Gallery Talk on Double Space: Women Photographers and Surrealism
2024-05-15 12:30, 2024-05-15 18:00 (America/Chicago)
Join us in the galleries each Wednesday for weekly talks with artists, curators, and other special guests. During these casual conversations, we’ll take a close look at different works currently on view at NOMA.
This week, Allison Westerfield, curator of Double Space: Women Photographers and Surrealism, will discuss the exhibition. This talk will be offered at 12:30 pm and 6:00 pm.

About Allison Westerfield
Allison Westerfield is a doctoral candidate at the University of Florida studying modern and contemporary art. Westerfield received her Bachelor of Arts in Arts Administration from the University of West Florida and a Master of Arts in Art History from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Her current research focuses on the intersection of tarot and occultism in the work of women surrealist artists, such as Leonora Carrington, Leonor Fini, and Remedios Varo. She is the recipient of several awards including the Rothman Doctoral Fellowship in the Humanities, American Association of University Women (AAUW) Gainesville Branch Grant, and the Charles T. Woods Grant. Outside of academia, she works as an independent curator. Recent exhibitions include mini golf of sensual sports photographs by McKinna Anderson at Florida Mining Gallery, Waiting Room at Laundromat Art Space in Miami, Ctrl [Alt] Self at Westobou Gallery in Augusta, GA. Most recently, she curated Double Space: Women Photographers and Surrealism at the New Orleans Museum of Art.

Book Club Discussion | Picasso's War: How Modern Art Came to America
2024-05-16 12:00 - 13:00 | New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA, 70119
The NOMA Book Club meets monthly to discuss fiction and non-fiction books related to art in NOMA’s collection and exhibitions. It is an informal group open to anyone on a month-to-month basis. In addition to monthly book discussions, the book club meets periodically for curatorial programs related to the book selections. You do not have to attend every meeting or read every book to join.
Book selections are inspired by the museum’s exhibition schedule. Participants are expected to procure their own copies. 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 information or questions about the NOMA Book Club, please email kmccurdy@noma.org.
Register Now

May 2024
Book Club Discussion | Thursday, May 16, 12 pm

Picasso’s War: How Modern Art Came to America by Hugh Eakin

In January 1939, Pablo Picasso was renowned in Europe but disdained by many in the United States. One year later, Americans across the country were clamoring to see his art. How did the controversial leader of the Paris avant-garde break through to the heart of American culture?
The answer begins a generation earlier, when a renegade Irish American lawyer named John Quinn set out to build the greatest collection of Picassos in existence. His dream of a museum to house them died with him, until it was rediscovered by Alfred H. Barr, Jr., a cultural visionary who, at the age of twenty-seven, became the director of New York’s new Museum of Modern Art.
Picasso’s War is the never-before-told story about how a single exhibition, a decade in the making, irrevocably changed American taste, and in doing so saved dozens of the twentieth century’s most enduring artworks from the Nazis. Through a deft combination of new scholarship and vivid storytelling, Hugh Eakin shows how two men and their obsession with Picasso changed the art world forever.

Education and outreach initiatives at NOMA are supported in part by the Zemurray Foundation; the Lois and Lloyd Hawkins Jr. Foundation; The Helis Foundation; The Gayle and Tom Benson Foundation; The City of New Orleans; IBERIABANK; The Wagner Foundation; Janice Parmelee and Bill Hammack; the Diversifying Art Museum Leadership Initiative, funded by the Walton Family Foundation and the Ford Foundation; Sara and David Kelso; Patrick F. Taylor Foundation; Dr. Scott S. Cowen; The RosaMary Foundation; The Azby Fund; the Louisiana Division of the Arts, Office of Cultural Development, Department of Culture, Recreation & Tourism, in cooperation with the Louisiana State Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, a Federal agency; The Collins C. Diboll Private Foundation; Burkenroad Foundation; Marian Dreux Van Horn Education Endowment; The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; Ruby K. Worner Trust through the PNC Charitable Trusts Grant Review Committee; The Harry T. Howard III Foundation; New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Foundation, Inc.; Harvey and Marie Orth; The Bruce J. Heim Foundation; and Mrs. Bennett A. Molter, Jr. This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Teen Night: Teens Take NOMA | Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined
2024-05-17 18:00 - 21:00
NOMA’s Teen Art Council takes over the museum to celebrate youth, creativity, and connection. Inspired by Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined, the event features opportunities to engage with the exhibition, relax with friends, and connect with creative teens from across the city!
Featuring:
Gallery talks on Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined led by NOMA’s TAC
Art-making & activities
Open mic & dance party
Capture the moment at TAC’s professional photo booth

Plus free food, stickers, and other giveaways while supplies last!
Additional snacks and beverages available for purchase.
Admission and programming are free for teens. Advanced registration is encouraged. Only adults affiliated with a teen attendee are permitted to attend.
Register Now

TEEN TAKEOVER HIGHLIGHTS

DJ Set by DJ Arie Spins
Lounge Set Great Hall 6:00 – 7:30 pm | Dance Party 8:30 – 9 pm
DJ Arie Spins, a New Orleans native and all-around music enthusiast, is setting the tone and making events pop for crowds across Louisiana and throughout the south. Her talents have caught the eye of corporate clients Essence Magazine, NCAA Final Four, and Coca-Cola. She’s had the pleasure of sharing the stage with R&B artists Sevyn Streeter, Kelly Price, and Ledisi, and most recently served as the opening act for P.J. Morton’s 2022 Watch The Sun Tour.
Gallery Talk: Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined
Explore the connections between Wangechi Mutu’s Afrofuturist work, social issues, and the environment. Tours are led by NOMA’s Teen Art Council and are available every half hour from 6:30 – 8 pm.
Art-Making Activity: Collages
First-Floor Galleries
Join us at the art-making table for crafts inspired by Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined. Put your imagination to work and get hands-on by collaging your own unique artwork.

