Welcome! To protect all visitors’ health and safety, participant group sizes may be limited based on the nature of the activity, program, and/or space. Please sign up for activities and performances on a first come, first served basis.
In order to be as considerate as possible, face masks are required to be worn by all NOMA staff and visitors, adults, and children (age 2 and older), when inside the museum, regardless of vaccination status.
Marta Rodriguez Maleck, Morir es Vivir (To Die is to Live), 2021. Sound and light installation. Collection of the artist.
Take a seat along the edges of the Great Hall. Close your eyes and listen. What do you hear? This artwork is made up of many voices. Each voice belongs to a New Orleanian with their own unique story to share about creating positive change in our city, country, and world.
Enrique Alférez, Symbols of Communication, 1967, New Orleans Museum of Art: Gift of Joseph Jaeger, Barry Kern, Michael White, and Arnold Kirschman, 2020.7.1-.118. © Estate of Enrique Alférez
A symbol is a drawing, shape, or object that represents an idea, object, or amount. The most common symbols are letters, which represent sounds and are used to build words. Symbols can help you share a message or story through writing or art.
William-Adolphe Bouguereau, French, 1825-1889, Whisperings of Love, 1889, oil on canvas, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Chapman H. Hyams, 15.6
How do you communicate, or share information, thoughts, and ideas with your friends and loved ones? What do you think the angel is sharing with the woman in this painting?
Caroline Kent (American, b. 1975), An Improbable Concoction, 2020, Acrylic on unstretched canvas, Museum Purchase, Carmen Donaldson Fund, 2021.2, Photography by Seth Boonchai © Caroline Kent
Artist Caroline Kent is inspired by translation, or changing an idea from one form or language to another. She often takes inspiration from dance by translating movements into colors and shapes.
Can you give it a try?
Lorna Williams, Lore, 2017, Plaster teeth, vines, plumbing hardware, light fixture, 64 x 32 x 72 in., Museum purchase © Lorna Williams
Take a look at the label to discover this artwork’s title. “Lore” is a body of traditions or knowledge held by a group of people like a family or culture, often passed from one person to another by word of mouth.
Chippewa Peoples, United States or Canada, Drum Cover (detail), ca. 1880, wool, glass beads, silk ribbon, wool yarn, Promised Gift of Mercedes Whitecloud
This textile had a special job for the Chippewa Peoples: to protect the Dream Dance drum, a living, sacred being that was a part of community ceremonies.
Jaume Plensa, Overflow, 2005. Stainless Steel. Museum purchase, Sydney and Walda Besthoff Fund, 2008.133
Artist Jaume Plensa, born in Barcelona in 1955, often uses words and text in his sculpture. In his sculpture Overflow, steel letters form the shape of a man’s body as if they are flowing over him like water.
People use more than just words and text to communicate their thoughts, dreams, and feelings with others. The way we move and position our bodies can also share a lot of information!
Ida Kohlmeyer, Rebus 3D-89-3, 1989. Painted aluminum. Gift of the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Foundation. ©️ Ida Kohlmeyer.
New Orleans-born artist Ida Kohlmeyer began her life as an artist at age 37 when she took her first painting class. She created her own unique language of glyphs, or picture symbols, using playful combinations of line, color, and shape. Kohlmeyer created many stacked aluminum sculptures, often titled Rebus – a type of riddle. What do you think this one means?
Robert Indiana, (American, 1966-1997)
LOVE, Red, Blue , Aluminum with acrylic polyurethane enamel, 72 x 72 x 36 inches, Museum purchase with funds provided by Sydney and Walda Besthoff, 2004.119
Love can be expressed in many different forms including music, writing, and the visual arts, like this sculpture by artist Robert Indiana. Indiana’s LOVE sculptures share a message of love in dozens of cities and languages all around the world!
With origins dating back to 1843, the New Orleans Public Library has grown from a single French Quarter house with a few volumes into a city-wide system serving all of the Orleans Parish with locations spread across the city. The Library has a long and rich history of serving the public by providing access to a wide range of educational, informational, and recreational materials, programs, and activities for all ages.
Kelly Love Jones, image courtesy of Johnathan B. Vasquez photography
@jonathanbvasquez
Jones’s artistic, creative, and cultural work is centered around healing, empowerment, and forgiveness. She likes to call her music “New Orleans Swag” because it is influenced by and mixes in the traditional rhythms of the Second Line, R&B, funk, and Mardi Gras. Jones’s music also celebrates legendary artists, such as Deacon John and Allen Toussaint, who made available to people worldwide New Orleans’s soulful and spirit-filled culture, the bayou landscape, and a colorful and diverse heritage. Jones mixes in all these traditions to produce songs that honor love, well-being, ancestry, family, and good times.