New Orleans Museum of Art

Museum Store Sunday
2023-11-26 10:00 - 17:00 (America/Chicago)
Save up to 10% on select merchandise in-store only (20% for NOMA members) on Sunday, November 26.
Browse merchandise in advance at our online store (note that the one-day sale only applies to in-person shopping).

Music in the Garden Feat. The Golden Compass Trio and Mar Brisa
2023-11-26 14:00 | Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans , LA, 70124
NOMA is excited to announce the fall return of Music in the Garden, an outdoor music series. Encounter the sounds of local New Orleans musicians while strolling through the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden on select Sunday afternoons beginning at 2 pm.
No registration is required. The Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden is free and open to the public seven days a week.
Plan Your Visit

Music in the Garden Performers
November 26
The Golden Compass Trio
Mar Brisa (solo vocal & guitar)

Exhibition Encore for Members | Fashioning America: Grit to Glamour
2023-11-26 17:00 - 19:00
Take a final look at Fashioning America: Grit to Glamour before it closes. NOMA members are invited to an exclusive final viewing of Fashioning America on November 26, 5–7 pm.
Café NOMA and the NOMA Museum Shop will also be open late.
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NOMA members support our institutional mission to present meaningful arts experiences that inspire communities in New Orleans and beyond. Members receive free admission the museum all year long, invitations to special events, and discounted tickets to programs.
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Fashioning America: Grit to Glamour is organized by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas and curated by Michelle Tolini Finamore.
The presentation in New Orleans is sponsored by the Eugenie and Joseph Jones Family Foundation, New Orleans Tourism and Cultural Fund, and Cathy and Hunter Pierson in honor of Mrs. Bertie Deming Smith. Additional support is provided by Elizabeth Boh, Mignon Faget, Tim Fields, Susanne and David Purvis, Robert and Millie Kohn, and Patricia Unangst.

Book Club Discussion: Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age
2023-11-28 12:00 - 13:00 | New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA, 70119
The NOMA Book Club meets monthly to discuss fiction and non-fiction books related to art in NOMA’s collection and exhibitions. It is an informal group open to anyone on a month-to-month basis. In addition to monthly book discussions, the book club meets periodically for curatorial programs related to the book selections. You do not have to attend every meeting or read every book to join.
Book selections are inspired by the museum’s exhibition schedule. Participants are expected to procure their own copies, and selections are also available at the NOMA Museum Shop, where museum members receive a 10% discount.
Meetings are held in person or via Zoom. All meetings begin at 12 pm.
For information or questions about the NOMA Book Club, please email education@noma.org.
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October 2023
Book Club Discussion | Tuesday, November 28, 12 pm

Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age by Annalee Newitz
Norton, 2022, ISBN-13: 978-0393882452
In Four Lost Cities, acclaimed science journalist Annalee Newitz takes readers on an entertaining and mind-bending adventure into the deep history of urban life. Investigating across the centuries and around the world, Newitz explores the rise and fall of four ancient cities, each the center of a sophisticated civilization: the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in Central Turkey, the Roman vacation town of Pompeii on Italy’s southern coast, the medieval megacity of Angkor in Cambodia, and the indigenous metropolis Cahokia, which stood beside the Mississippi River where East St. Louis is today.
Newitz travels to all four sites and investigates the cutting-edge research in archaeology, revealing the mix of environmental changes and political turmoil that doomed these ancient settlements. Tracing the early development of urban planning, Newitz also introduces us to the often anonymous workers―slaves, women, immigrants, and manual laborers― who built these cities and created monuments that lasted millennia.