Art-Making Activity: Terrariums by Crazy Plant Bae
Great Hall
Build your own world with a Crazy Plant Bae terrarium!
Crazy Plant Bae is the plant enthusiast in all of us! We are the lovers of all things green & the keepers of all things growing. Expand your passion for plants!
Book Nook & Swap
First Floor, McDermott International Elevator Lobby
Bring a book to swap, make a connection, and grab a giveaway while supplies last.
Food from Café NOMA and La Cocinita Food Truck

6–9 pm
First Floor
Come hungry; La Cocinita Food Truck will be serving tacos, quesadillas, and more! Your first two tacos are free while supplies last. Additional food can be purchased with cash, credit card, or ApplePay.

Teen Night is designed by NOMA’s Teen Art Council—by teens, for teens. Teen programs at NOMA are supported in part by The Bruce J. Heim Foundation. For more information about TAC, visit noma.org/teens or email education@noma.org.

Gallery Talk on Brindaban Pink by Lynda Benglis
2024-05-22 12:30, 2024-05-22 18:00
Join us in the galleries each Wednesday for weekly talks with artists, curators, and other special guests. During these casual conversations, we’ll take a close look at different works currently on view at NOMA.
This week, join Laura Moreno, NOMA Museum Educator for a conversation on Louisiana native Lynda Benglis’ Brindaban Pink from NOMA’s permanent collection. This talk is in connection with March’s NOMA Book Club reading pick Identity Unknown: Rediscovering Seven American Women Artists by Donna Seaman.
Free with museum admission. Louisiana residents receive free admission to NOMA on Wednesdays courtesy of The Helis Foundation. When you arrive at NOMA, check in at the front desk for directions to the appropriate gallery.

Mutu & Mimosas | Member Magic Hours for Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined
2024-05-25 09:00 - 10:00
Kick off the long weekend with a members-only look at Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined. Grab a mimosa and join a guided tour to learn more about Mutu’s work on view in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden and pavilion. Drinks and pastries are on us!
Not a Member?

NOMA members support our institutional mission to present meaningful arts experiences that inspire communities in New Orleans and beyond. Members receive free admission the museum all year long, invitations to special events, and discounted tickets to programs.
Join Today
About the Exhibition
This major solo exhibition of work by Wangechi Mutu brings together nearly one hundred sculptures, paintings, collages, drawings, and films to present the breadth of the Kenyan-American artists’ multidisciplinary practice from the mid-1990s to today. On view January 31–July 14, 2024, Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined traces connections between recent developments in Mutu’s sculptures and her decades-long exploration of the legacies of colonialism, globalization, and African and diasporic cultural traditions. The exhibition travels to NOMA from the New Museum, New York.
Learn More

Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined is organized by the New Museum, New York. Lead support for this exhibition is provided by the Henry Luce Foundation. Generous support for this exhibition is provided by the Ed Bradley Family Foundation, Agnes Gund, Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support is provided by The Robert Lehman Foundation. Support for the accompanying publication has been provided by the A4 Arts Foundation.
The presentation in New Orleans is sponsored by the Ford Foundation. Additional support is provided by Delta Airlines, Gladstone Gallery, Walda Besthoff, Victoria Miro Gallery, The Windsor Court, The Azby Fund, Keith Fox and Tom Keyes, Aimée Farnet Siegel and Mike Siegel, Robin Rankin, Elizabeth Boh, Pat Mitchell and Scott Seydel, Harvey and Marie Orth, and Jeff Childers and Onay Gutierrez.

Social Emotional Learning Workshop (Ages 6 and Up)
2024-05-26 10:00 - 12:00
Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is an educational framework to help foster social skills that develop and maintain healthy relationships with self and others. The SEL curriculum focuses on recognizing and managing emotions, setting positive goals, demonstrating caring and concern for self and others, and maintaining positive relationships. SEL at NOMA helps to connect these skills with the artists and artworks in the museum’s permanent collection or featured in special exhibitions. Designed for children ages 6 and up, NOMA’s SEL workshop includes an art-making activity, close looking at an object in the collection, storytime, and a movement-based activity. SEL workshops are led and produced in partnership with NOMA’s Teen Art Council (TAC), a cohort of creative high school students and youth leaders who serve as ambassadors for the museum.
Pre-registration encouraged. Free with museum admission.
Register Now

SEL WORKSHOP: Setting Boundaries and the Fang People’s Standing Reliquary Guardian Figures | Sunday, May 26, 10 AM–12PM | Mental Health Awareness Month
Join us for a Social Emotional Learning (SEL) workshop dedicated to setting boundaries for ourselves and respecting the boundaries of others. Including age-appropriate object lessons for the Fang people’s Standing Reliquary Guardian Figures, art-making activities, storytime, and a Tai Chi movement session with Terry Rappold. Tai Chi includes a series of gentle movements that create harmony between the mind and body.

About NOMA’s Teen Art Council
The Teen Art Council (TAC) is a cohort of creative high school students and youth leaders who serve as ambassadors for the museum. TAC members meet on a weekly basis throughout the school year to plan programming for teen and youth audiences, meet with museum staff, take part in creative experiences with artworks and artists, and more!

