NOTE: The NOMA Book Club meeting with Robert Dula, the “Gondola Guy,” has been postponed due to the threat of inclement weather. A future date will be announced.

Join NOMA staff and fellow book lovers as we read and discuss fiction and nonfiction books related to art, artists, art museums, NOMA’s collections and exhibitions. Our full 2017 schedule and reading list has been announced.

Organized by NOMA’s Felix J. Dreyfous Library, the Book Club is an informal group. You do not have to attend every meeting and we understand if you have to leave a discussion or program early. The book club offers several types of programs: a book discussion group that meets once a month (no reading in December), curatorial programs, field trips, and Meet the Author receptions. Most book club programs start promptly at noon, but please arrive at 11:30 a.m. if you wish to bring a sack lunch or meet beforehand. NOMA will provide water and soft drinks.

RSVP for the meetings you wish to attend so we can prepare the meeting space.

Some of the selections for 2017 will relate to the NOLA4WOMEN project.

NOLA4WOMEN takes action through innovative programs to celebrate women and girls, provides a forum to address the challenges they face and promotes a future where they have the opportunity to reach their full potential.

Please contact Sheila A. Cork at 504.658.4117 or scork@noma.org for information about joining the NOMA Book Club.

March 2017 Selection

The Painter of Souls: a Novel by Philip Kazan

Pegasus Books, 2006. ISBN: 978-1681771236

“If the Brancacci Chapel in Florence is small in scale, its place in the history of Renaissance art is immense. It was here, in the 1420s, that the young Masaccio took over from the older, conventional Masolino, creating biblical frescoes of such vibrant physicality that, according to the 16th-century art historian Vasari, for the next hundred years Florence’s most famous artists studied the chapel as part of their training. Vasari also notes that one of their first devotees was a young friar living in the monastery when the chapel was painted and that until then Filippo Lippi was better known for defacing his study books with ‘crudely drawn figures.’” – New York Times

Tuesday, March 7 | Meet the “Gondola Guy” and his gondola, Bella Mae, in the Sculpture Garden for a program about the history of gondolas and gondoliers. Learn how Bella Mae came from Venice to New Orleans.

There also will be a separate discussion group about the March selection:

Friday, March 24 | Book Discussion Group