Education and outreach initiatives at NOMA are supported in part by the Zemurray Foundation; the Lois and Lloyd Hawkins Jr. Foundation; The Helis Foundation; The Gayle and Tom Benson Foundation; The City of New Orleans; IBERIABANK; The Wagner Foundation; Janice Parmelee and Bill Hammack; the Diversifying Art Museum Leadership Initiative, funded by the Walton Family Foundation and the Ford Foundation; Sara and David Kelso; Patrick F. Taylor Foundation; Dr. Scott S. Cowen; The RosaMary Foundation; The Azby Fund; the Louisiana Division of the Arts, Office of Cultural Development, Department of Culture, Recreation & Tourism, in cooperation with the Louisiana State Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, a Federal agency; The Collins C. Diboll Private Foundation; Burkenroad Foundation; Marian Dreux Van Horn Education Endowment; The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; Ruby K. Worner Trust through the PNC Charitable Trusts Grant Review Committee; The Harry T. Howard III Foundation; New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Foundation, Inc.; Harvey and Marie Orth; The Bruce J. Heim Foundation; and Mrs. Bennett A. Molter, Jr. This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Gallery Talk with Musician Joseph Darensburg
2023-11-29 12:30 - 13:00 | New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA, 70119
Join us in the galleries each Wednesday for weekly talks with artists, curators, and other special guests. During these casual conversations, we’ll take a close look at different works currently on view at NOMA.
In celebration of Creole & Indigenous Heritage Month, musician Joseph Darensbourg will sing a few Kouri-Vini (Louisiana Creole) songs and read Atakapa Ishak poetry in the Great Hall.
Free with museum admission. Louisiana residents receive free admission to NOMA on Wednesdays courtesy of The Helis Foundation. When you arrive at NOMA, check in at the front desk for directions to the appropriate gallery.
GET TICKETS
To book your ticket in advance, click the link above and select the day for the gallery talk you’d like to attend.

About Joseph Darensbourg
Joseph is a native of Bulbancha (Choctaw for “place of many tongues,” aka New Orleans) from the Faubourg Treme, the oldest free people of color neighborhood in the country (predating the US itself). This neighborhood of Gens de Couleur Libres is a tri-racial ethnic blend comprised of Native Americans, Europeans, and African ethnic Creoles who speak a lingua franca known as Kouri Vini as well as Colonial Louisiana French.
A performer of ethnic folk musics, Joseph is a singer, violinist, and percussionist member of Les Cenelles ensemble, which specializes in music inspired by resistance and protest poetry and Les Cenelles Gens de Couleur Libres, civil rights activists opposing the Code Noir during US Reconstruction. Joseph focuses on the Bayou Ballads plantation songs (1840s–80s).
A bookbinder by trade—trained at the oldest bookbindery in the US (Harcourt, Boston)—Joseph is also a visual art alum of NOCCA, as well as a member of the oldest early music ensemble in the America, New Orleans Musica da Camera (founded in 1965, as was Joseph).

Gallery Talk with Sculptor and Jeweler Thomas Mann
2023-11-29 18:00
Join us in the galleries each Wednesday for weekly talks with artists, curators, and other special guests. During these casual conversations, we’ll take a close look at different works currently on view at NOMA.
Join sculptor and jeweler Thomas Mann for a conversation on Ring Redux: The Susan Grant Lewin Collection. Mann is featured in Lewin’s 1994 book One of a Kind: American Art Jewelry Today. In his talk, Mann will address the American and International Craft movements, makers, and issues of wearability in art jewelry among other topics.
Free with museum admission. Louisiana residents receive free admission to NOMA on Wednesdays courtesy of The Helis Foundation. When you arrive at NOMA, check in at the front desk for directions to the appropriate gallery.
Get Tickets
To book your ticket in advance, click the link above and select the day for the gallery talk you’d like to attend.

About the Speaker
Thomas Mann has been a professional self-employed artist for 53 years. He describes himself as a sculptor working in the medium of jewelry for which he is known internationally.
Originally from Pennsylvania, the artist exhibited his work at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in 1977 and has called New Orleans home ever since. Mann spends much of his time on the road exhibiting at as many as 15 nationally juried craft and art events each year, in addition to teaching workshops and public speaking.
Over the last 10 years, he has moved away from his signature “Techno-Romantic” design vocabulary toward a new jewelry vocabulary he has identified as “Techno-Natura,” and making scale models for large-scale sculpture. He has also begun a re-entry into painting which he studied in college as a performing arts major with a focus on set design and lighting. His first solo painting show opened at Sullivan Gallery in New Orleans in April 2022.