Art in the Afternoon (For Families)
2024-05-29 15:00 - 17:00
Families are invited to spend the afternoon at the museum learning about an object from NOMA’s permanent collection or a special exhibition, engaging in art-making activities, and enjoying a story with teaching artists. This program is designed for families with kids of all ages.
Free with museum admission. Louisiana residents receive free admission to NOMA on Wednesdays courtesy of The Helis Foundation.
Advanced registration is encouraged.
Register Now

ART IN THE AFTERNOON | WEDNESDAY, MAY 29, 3–5 PM
Sister of the Eastern Star by William T. Williams
Join us in the museum’s galleries to celebrate the colors and shapes of William T. Williams’s Sister of the Eastern Star. Look and listen to Color by Ruth Heller, a rhyming story about the wonderful world of color, and explore the elements of art by creating your own abstract color wheel.

Why & How We Say What We Say: French Pronunciation Class with Dianne Honoré
2024-06-01 13:00 - 15:00
“Why and how we say what we say.”
Komen yé di en Kréyòl Lalwizyann?
Calling all language-curious locals, tourism professionals, and Louisiana culture bearers!
Ever wonder why we say the things we say here in Louisiana and how we traditionally pronounce those words and phrases?
In collaboration with Alliance Française de la Nouvelle Orléans, Creative Assembly Cohort member Dianne Honoré hosts a Louisiana Creole and French pronunciation workshop. Participants will take part in fun, interactive ways to learn language history, why it’s important to the survival of traditions, and how to pronounce popular words, names, landmarks, and so much more.
This event is free with advanced registration.
Register Now

About the Instructors
Dianne Honoré
Growing up in her family’s Creole restaurant in Tremé laid the foundation for Dianne “Gumbo Marie” Honoré’s work as a historic interpreter, Creole culture activist, teaching artist, and event producer. She founded the Black Storyville Baby Dolls, the Amazons Benevolent Society, and Unheard Voices of Louisiana. She masks as Big Queen of the Yellow Pocahontas Hunters Tribe for which she creates one-of-a-kind suits from thousands of beads and feathers. She has organized numerous history-related music and food events, tours, and exhibits over several decades including the Roots of Creole Cooking tour for Culinary Backstreets, the Golden Crown exhibit and symposium at the New Orleans Jazz Museum celebrating the legacy of Big Chief Darryl Montana, and descendant heritage tours. In addition to appearances on the Harry Connick Jr. Show, Flip My Food, BET, and Good Morning America, she hosted a show focused on New Orleans history and current events. She owned an exhibit store called “Gumbo Marie” curating exhibits on Louisiana history. Annually, she produces Baking for Breast Cancer with her cancer focus group the Amazons Benevolent Society, raising funds for local cancer fighters.
Lawson Ota
Lawson Ota is the founder and owner of Tours by Marguerite, a tour company focused on the Creole culture of New Orleans and the pioneers in the development of this heritage during the 18th and 19th centuries. The company is named after Ota’s grandmother, Margaret “Marguerite” Williams. Margaret was a gifted storyteller and maintained, as many of her generation did, the rich oral tradition of West Africa continued by slaves and their descendants in the New World.
Ota is also a teacher of French as a foreign language. He holds an M.A. in linguistics, French, and German. He has devoted his career to the defense of the heritage languages of Louisiana (that is, Louisiana French and Louisiana Creole).
Joseph Dunn
For more than 25 years, Joseph Dunn’s in-depth knowledge of the varied cultures, languages, and heritages of Louisiana has afforded him work at the highest levels of the state’s cultural and tourism industries. Dunn was most recently appointed Honorary Consul of Canada in New Orleans. Prior to beginning his freelance work in 2014, Joseph was the Executive Director of the Council on the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL) from 2011 to 2014. He had previously worked at the Consulate General of France in Louisiana, the Office of the Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana, the Office of Cultural Development of Louisiana, the Louisiana Travel Promotion Association, Laura Plantation, and the Louisiana Office of Tourism. In recognition of his work, Dunn was knighted by the Republic of France as a Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Mérite in November of 2021 and was inducted into the Ordre des Francophones d’Amérique by Québec’s Ministry of the French Language in 2022.

Gallery Talk | Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined
2024-06-05 12:30
Expand your experience of Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined with monthly gallery talks inside the museum or in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden on select Wednesdays: January 31, February 7, March 6, April 3, May 1, June 5, and July 10.
This week, join Amanda Maples, NOMA’s Françoise Billion Richardson Curator of African Art, for a conversation about the exhibition Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined. This talk will be offered at 12:30 pm.
Gallery talks are free with museum admission, no registration is required. Louisiana residents receive free admission on Wednesdays courtesy of The Helis Foundation.
Register in Advance
About the Exhibition
This major solo exhibition of work by Wangechi Mutu brings together nearly one hundred sculptures, paintings, collages, drawings, and films to present the breadth of the Kenyan-American artists’ multidisciplinary practice from the mid-1990s to today. On view January 31–July 14, 2024, Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined traces connections between recent developments in Mutu’s sculptures and her decades-long exploration of the legacies of colonialism, globalization, and African and diasporic cultural traditions. The exhibition travels to NOMA from the New Museum, New York.
Learn More

Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined is organized by the New Museum, New York. Lead support for this exhibition is provided by the Henry Luce Foundation. Generous support for this exhibition is provided by the Ed Bradley Family Foundation, Agnes Gund, Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support is provided by The Robert Lehman Foundation. Support for the accompanying publication has been provided by the A4 Arts Foundation.
The presentation in New Orleans is sponsored by the Ford Foundation. Additional support is provided by Delta Airlines, Gladstone Gallery, Walda Besthoff, Victoria Miro Gallery, The Windsor Court, Keith Fox and Tom Keyes, Aimée Farnet Siegel and Mike Siegel, Robin Rankin, Elizabeth Boh, Pat Mitchell and Scott Seydel, Harvey and Marie Orth, and Jeff Childers and Onay Gutierrez

