THE NEW ORLEANS MUSEUM OF ART INSTALLS SCULPTURE BY JIM HODGES

At NOMA through June 2025, the work, titled Craig’s closet, is located outside to the right of the museum’s entrance on Collins C. Diboll Circle.

The sculpture was originally commissioned as part of the NYC Parks’s Art in the Parks program for the New York City AIDS Memorial, where it was recently on view.

NEW ORLEANS – The New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) announced that it has installed a sculpture by artist Jim Hodges in front of the museum, where it will be on view through June 2025.

In a statement about the 2023 work Craig’s closet, Hodges noted: “For those of us with the good fortune to have a place to hang our things, a closet is a magical container, a collection of materials, arranged by each of us that at a glance can reveal our values, desires, cares, and even our deepest secrets. Time itself is frozen inside a closet in contrasting meters and time-lines, fragmented in things accumulated and arranged in juxtaposed order, stacked and aligned, quickly thrown or casually dropped there to be taken care of later. The scene is set, and the narratives that blossom come alive whenever the doors swing open, giving us a reading, a reminder, an understanding of who we are and where we have been, secrets and dreams we hold. Boxes concealing our heart’s contours, scribbled messages scratched on folded notes and cards, photos, records, files, all the stuff worth saving for the reason that each thing signifies, all these choices contained in the holding space: the closet.”

The presentation of Craig’s closet in New Orleans is supported by UOVO.

About the Artist

Through his work, Hodges addresses issues such as memory, love, and existential struggles through photography, screen printing, and sculpture. Major public installations by Hodges include I dreamed a world and called it Love, Grand Central Station, New York (2021); Unearthed, Grace Cathedral, San Francisco (2019); and With Liberty and Justice For All, Aspen Art Museum, Colorado (2015). His works are included in prominent collections internationally, including the Art Institute of Chicago; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Dallas Museum of Art; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Pérez Art Museum Miami; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis; and the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris.

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Media Contacts

Charlie Tatum
Director of Marketing and Communications
New Orleans Museum of Art
ctatum@noma.org
504.658.4103

Ra’Jae’ Wolf
Marketing and Communications Associate
New Orleans Museum of Art
rwolf@noma.org
504.658.4106

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About NOMA and the Besthoff Sculpture Garden

The New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) and its Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden are home to innovative exhibitions, installations, educational programs, and research. Exploring human creativity across time, cultures, and disciplines, the global scope of the museum’s initiatives open a vibrant dialogue with the history and culture of New Orleans. The museum stewards a collection of nearly 50,000 works, with exceptional holdings in African art, photography, decorative arts, and Japanese art, as well as strengths in American and French art, and an expanding collection highlighting contemporary artists. The museum’s exhibitions and dynamic learning and engagement offerings serve as a forum for visitors to engage with diverse perspectives, share cultural experiences, and foster a life of learning at all ages. Recent exhibitions include Black Orpheus: Jacob Lawrence and the Mbari Club, Called to the Camera: Black American Studio Photographers, The Orléans Collection (an exhibition of forty European masterpieces from the collection of the city’s namesake, Philippe II, Duc d’Orléans), East of the Mississippi: Nineteenth Century America Landscape Photography, and Changing Course: Reflections on New Orleans Histories (seven contemporary art projects focusing on reimagining stories from the city’s past).

NOMA’s 12-acre Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden expands visitors’ experiences of the museum with one of the most notable sculpture gardens in the country. The Besthoff Sculpture Garden, free and open to the public seven days a week, has nearly 100 sculptures and outdoor works of art situated in a unique landscape featuring Spanish moss-laden live oaks and a sinuous lagoon surrounded by an expansive ecosystem of native plants. The works in the garden range from the 19th to the 21st centuries, with pieces by Auguste Rodin, Henry Moore, Louise Bourgeois, Ida Kohlmeyer, Claes Oldenburg, Sean Scully, Maya Lin, Do Ho Suh, Ugo Rondinone, Wangechi Mutu, Hank Willis Thomas, and many others. The Besthoff Sculpture Garden features contemporary design elements—including a sculpture pavilion, an amphitheater, and an architecturally significant canal link bridge connecting the garden’s original 2003 footprint with a 2019 expansion. Its water management practices support the health and resiliency of New Orleans City Park and the surrounding environment. Throughout the year, NOMA hosts outdoor programs in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden including festivals, performances, wellness classes, tours, and more.