Day With(out) Art: Everyone I Know Is Sick
2023-12-01 10:00 - 17:00
NOMA is proud to collaborate with Visual AIDS for Day With(out) Art by presenting Everyone I Know Is Sick, a program of five short videos highlighting under-told stories of HIV and AIDS.
Inspired by a statement from Cyrée Jarelle Johnson in the book Black Futures, Everyone I Know Is Sick examines how our society excludes disabled and sick people by upholding a false dichotomy of health and sickness. Inviting us to understand disability as a common experience rather than an exception to the norm, the program highlights a range of experiences spanning HIV, COVID, mental health, and aging. The commissioned artists foreground the knowledge and expertise of disabled and sick people in a world still grappling with multiple ongoing pandemics. Visual AIDS is a New York-based non-profit that utilizes art to fight AIDS by provoking dialogue, supporting HIV+ artists, and preserving a legacy, because AIDS is not over.
Free with museum admission. When you arrive at NOMA, check in at the front desk for directions.
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ABOUT THE FILMS
Dolissa Medina and Ananias P. Soria, Viejito/Enfermito/Grito (Old Man/Sick Man/Shout)
Ananias, a San Francisco Bay Area artist and immigrant, performs the folkloric Danza de los Viejitos (the Dance of the Old Men). Originally from Michoacán, Mexico, where the dance originates, Ananias interprets its movements through the lens of his spirituality, his long-term HIV-related disabilities, and his search for a place in the world.
Dorothy Cheung, Heart Murmurs
Heart Murmurs is a poetic dialogue between the filmmaker and Dean, a young man living in Hong Kong. In reflecting on his experience living with a congenital disability and HIV during the first years of the COVID pandemic, Dean expresses his sense of self in the face of regular medical challenges.
Beau Gomez, This Bed I Made
This Bed I Made presents the bed as a place of solace and agency beyond just a site of illness or isolation. Through the shared stories of two Filipino men living with HIV, the video explores modes of care, restoration, and abundance in the midst of pandemic pervasion.
Kurt Weston, Losing the Light
Losing the Light reflects the artist’s bitter battle to stay in this world as a long-term survivor of AIDS who has lost his vision to CMV retinitis. An experimental self-portrait, the video evokes the dissolution and fragmentation of the artist’s body, representing the impact of blindness, long-term HIV infection, and the cumulative effects of decades of antiretroviral medication.
Lili Nascimento and Hiura Fernandes, Aquela criança com AID$ (That Child with AID$)
That Child with AID$ tells the story of Brazilian advocate and artist Lili Nascimento, who was born with HIV in 1990. Lili has worked to expand narratives about living with HIV beyond the limited images and ideologies that permeate the AIDS industry.

ABOUT VISUAL AIDS
Visual AIDS is a New York-based non-profit that utilizes art to fight AIDS by provoking dialogue, supporting HIV+ artists, and preserving a legacy, because AIDS is not over.
LEARN MORE

Education and outreach initiatives at NOMA are supported in part by The Gayle and Tom Benson Foundation; the Lois and Lloyd Hawkins Jr. Foundation; The Helis Foundation; The City of New Orleans; First Horizon; Janice Parmelee and Bill Hammack; Sara and David Kelso; Patrick F. Taylor Foundation; The RosaMary Foundation; The Azby Fund; the Louisiana Division of the Arts, Office of Cultural Development, Department of Culture, Recreation & Tourism, in cooperation with the Louisiana State Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, a Federal agency; The Collins C. Diboll Private Foundation; Burkenroad Foundation; Marian Dreux Van Horn Education Endowment; the Howard Foundation; Karen and Henry Coaxum; The Bruce J. Heim Foundation; and Laitram.

Field Drawing Workshop at Algiers Point With Alyssa Lizzini feat. Paige DeVries
2023-12-01 16:30 | Barracuda Taco Stand, 446 Pelican Ave, New Orleans, LA, 70114, United States
Field Drawings is a series of free on-location drawing workshops taking place in multiple cities and neighborhoods throughout the United States led by Cleveland-based visual artist Alyssa Lizzini. The purpose of the workshops is to encourage the slow and attentive process of observational drawing as a means of neighborhood rediscovery and creative placemaking. Workshop participants will take part in an hour-and-a-half urban sketching excursion and be supplied with sketchbooks and drawing tools. There will be two workshops taking place in New Orleans with the help of the NOMA Creative Assembly resident artists Daniel Fitzpatrick and Paige DeVries. Participants should wear good walking shoes for light neighborhood exploration and bring a bottle of water.
Participants will meet for this workshop at Barracuda Taco Stand, 446 Pelican Ave, New Orleans, LA 70114.
Materials will be provided. Free with advanced registration.
Register Now

About the Artist

Alyssa Lizzini is an artist from Cleveland, Ohio, whose work explores concepts of social geography and community engagement through on-location drawing. Lizzini’s layered images are heavily inspired by her own archival, ethnographic, and visual research of city spaces—and her lived experience growing up in the city of Cleveland. In the studio, she utilizes drawing, painting, and printmaking techniques to create visually complex images that mirror the complexity of our social and spatial world. Lizzini graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2022.