Historians Do Booze: Exploring Prohibition’s Impact with Elizabeth Pearce and Sally Asher
2024-06-05 17:30 - 20:00
In this program, food and drink historians Elizabeth Pearce and Sally Asher discuss prohibition, booze, and temperance. This discussion will highlight objects featured in Rebellious Spirits: Prohibition and Resistance in the South, which was curated by Laura Ochoa Rincon, Decorative Arts Trust Curatorial Fellow at the New Orleans Museum of Art.
Pearce and Asher will discuss why the temperance movement was successful, how individuals and communities of different races and socioeconomic statuses enjoyed spirits, and all the inventive ways that Southerners evaded prohibition laws in the 1920s.
After the talk, enjoy a Prohibition era-inspired cocktail flight, get a signed copy of Pearce’s Drink Dat New Orleans: A Guide to the Best Cocktail Bars, Neighborhood Pubs, and All-Night Dives, and tour the exhibition.
This program is sold out.
Schedule
5:30–7 pm | Discussion and Q&A with Sally Asher and Elizabeth Pearce
7–8 pm | Cocktail hour and book signing
7:30 pm | Gallery talk with Laura Ochoa Rincon, Decorative Arts Trust Curatorial Fellow at NOMA

About the Exhibition
Rebellious Spirits: Prohibition and Resistance in the South explores the unique methods in which the South, in particular New Orleans, dealt with the passage of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, which banned alcohol in the United States.
Learn More

About the Speakers
Laura Ochoa Rincon
Laura Ochoa Rincon is the Decorative Arts Trust Curatorial Fellow at the New Orleans Museum of Art. During her fellowship, Ochoa Rincon organized Rebellious Spirits: Prohibition and Resistance in the South, drawing on her interests in the history of food, politics, and class.

Sally Asher
Sally Asher is a New Orleans-based author and photographer. She has two master’s degrees from Tulane University in English and Liberal Arts (with a concentration in history). She is the author and photographer of Hope & New Orleans: A History of Crescent City Street Names and Stories from the St. Louis Cemeteries of New Orleans, photographer and co-author of 111 Places in New Orleans That You Must Not Miss, and author of the children’s books The Mermaids of New Orleans and The Mermaids’ Night Before Christmas. She also contributed chapters (and photographs) to two New Orleans tricentennial books: New Orleans: The First 300 Years and New Orleans & The World.
Her articles and fiction have appeared in over a dozen publications and she won the New Orleans Press award for best feature reporting for her article on Storyville. Asher’s photography has appeared in many local, national and international media outlets. Asher is the owner and operator of Red Sash Tours, President of Save Our Cemeteries, and is a member of the Arts Council of New Orleans and Press Club of New Orleans.

Elizabeth Pearce
Drinks historian Elizabeth Pearce is the founder of “Drink & Learn,” through which she offers cocktail tours, virtual happy hours, and classes, sharing New Orleans and American history through drinks. She is the host of the “Drink & Learn” podcast, the author of the book Drink Dat New Orleans, the co-author of the French Quarter Drinking Companion, and the monthly cocktail columnist for New Orleans Magazine. She is also an educator for the Sazerac Liquor Company, and in 2017 was named a “Person to Watch” by New Orleans Magazine. Prior to creating “Drink & Learn,” Pearce was the founding Senior Curator of the Southern Food and Beverage Museum and was responsible for creating its early exhibits including Toast of New Orleans: The Drinks of the City. Her exhibit Restaurant Restorative, commissioned by the James Beard Awards, honored the role New Orleans restaurants played in the city’s recovery following Hurricane Katrina.

NOMA at Night: A Speakeasy Celebration Feat. The Jump Hounds and Joe Krown
2024-06-07 18:00 - 21:00
Celebrate the special exhibition Rebellious Spirits: Prohibition and Resistance in the South with an evening at the museum featuring live music, gallery talks, specialty cocktails and mocktails inspired by art on view, interactive activities, and more. Visitors are encouraged to wear their favorite period attire—think the Jazz Age and 1920s speakeasies!
The night will include live piano music from the Prohibition era performed by Joe Krown in the Great Hall; Gallery talks with Laura Ochoa Rincon, NOMA’s Decorative Arts Trust Curatorial Fellow, on the second floor, and activities throughout the museum. Café NOMA will host cocktail mixing demonstrations inspired by popular Prohibition era recipes. Cocktails, mocktails, and light bites are available for purchase throughout the evening.
General Admission is $30 | Member Tickets are $15
Register Now

NOMA at Night Line-Up

Live Performance from The Jump Hounds
in NOMA’s Lapis Center for the Arts at 7:30 pm
The Jump Hounds is a New Orleans-based sextet that specializes in ‘jump’, the jazz-based rhythm and blues that bridges the gap between swing and rock & roll. To keep this often overlooked style of music alive, the band plays a mix of Jump Era classics and original compositions within the idiom. The result is a repertoire that balances energetic uptempo numbers, slow blues, and cozy mid-tempo swingers. This breadth of material makes for dynamic live shows that are tailored to the audience.

