The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded a $400,000 grant to the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) to support two curatorial fellowships in the fields of photography and modern and contemporary art. The award was announced in October 2016.
“As we continue to open up NOMA’s collections to all communities, these fellowships reflect new methods and means of curatorial practice—advancing art history and scholarship while re-thinking the boundaries of museums and their audience. With this generous grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, NOMA can help support and inspire the next generation of curators whose understanding of issues of inclusion will further underscore their contribution to their fields as well as their commitment to community. New Orleans is the ideal city to advance the goals of engagement and excellence in curatorial practice,” said Susan M. Taylor, The Montine McDaniel Freeman Director. “We are grateful to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for their generous support.”
The Mellon Curatorial Fellows will also work with NOMA education staff to create public programs and interpretive experiences that help connect audiences to scholarly material through genuine encounters with art, artists, and ideas.
NOMA’s extensive permanent collection includes over 12,000 photographs, and is widely regarded as one of the most significant collections of this material in the country. The museum’s collection of 20th-century European and American painting and sculpture is equally comprehensive and covers virtually all the major art movements on both continents.
About NOMA and the Besthoff Sculpture Garden
The New Orleans Museum of Art, founded in 1910 by Isaac Delgado, houses nearly 40,000 art objects encompassing 5,000 years of world art. Works from the permanent collection, along with continuously changing special exhibitions, are on view in the museum’s 46 galleries Fridays from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The adjoining Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden features work by 65 artists, including several of the 20th century’s master sculptors. The Sculpture Garden is open seven days a week: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The New Orleans Museum of Art and the Besthoff Sculpture Garden are fully accessible to handicapped visitors and wheelchairs are available from the front desk. For more information about NOMA, call (504) 658-4100 or visit www.noma.org. Wednesdays are free admission days for Louisiana residents, courtesy of The Helis Foundation. (May not include special exhibitions.) Teenagers (ages 13-19) receive free admission every day through the end of the year, courtesy of The Helis Foundation.
About the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Founded in 1969, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation endeavors to strengthen, promote, and, where necessary, defend the contributions of the humanities and the arts to human flourishing and to the well-being of diverse and democratic societies by supporting exemplary institutions of higher education and culture as they renew and provide access to an invaluable heritage of ambitious, path-breaking work. Additional information is available at mellon.org.