Field Drawing Workshop in MidCity With Alyssa Lizzini feat. Daniel Fitzpatrick
2023-12-02 14:00 | Second Line Brewing, 433 N Bernadotte St, New Orleans, LA, 70119, United States
Field Drawings is a series of free on-location drawing workshops taking place in multiple cities and neighborhoods throughout the United States led by Cleveland-based visual artist Alyssa Lizzini. The purpose of the workshops is to encourage the slow and attentive process of observational drawing as a means of neighborhood rediscovery and creative placemaking. Workshop participants will take part in an hour-and-a-half urban sketching excursion and be supplied with sketchbooks and drawing tools. There will be two workshops taking place in New Orleans with the help of the NOMA Creative Assembly resident artists Daniel Fitzpatrick and Paige DeVries. Participants should wear good walking shoes for light neighborhood exploration and bring a bottle of water.
Participants will meet for this workshop at Second Line Brewing, 433 N Bernadotte St, New Orleans, LA 70119.
Materials will be provided. Free with advanced registration.
Register Now

About the Artist

Alyssa Lizzini is an artist from Cleveland, Ohio, whose work explores concepts of social geography and community engagement through on-location drawing. Lizzini’s layered images are heavily inspired by her own archival, ethnographic, and visual research of city spaces—and her lived experience growing up in the city of Cleveland. In the studio, she utilizes drawing, painting, and printmaking techniques to create visually complex images that mirror the complexity of our social and spatial world. Lizzini graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2022.

Gallery Talk on Debbie Fleming Caffery: In Light of Everything with Curator Brian Piper
2023-12-06 12:30 - 13:00, 2023-12-13 12:30 - 13:00 | New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA, 70119
Join us in the galleries each Wednesday for weekly talks with artists, curators, and other special guests. During these casual conversations, we’ll take a close look at different works currently on view at NOMA.
This week, please join NOMA’s Freeman Family Curator of Photographs, Prints, and Drawings, Brian Piper, for a conversation about Debbie Fleming Caffery: In Light of Everything.
Free with museum admission. Louisiana residents receive free admission to NOMA on Wednesdays courtesy of The Helis Foundation. When you arrive at NOMA, check in at the front desk for directions to the appropriate gallery.
GET TICKETS
To book your ticket in advance, click the link above and select the day for the gallery talk you’d like to attend.

Elders Sacred Talk Series with Merline Kimble and Hearreast J. Harrison
2023-12-06 17:30
NOMA’s Art Thrives initiative and the Congo Square Preservation Society present the Elders Sacred Talk Series with prolific elder New Orleanians, celebrating the lives they lead while learning firsthand about the impact they’ve had on the city.
On December 6, 5:30 pm, in NOMA’s Lapis Center for the Arts, the program will highlight Merline Kimble of the Gold Digger Baby Dolls and Herreast J. Harrison, artist and educator. Doors open at 5 pm.
Free with museum admission. Louisiana residents receive free admission to NOMA on Wednesdays courtesy of The Helis Foundation. When you arrive at NOMA, check in at the admissions desk for directions to the Lapis Center for the Arts.
Get Tickets
To book your ticket in advance, click the link above.

About the Speakers

Herreast J. Harrison
Herreast J. Harrison is an educator, artist, and founder of the Guardians Institute, which is the home of the Donald Harrison, Sr. Museum. Located in the Ninth Ward, the museum honors her late husband, Big Chief Donald Harrison, Sr., founder of the Guardians of the Flame Masking Indian group. Harrison’s work through the institute includes promoting Masking Indian culture and youth literacy. She has traveled extensively to speak at schools and colleges locally, across the country and abroad. Her reading program has placed over 40,000 new books in the hands of children.
As an artist, she creates beaded story narratives and quilted wall hangings embellished with beads reflecting Masking Indian and African American traditions. Harrison, who holds a Master of Arts in Museum Studies from Southern University at New Orleans, was recognized as the Grand Griot of Maafa 2021 and received the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Light Up for Literacy Award, among many others. At 86 years young, Harrison continues her passion-driven work to make her community a better place.