Live Piano Performance from Joe Krown
in the Great Hall at 6 pm
Joe Krown is a Hammond-endorsed artist and is part of the Hammond artist family. He’s played the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival every year since 2001 and the French Quarter Festival every year since 1998. In 2014, Krown was honored with a Piano Legacy Award, presented by the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra for being a “Master of Piano.” He is currently touring all over the U.S. and the world as the organ/piano player for the multi-award-winning, chart-topping Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band.
Café NOMA Cocktail Demo with Virna Castillo
in Café NOMA on the 1st floor at 6:15 pm
Gallery Talk on Rebellious Spirits: Prohibition and Resistance in the South with NOMA’s Decorative Arts Trust Curatorial Fellow Laura Ochoa Rincon
in the exhibition on the 2nd floor at 6:50 pm
Swing Dance Lesson
in the Coleman Courtyard at 7 pm

About the Exhibition
Rebellious Spirits: Prohibition and Resistance in the South explores the unique methods in which the South, in particular New Orleans, dealt with the passage of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, which banned alcohol in the United States.
Learn More

CANCELED — The Beauty of Things
2024-06-09 11:30 - 12:30
Update (Sunday, June 9): The 3:30 pm performance of The Beauty of Things has been canceled due to excessive heat.
In an exploration of objects, tales, and games, Creative Assembly Cohort member Lauren Messina explores the music of American classical composer Julia Perry in a new short-length dance work titled, The Beauty of Things. With a marvelous cast of local dancers including Joshua P. Bell, Cassidy Fulmer, Lauren Guynes, Eris Prescott, and Mares Sánchez, this site-specific dance playfully builds upon the grassy, earthen landscape of the Besthoff Sculpture Garden Amphitheater. Following the performance, the cast will have a brief Q&A discussion.
This event is free and open to the public. In the case of inclement weather, this program will be rescheduled.

About Lauren Messina
Lauren Ashlee Messina is a Big Easy Award-winning dance choreographer with a heart for community. Born in Springfield, Illinois, Messina has developed her career in the Greater New Orleans area in collaboration with the Marigny Opera Ballet, KM Dance Project, the New Orleans Opera, ELLEvate Dance Company, Dow-Dance Company’s Binge Dance Festival, and the CAC New Orleans as a 2022 Performing Artist-in-Residence. Her choreography has been performed at the New York Jazz Choreography Project, the 92nd Street Y, the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, and the Mississippi Museum of Art. Messina received the Ailey School’s Oprah Winfrey Foundation Scholarship and participated in the pilot program Moving Toward Justice Open Workshop at Gibney Dance. She is a 2023 Platforms Fund grant recipient and founder of My Free Dance Class. Messina aims to create meaningful movement experiences that inspire empathy and transformation by collaborating with artists across disciplines in a thriving collective environment.

Summer Camp Session 1: Shape (Ages 6–12)
2024-06-10 09:00 - 15:00
Each week, take a deep dive into the elements of art and principles of design at the New Orleans Museum of Art. Campers explore the museum’s permanent collection and special exhibitions, including the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden, with teaching artists. Experience a new adventure every day filled with object lessons, art-making, storytelling, and movement to inspire creative thinking. Campers will practice close looking, develop conversation and critical thinking skills, and connect with others. Week-long camps conclude with a family-friendly event to showcase our learning.
We emphasize an interdisciplinary approach to creative thinking and art-making. Your young artist will explore various art-making mediums and processes including drawing, writing, movement, sculpture, painting, and more—all guided by professional teaching artists. Register now for one or multiple weeks to build a meaningful summer experience.
Learn More and Register
If you need assistance registering for summer camp, please contact programs@noma.org.

All Summer Camp Sessions
Session 1: June 10–14 | Shape
Session 2: June 24–28 | Color
Session 3: July 8–12 | Texture
Session 4: July 15–19 | Space and Movement

Gallery Talk: Examining the Queer Gaze through 17th- and 19th-Century Mannerism
2024-06-12 12:30 | New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA, 70119
Join us in the galleries each Wednesday for weekly talks with artists, curators, and other special guests. During these casual conversations, we’ll take a close look at different works currently on view at NOMA.
This week, Orlando Hernández Ying, NOMA’s Lapis Curator of the Art of the Americas, leads an exploration of Jupiter with a Thunderbolt by an unknown 17th-century artist and Auguste Rodin’s Age of Bronze, 1875-1876. Hernández Ying will explore how the male body, gesture, and balance are treated in the two sculptures and discuss how these two works, crafted centuries apart, are influenced by the queer gaze. This gallery talk will begin in the Great Hall and travel to the second-floor elevator lobby.
Free with museum admission. Louisiana residents receive free admission on Wednesdays courtesy of the Helis Foundation.

Assemblage in New Orleans: Artists in Conversation
2024-06-12 18:00 - 20:00 | NOMA’s Lapis Center for the Arts
In collaboration with Kolaj Fest New Orleans, NOMA will host a panel discussion highlighting the artistic practices and cultural traditions of assemblage and collage in New Orleans. In conversation with Kristina Kay Robinson, artists Soraya Jean-Louis, Ryann Sterling, and Ashley Teamer will share insights into their practices and approaches to assemblage and collage as art forms and cultural connectors.
This event is free and open to the public.

About the Panelists

Kristina Kay Robinson
Kristina Kay Robinson is an artist, writer, and scholar born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her writing in various genres has appeared in Art in America, Guernica, The Baffler, The Nation, The Massachusetts Review, and Elle among other outlets. Robinson is a 2019 recipient of the Rabkin Prize for Visual Arts Journalism. Currently, she serves as the New Orleans editor-at-large for the Atlanta-based Burnaway magazine.

Soraya Jean-Louis
Soraya Jean-Louis is a Haitian-born, Harlem- and Brooklyn-raised artist, independent visual scholar,/educator, doula, and medical anthropologist. Jean-Louis utilizes archival and modern media to honor personal and collective ancestors, reflect on present realities, and imagine expansive possibilities through collage, assemblage, abstract expressionism, surrealist paintings, installation, writing, and the natural healing arts. She explores speculative possibilities within Black Feminist Futurist frameworks, lived experiences, ancestry, culture, interiorities, identity, and more.

