers, including Barbara Rotteveel founder of “The Three Bells” Delftware factory in 1671. We are introduced to female Delftware patrons such as Queen Mary II, who found her means of expression while creating a vogue in the 17th century for Delft blue and white across royal courts. And then there are the female collectors beginning in the 19th century who saw the artistry and craft in these ceramics others had overlooked. Foremost among them was Mrs. J. Pierpont Morgan and Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt II who came together with fellow New York women and laid the groundwork for women in the museum world while preserving decorative arts with an educational mission.
With illustrations of period objects, documents, maps, paintings, prints and drawings, Beyond Blue and White is a colorful celebration of an iconic decorative art and dynamic women living in extraordinary times. Wheeler Brown’s rich narrative encourages us to see beyond the dazzling cobalt glaze of Delftware to consider that these vessels are also our connection to a history with a fascinating group of women at its center.
-description from Simon & Schuster
About the Author
As a decorative art advisor and writer with over thirty years in the art world, including a decade with Christie’s in New York and London, Genevieve Wheeler Brown has been actively involved in the community of Delftware. She has also participated on the Antiques Roadshow as an appraiser with an eye out for overlooked “treasure.” In her role, she has held innumerable objects, from fake Stradivari violins to gold-mounted Faberge eggs, considering their value but also the stories they can tell.

Yoga in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden Every Saturday
2026-05-16 08:00 - 09:00 | Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans , LA, 70124
Experience wellness at NOMA with beginner friendly, outdoor yoga classes in the serene Besthoff Sculpture Garden. Classes take place every Saturday morning and (beginning in late February 2026) every Wednesday evening. The instructor for this class is Claiborne Davis.
Class is $5 for members and $10 for the general public. Enter at the main entrance gate to the Sculpture Garden on Dueling Oaks Drive. Please bring your own mat and a digital or printed version of your ticket to class. Walk-ins are welcome and can pay with cash. If you are a member paying in cash, please bring your membership card or member number.
REGISTER NOW
For Saturday Classes: register online by 3pm the Friday before class.
For Wednesday Classes: register online by 3pm the Tuesday before class.
These classes are outside and will be canceled for severe weather. Registrants will be notified of cancellation via email by 5 pm the day before class. Call 504.658.4128 or email education@noma.org with any questions.

About the Instructor
Claiborne Davis wants to help you create and maintain a body that can withstand the test of time, so you can always feel fantastic, elastic, stronger, longer, tough, buff, agile but not fragile, more upright and less uptight. A NASM-Certified Personal Trainer, Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher (E-RYT 200) and Integrated Yoga Tune Up® Teacher (YTU-I), Claiborne also is a longtime tennis player, language-learner, corny joke-teller, traveller and a former television news producer.
Davis’s classes are all Levels, with options to increase or decrease challenge levels.