Merline Kimble
Merline Kimble is a cultural activist and lifelong resident of the Tremé neighborhood. She is frequently called upon to provide interviews for documentaries, films, and recordings, including with the Claiborne Avenue History Project, Southern University at New Orleans, and WWOZ. With inspiration from her grandmother Louise Recasner Phillips, Kimble played a major role in reviving the New Orleans Baby Doll masking tradition in the 1970s and again in the ’80s. She named her new group the Gold Diggers after her grandparents’ social aid and pleasure club. Her grandmother lived to see the younger women, dressed in colorful satin Baby Doll dresses, premiere their group on Mardi Gras Day at her home on Ursuline Avenue.
The revival of the Baby Doll tradition increased momentum in the early 2000s. Today, with over 25 groups, the tradition is cemented in the cultural identity of New Orleans with key women regarded as preservationists including Merline Kimble. The People United for Armstrong Park honored her in 2016 and placed her photo on New Orleans city buses.

ABOUT CONGO SQUARE PRESERVATION SOCIETY
The Congo Square Preservation Society serves as a continuing catalyst in the resurrection and continuation of activities, advocacy, and preservation of historic and sacred Congo Square in New Orleans. Learn more at https://www.congosquarepreservationsociety.org/.

NOMA’s Art Thrives programs are supported by E.A. Michelson Philanthropy.

Hanukkah Storytime at NOMA
2023-12-07 15:30
Families are invited to celebrate a diversity of seasonal celebrations in New Orleans with storytime at NOMA. Join us on one of the dates below to learn about the holiday traditions of Hanukkah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa with readings that share why each holiday is unique.
Get Tickets
Free with museum admission. Click the link above to reserve your ticket to the museum in advance.

Schedule

Hanukkah: Toby Belfer Never Had a Christmas Tree by Gloria Pushker (read by NOMA docent Naomi Kornman)
Hanukkah is a Jewish holiday that lasts for eight nights in late November to mid-December, celebrating the miracle of light. Traditions include lighting candles on a menorah and eating foods fried in oil like potato latkes and doughnuts.
Thursday, December 7, at 3:30 pm
Thursday, December 14, at 3:30 pm

Christmas: The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore and The Cajun Night Before Christmas by James Rice (read by Museum Gallery Attendant Linda Jackson)
Christmas is a Christian holiday commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ. It is celebrated annually on December 25 in unique ways worldwide, even in places with few Christians, though many festivities occur in the days and weeks before Christmas Day.
Thursday, December 21, at 3:30 pm
Friday, December 22, at 3:30 pm
Saturday, December 23, at 3:30 pm
Sunday, December 24, at 1:30 pm

Kwanzaa: Together For Kwanzaa by Juwanda G. Ford (read by Museum Gallery Attendant Linda Jackson)
Kwanzaa is centered on Nguzo Saba, the seven principles of Blackness, and is celebrated annually between December 26 and January 1. Kwanzaa honors African-American heritage, history, and culture through a week of giving thanks, sharing meals, spending time with loved ones, and meaningful gift-giving. The 2023 Annual Kwanzaa Theme is “Kwanzaa, Freedom, Justice and Peace: Principles and Practices For A New World”.
Tuesday, December 26, at 3:30 pm
Sunday, December 31, at 1:30 pm

Family Day: A Walk in the Garden
2023-12-09 10:00 - 14:00
Kids and their grown-ups are invited for a day of free family fun at the museum!
NOMA is celebrating twenty years of the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden as a place of respite, learning, and joy. Explore the garden with guided walks, storytime, face painting, and play areas. Enjoy a musical performance by the Roots of Music Marching Crusaders and get creative with art-making activities inspired by your natural surroundings.
We’re taking inspiration from the Besthoff Sculpture Garden’s picturesque landscape featuring nearly 100 works across 12 acres. Adjacent to the museum, the Besthoff Sculpture Garden is situated within a landscape of existing pines, magnolias, and live oaks surrounding two lagoons. Read More
Admission and programming are free for families. Advanced registration is encouraged. In case of rain or extreme cold, festivities will be moved inside.
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This program is supported by The Howard Foundation.