Ryann Sterling
Ryann Sterling is a southern Louisiana artist who takes the viewer through a sacred and sometimes secret journey through collages, mixed media, sculpture, and photography. Sterling’s experiences and the delicate intersection of art, the feminine, and southern black spirituality, connects the past to the future while reminding the viewer to remain present.

Ashley Teamer
Ashley Teamer’s collages explore the relationships between the body, nature, space, and time. Teamer uses painting, sculpture, photography, and sound to creatively intervene with indoor and outdoor architecture, revealing the malleability of our built environment. Through layering images, Teamer’s invented landscapes reveal relationships between divergent moments. She has been an Artist-in-Residence at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2014) and the Joan Mitchell Center (2018). Teamer received a BFA from Boston University in 2013 and an MFA from Yale University in 2022.

Featured Image Credits: Ryann Sterling, Rites Through Passage, 2021. Collage, Found objects and video still. Courtesy of the artist.

Kolaj Fest at NOMA
2024-06-13 11:00 - 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 film. Museum visitors are invited to join in on the day’s programs.
LEARN MORE ABOUT KOLAJ FEST
This event is free with museum admission.

Schedule
Tour of Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined
11 am–12 pm
Immediately following the Daily Collage Congress, Jennella Young, LaVonna Varnardo Brown and Aisha Shillingford will introduce the exhibition Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined and lead a tour. Speakers will highlight “how the exhibition explores Mutu’s evolution as a collage artist, as she pursues an inquiry related to the representation of Black women’s bodies.”
Symposium | Rending, Mending, & Reusing: Art, Justice, & the Environment
12:45–2 pm in NOMA’s Lapis Center for the Arts
Art is a unique technology that can distill complexity into simple human gestures that, when experienced, facilitate a deeper understanding of our world, perhaps one that can lead to a greater sense of agency around environmental issues. In this panel, artists Phil Irish, Naomi White, Madera Rogers-Henry, and Christopher Kurts will speak about the way they use collage as a tool to think through and think with climate justice issues and how we can use art to engage viewers around shared concerns.
Symposium | 1-2-3 Bop! Collage, Jazz & Collaboration
2:15–3 pm in NOMA’s Lapis Center for the Arts
Chicago-based Paloma Trecka and Watertown, Massachusetts-based Todd Bartel will speak about the intersection of collage and jazz in light of the upcoming collage exhibition, “BOP!”.
Film Screening | Return to Sender: Women of Color in Colonial Postcards & the Politics of Representation
3:15–4:15 pm in NOMA’s Lapis Center for the Arts
Return to Sender: Women of Color in Colonial Postcards & the Politics of Representation is a short, experimental film directed and produced by Mara Ahmed. It pushes the documentary medium in unexpected ways by opening with three contemporary South Asian-American women who recreate British colonial postcards from the early 20th century.

Mini Masters at the Library
2024-06-17 10:30 - 11:30 | Norman Mayer Library, 3001 Gentilly Boulevard, New Orleans, LA, 70122, United States
NOMA and the New Orleans Public Library have partnered to bring together art and early literacy activities for this community program designed for children ages 2–5 and their caregivers. Inspired by NOMA’s Mini Masters, an arts-integration program that provides visual arts experiences and museum interaction for preschool students, participants of Mini Masters at the Library will engage in hands-on art-making activities and develop the early literacy skills needed to become ready to read.
Monday, June 17 — Communities and Culture: Exploring our world creatively with people, places, and things (Register now)
Monday, June 24 — Our Environment: A focus on seasons, weather, plants, water, astronomy, and recycling (Register now)
Monday, July 1 — Elements of Art: Awareness of shape, color, line, space, texture, form and value (Register now)
Monday, July 8 — Living Creatures: An artistic look at animals, insects, and their habitats (Register now)
This program is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Please note: Each session takes place at the Norman Mayer Library (3001 Gentilly Boulevard).

NOMA is grateful to the following donors for their support of the Mini Masters program: The City of New Orleans, First Horizon, Janice Parmelee and Bill Hammack, Sara and David Kelso, Karen and Henry Coaxum, Hancock Whitney, and The Patrick F. Taylor Foundation.

Gallery Talk with Edward Spots
2024-06-19 12:30
Join us in the galleries each Wednesday for weekly talks with artists, curators, and other special guests. During these casual conversations, we’ll take a close look at different works currently on view at NOMA.
Ahead of his sold-out evening dance performance of the original work, Motion To Move 2024, join Edward Spots for a gallery talk as he discusses his creative process and what it means to be a Black creator in New Orleans.
Free with museum admission. Please note: this is a separate event from the evening performance, Motion to Move, which required advanced registration. Louisiana residents receive free admission on Wednesdays courtesy of The Helis Foundation.

About Edward Spots
Edward Emanuel Spots was born and raised in the city of New Orleans. Spots has led choreography showcased at the New Orleans Museum Of Art, the New Orleans Jazz Market, Tulane University, Audubon Park, and digital platforms. Spots is currently on the board of the Tennessee Williams Literary Festival. He has been featured in films, commercials, music videos, press, and television shows such as So You Think You Can Dance, Dance Moms, Bulgaria’s Dancing With The Stars, Claws, and a leading role in the movie America directed by Garrett Bradley.
Spots was featured in Gambit’s 40 under 40 and has received a Proclamation from the City of New Orleans for his work. Spots teaches at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, Loyola University, the New Orleans School of Ballet, Ashé Cultural Arts Center, and Dancing Grounds.

