Every week, NOMA hosts gallery talks in the museum and the Besthoff Sculpture Garden led by curators, artists, and other special guests. These lively, participatory conversations provide a moment to take a close look at one work—or a selection of works—currently on view.

This week, join Creative Assembly member Lavonna Varnado-Brown on the Second Floor Mezzanine to discuss the Black Madonnas in the exhibition Carlo Saraceni’s “Our Lady of Loreto” and Peruvian Viceregal Statue Paintings. Varrnado-Brown will highlight Saraceni’s work “Our Lady of Loreto/Nuestra Señora de Loreto,” exploring themes of the divine feminine, Syncretism, and the artist’s influences. We will reflect on the gradual process of adoption and adaptation of this iconography by Indigenous and Mestizo artists in Viceregal Peru in the creation of Marian images. In the past, “Our Lady of Loreto” has been exhibited as a Peruvian work created during the Viceregal Period (1542-1824), and NOMA has played a crucial role in  exhibiting the work more accurately as Italian Baroque painting dated to 1600, created while the Venetian artist was active in Rome.

This talk will be held at 12:30 pm and 6:00 pm.

Included with museum admission, which is free for Louisiana residents every Wednesday courtesy of The Helis Foundation’s Art for All initiative. When you arrive at NOMA, check in at the admissions desk for directions to the appropriate location.

About Lavonna Varnado-Brown

Lavonna Varnado-Brown, Creative Assembly 2025

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