Family Day Highlights
The Marching Crusaders by the Roots of Music
1:30 pm–2:00 pm starts behind NOMA at the intersection of Roosevelt Mall and Collins Diboll Circle

Listen to music from The Marching Crusaders, the Roots of Music after-school marching band program for children ages 9–14, as you explore the garden. The parade will finish with a performance at the Besthoff Sculpture Garden’s amphitheater.
DJ Kuti
10 am–1:30 pm on the North Lawn in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden
Family-friendly music to dance and groove to while enjoying the Besthoff Sculpture Garden.
Face Painting with Faerie Formations by Princess Camerian
10:00 am–2:00 pm on the South Lawn in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden
Add an extra touch of enchantment to Family Day with bright butterflies, whimsical unicorns, or a spray of flowers painted by a fairy princess who sees the wonders of nature as the greatest inspiration.
Storytime in the Garden
10:30 am, 11:30 am, and 12:30 pm in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden Amphitheater
10:30 am: Let’s Go Outside!, by Ekaterina Trukhan (0–3 years)
11:30 am: Lola Plants a Garden, by Anna McQuinn (3–6 years)
12:30 pm: The Magical Garden of Claude Monet, by Laurence Anholt (6–9 years)
Join us for stories inspired by the outdoors and finding joy in nature. Read by NOMA’s storyteller Ms. Linda in the amphitheater. Each session is 10–20 minutes.
Art-Making Activity: Nature-Inspired Crafts
10 am–2 pm at South Lawn in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden

Join us at NOMA’s art-making tent for nature-inspired crafts, including making your own sensory bag.
Family Garden Walk: Bear with Us, Mirror Labyrinth, and Mississippi Meanders
11 am and 12 pm in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden
A close look at Frank Gehry’s Bear With Us, Jeppe Hein’s Mirror Labyrinth Besthoff Sculpture Garden, and Elyn Zimmerman’s Mississippi Meanders, family-friendly artworks reflecting in nature. Each session is 20–30 minutes.
Frank Gehry (Canadian, b. 1929), Bear With Us, 2014. Stainless Steel. Gift of Sydney and Walda Besthoff, 2019.3.
Jeppe Hein (Danish, b. 1974), Mirror Labyrinth Besthoff Sculpture Garden, 2017. Steel and mirror. Museum purchase with funds provided by Sydney and Walda Besthoff, 2019.4. Installation funded by Hancock Whitney.
Elyn Zimmerman (American, b. 1945), Mississippi Meanders, 2019. Laminated tempered glass, steel and aluminum supports. Gift of Sydney and Walda Besthoff, 2019.7. Installation funded by Donna Perret Rosen and Benjamin M. Rosen.
Krewe des Fleurs:
10 am–1:30 pm on North Lawn in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden

Meet larger-than-life, wiggling flowers! Grab a family photo or dance with the magical moving garden of Krewe des Fleurs. Krewe des Fleurs is a NOLA-based costume and performance collective, with each “Fleur” bringing their own artistic vision to life.
Play Area at the Amphitheater
10 am–1:30 pm in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden Amphitheater
Enjoy the sunshine and the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden between storytimes in the free play area. The amphitheater play station will feature hula hoops, jump ropes, and bubbles (while supplies last) available for sharing.
Food from Southerns Food Truck and Café NOMA
10 am–2 pm on Enrique Alférez Drive
The best fried chicken sandwich in all of New Orleans available for purchase. Showcasing chicken in all its splendor, and highlighting New Orleans cuisine. Southerns Food Truck parked on Enrique Alférez Drive.
Café NOMA by Ralph Brennan features a delicious array of artisanal flatbreads, sandwiches, salads and veggie bowls alongside an artful assortment of freshly baked breads and sweets inside a show-stopping pastry case. Entrance to Café NOMA on Enrique Alférez Drive.
10 am–2 pm on the North Lawn in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden
Look for Café NOMA’s tent in the garden for a selection of family-friendly snacks and a variety of drinks.