Motion to Move 2024
2024-06-19 19:00 | NOMA’s Lapis Center for the Arts
In celebration of Juneteenth, dancer and choreographer Edward Spots presents Motion to Move 2024 in NOMA’s Lapis Center for the Arts.
The performance is the latest in a series of works by Spots exploring themes of freedom, movement, justice, and the spark of change.
Advanced registration has closed, additional seating will be available on a first-come first-serve basis.

From the Artist
“On June 19, 1865, nearly two years after the legal emancipation of enslaved Africans in the United States of America, Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas, with news of freedom for over 250,000 African Americans still enslaved. One year later, in 1866, the proud descendants reclaimed June 19 as Juneteenth in recognition of nationwide liberation. After decades of lobbying, the date was granted Federal Holiday status in 2021.
As a proud native of the City of New Orleans, I am honored to continue the legacy of Minister John Mosley and my first dance teacher, Mama Baderiwna Rolland. They believed in embedding the history and meaning of Juneteenth into our city’s consciousness. This year’s Juneteenth celebration is a testament to their vision and our progress. It will be a vibrant showcase of Black excellence in the arts, featuring Black artistic expression in music, film, dance, poetry, acting, and visual design. It’s a celebration that entertains and educates, informing the audience about the profound significance of Juneteenth.”

About Edward Spots
Edward Emanuel Spots was born and raised in the city of New Orleans. Spots has led choreography showcased at the New Orleans Museum Of Art, the New Orleans Jazz Market, Tulane University, Audubon Park, and digital platforms. Spots is currently on the board of the Tennessee Williams Literary Festival. He has been featured in films, commercials, music videos, press, and television shows such as So You Think You Can Dance, Dance Moms, Bulgaria’s Dancing With The Stars, Claws, and a leading role in the movie America directed by Garrett Bradley. Spots was featured in Gambit’s 40 under 40 and has received a Proclamation from the City of New Orleans for his work. Spots teaches at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, Loyola University, the New Orleans School of Ballet, Ashé Cultural Arts Center, and Dancing Grounds.

Book Club Discussion | Calling for a Blanket Dance
2024-06-20 12:00 - 13:00 | New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA, 70119
The NOMA Book Club meets monthly to discuss fiction and non-fiction books related to art in NOMA’s collection and exhibitions. It is an informal group open to anyone on a month-to-month basis. In addition to monthly book discussions, the book club meets periodically for curatorial programs related to the book selections. You do not have to attend every meeting or read every book to join.
Book selections are inspired by the museum’s exhibition schedule. Participants are expected to procure their own copies. 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 information or questions about the NOMA Book Club, please email kmccurdy@noma.org.
Register Now

June 2024
Book Club Discussion | Thursday, June 20, 12 pm

Calling for a Blanket Dance by Oscar Hokeah

Told in a series of voices, Calling for a Blanket Dance takes us into the life of Ever Geimausaddle through the multigenerational perspectives of his family as they soldier through a myriad of difficulties: his father’s sudden kidney failure and subsequent disability, his mother’s struggle to hold on to her job and care for her husband, the constant resettlement of the family, and Ever’s own bottled-up rage at the instability all around him. Meanwhile, all of Ever’s relatives have ideas about who he is and who he should be. His Cherokee grandmother urges the family to move across the state to find security; his dying grandfather hopes to reunite him with his heritage through traditional gourd dances; his Kiowa cousin reminds him that he’s connected to an ancestral past. And once an adult, Ever must take the strength given to him by his relatives to save not only himself, but also the next generation of family.
How will this young man visualize a place for himself when the world hasn’t given him a place to start with? Honest, heartbreaking, and ultimately uplifting, Calling for a Blanket Dance is the story of how Ever Geimausaddle found his way to home.

Education and outreach initiatives at NOMA are supported in part by the Zemurray Foundation; the Lois and Lloyd Hawkins Jr. Foundation; The Helis Foundation; The Gayle and Tom Benson Foundation; The City of New Orleans; IBERIABANK; The Wagner Foundation; Janice Parmelee and Bill Hammack; the Diversifying Art Museum Leadership Initiative, funded by the Walton Family Foundation and the Ford Foundation; Sara and David Kelso; Patrick F. Taylor Foundation; Dr. Scott S. Cowen; The RosaMary Foundation; The Azby Fund; the Louisiana Division of the Arts, Office of Cultural Development, Department of Culture, Recreation & Tourism, in cooperation with the Louisiana State Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, a Federal agency; The Collins C. Diboll Private Foundation; Burkenroad Foundation; Marian Dreux Van Horn Education Endowment; The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; Ruby K. Worner Trust through the PNC Charitable Trusts Grant Review Committee; The Harry T. Howard III Foundation; New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Foundation, Inc.; Harvey and Marie Orth; The Bruce J. Heim Foundation; and Mrs. Bennett A. Molter, Jr. This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Summer Camp Session 2: Color (Ages 6–12)
2024-06-24 09:00 - 15:00

Gallery Talk: Deer on Alert by Rosa Bonheur
2024-06-26 12:30 | New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA, 70119
Join us in the galleries each Wednesday for weekly talks with artists, curators, and other special guests. During these casual conversations, we’ll take a close look at different works currently on view at NOMA.
In celebration of Pride month, this week join Laura Moreno, Museum Educator, for a conversation about realist painter Rosa Bonheur. Moreno will discuss Bonheur’s Deer on Alert and the artist’s defiance to exist within the strict social mores or gender binaries of 19th-century France.
Free with museum admission. Louisiana residents receive free admission on Wednesdays courtesy of The Helis Foundation’s Art for All initiative.

Monuments and Memorials to Queer History
2024-06-26 18:00 - 19:30
In honor of Pride Month, join us for a conversation about how artists might create monuments to queer community and history. In a discussion moderated by Charlie Tatum, Director of Marketing and Communications, historian Robert Fieseler and artists Ryan Leitner and Ryan “phlegm” Gilbert will share their own practices and reflect upon how they consider celebration, remembrance, and the past in their work.
The program will also consider other works, including Jim Hodges’s Craig’s closet, first created for the New York City AIDS Memorial Park and installed in front of NOMA in June 2024, and Skylar Fein’s Remember the UpStairs Lounge, which commemorates the arson of a popular gay bar in New Orleans on June 24, 1973.
This program is free and open to the public. Louisiana residents receive free admission every Wednesday courtesy of The Helis Foundation’s Art for All initiative.

About the Panelists

Ryan “phlegm” Gilbert
Ryan “phlegm” Gilbert, a New Orleans-born and -based multidisciplinary artist, uses mixed-media self-portraiture in works called “ritual dramas” that serve as affirmations of their personal Black universe. phlegm says, “My work aims to more firmly connect my Black spiritual concept of time, connecting the past to the present and the present to the future. It’s communally sacred, personally precious. It attempts to tie all the loose ends of Black ethos, Black influence, and Black inspiration into one braid. It is at its core, an affirmation of life: my life, the life of my ancestors, and the life of my community. My work (and by extension my life) makes a production about the necessity and value of Black spiritual presence.” They also penned the mantra “Everything You Love About New Orleans Is Because of Black People.”

Ryan Leitner
Ryan Leitner (b. 1986, South Carolina) is an artist and writer who lives and works in New Orleans. He received his M.F.A. From The Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University in 2016, holds a B.F.A. From Regents College of London, and was a participant at the Skowhegan School for Painting and Sculpture in 2023. He is currently a resident at Joan Mitchell Foundation and a collective member at Antenna Gallery.

Robert W. Fieseler
Robert W. Fieseler is a National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association “Journalist of the Year” and the author of Tinderbox—winner of the Edgar Award and the Louisiana Literary Award, shortlisted for the Saroyan International Prize for Writing. As a Tulane PhD History candidate and Mellon Fellow, Fieseler is currently working on his second queer history book, a finalist for the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award. He lives with his husband and kittens in New Orleans.

Taylor Family and Educators Appreciation Day
2024-06-29 10:00 - 17:00
In partnership with the Patrick F. Taylor Foundation, NOMA presents an annual family day for Taylor Scholars. The museum will also host an educators appreciation day as a special thank you to teachers for their dedication to students. Students in the Taylor Scholars program and educators across Louisiana are invited to explore the museum and participate in art-making activities throughout the day.
On Saturday, June 29, Taylor Scholars and up to four guests receive free admission to the museum. Scholars will also receive a free beverage from Café NOMA and 10% off in the NOMA Museum Shop.
Educators will receive complimentary admission to the museum plus one adult guest and 10% off in the NOMA Museum Shop.
Register Now
To reserve tickets in advance, please select “Taylor Scholar” or “Louisiana Resident Educator” and the number of tickets you’d like to reserve. Please note that students should bring their Taylor Scholars Award Certificates or their third-quarter report card with a photo ID.
About the Taylor Scholars Awards Program
The Taylor Scholars Awards Program is a statewide program that rewards students in grades 6 through 12 with a GPA of 2.5 or higher with free access to Audubon Aquarium of the Americas, Audubon Zoo, and the New Orleans Museum of Art.
More Information

Gallery Talk on Afropolitan: Contemporary African Arts at NOMA
2024-07-03 12:30, 2024-07-03 18:00 | New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA, 70119
Join us in the galleries each Wednesday for weekly talks with artists, curators, and other special guests. During these casual conversations, we’ll take a close look at different works currently on view at NOMA.
This week, join Amanda Maples, NOMA’s Françoise Billion Richardson Curator of African Art, to discuss the special exhibition Afropolitan: Contemporary African Arts at NOMA. This talk will be offered at 12:30 pm and 6:00 pm.
Free with museum admission. Louisiana residents receive free admission on Wednesdays courtesy of The Helis Foundation’s Art for All initiative.

Summer Camp Session 3: Texture (Ages 6–12)
2024-07-08 09:00 - 15:00

Art Thrives: Mutu & Collage (Ages 55 and Up)
2024-07-09 16:00 - 18:00
NOMA’s Art Thrives program creates opportunities exclusively for adults ages 55 and up to learn new skills while building community and having fun. Reflect on and create art inspired by the themes explored in Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined with a special guided tour of the exhibition and collage-making session led by teaching artist LaVonna Varnado Brown. In this workshop, participants will learn about the range and depth of Mutu’s practice across her influential career, and trace the thematic through-lines and progressions in the artist’s work from the mid-1990s to today. Attendees will consider process and aging, archiving and legacies, naming yourself, and the language of life.
This program is free with advance registration.
This program is sold out.

About LaVonna Varnado Brown
LaVonna Varnado Brown is a multidisciplinary artist and community worker. Varnado Brown earned a Bachelor of Arts from Southeastern University Louisiana with a focus on Theatre and Liberal Arts. After studying abroad in London and Paris in the summer of 2009, Varnado Brown works 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. Afrofuturistic is a cultural aesthetic that explores the intersection of art and history with the intention to inspire action in the now by healing beyond trauma. In addition to creating multimedia works, Varnado Browncurates 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.