ABOUT OUR PARTNERS

The Roots of Music
The Roots of Music believes music has the power to transform lives. This program empowers the youth of New Orleans through music education, academic support, and mentorship, while preserving and promoting the unique musical and cultural heritage of our city. The Roots of Music programs teach music history and theory, instrumental instruction, ensemble performance preparation, and studio production. Across three programs, the Roots of Music serves youth ages 5–18 from low-income households and provides students with hot meals and transportation to reduce common barriers to participation.
The Marching Crusaders is an after-school marching band program for children ages 9–14. Young scholars are offered a variety of resources through the program, including academic tutoring, music classes, and performance opportunities. The Marching Crusaders march in Mardi Gras parades throughout New Orleans and perform at various events throughout the rest of the year. This program utilizes music to keep children safe at the most vulnerable times of day and helps them become happy and healthy members of their community. Five days a week, 12 months a year, the program delivers over 2,500 hours of music education and other academic tutoring, over 30,400 nutritious hot meals, 1,400 bus journeys, and supplies over 150 instruments for student use.

Princess Camerian
Princess Camerian participates in the creative process in every possible way, infusing everything with her own personal magic. Camerian has been doing face and body painting for birthday parties, parades, festivals, concerts, schools, bachelorette parties, sporting events, fundraisers, and various other occasions in the city of New Orleans and around southeastern Louisiana for over 15 years. For every chance she gets, Camerian sprinkles beauty and happiness out into the world!

Krewe des Fleurs
Krewe des Fleurs was founded in 2014 by Laura Dean-Shapiro, born out of a desire to marry the love of Mardi Gras and New Orleans culture with a more sustainable Mardi Gras. Concerned by the tremendous amounts of waste left behind on parade routes, Laura dreamed of a krewe that brought to life the float flowers that she loved so much while leaving no waste behind. Now entering its 10th season, Krewe des Fleurs is a costume collaborative that welcomes female-identifying “Fleurs” to bring their own artistic visions to life. Each year the krewe debuts a new varietal as its costume. While the prototype is designed by a professional artist, each Fleur builds and decorates her own costume from the ground up, assisted by her fellow Fleurs. The krewe proudly distributes handmade throws made of recycled materials, as well as wooden nickels and “seeds as beads” packets, holding true to its promise of no plastic waste. This year’s varietal will be debuted on Twelfth Night at Armstrong Park, and the krewe’s Carnival season parades will include Joan of Arc, Cleopatra, Iris, and Orpheus. Environmental sustainability remains at the center of all that we do.

DJ Kuti
Kuti is a DJ, producer, and graphic designer from New Orleans. To Kuti, music is communal, and the people, connections, and visuals fuel the groove while she, as the curator, drives the ship. She is also 1/2 of the production duo, Khromethesia. Influenced by OG dance music, Afrodiasporic rhythms and soul, take a stroll with her through all-time funk faves, classic boogie, and global ear candy.

Education and outreach initiatives at NOMA are supported in part by The Gayle and Tom Benson Foundation; the Lois and Lloyd Hawkins Jr. Foundation; The Helis Foundation; The City of New Orleans; First Horizon; Janice Parmelee and Bill Hammack; Sara and David Kelso; Patrick F. Taylor Foundation; The RosaMary Foundation; The Azby Fund; the Louisiana Division of the Arts, Office of Cultural Development, Department of Culture, Recreation & Tourism, in cooperation with the Louisiana State Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, a Federal agency; The Collins C. Diboll Private Foundation; Burkenroad Foundation; Marian Dreux Van Horn Education Endowment; the Howard Foundation; Karen and Henry Coaxum; The Bruce J. Heim Foundation; and Laitram.

Gallery Talk on Alison Saar’s Travelin’ Light
2023-12-20 12:30 | Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans , LA, 70124
Join us in the galleries each Wednesday for weekly talks with artists, curators, and other special guests. During these casual conversations, we’ll take a close look at different works currently on view at NOMA.
This week please join Eric Blanchard, NOMA Museum Shop Associate, for a conversation about Alison Saar’s Travelin’ Light in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden.
No registration is required. The Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden is free and open to the public seven days a week. When you arrive, please wait at the Besthoff Sculpture Garden office for directions.
GET TICKETS
To book your ticket in advance, click the link above and select the day for the gallery talk you’d like to attend.

HOPE: The Invisible Thread That Binds | An Interactive Fashion Experience with odAOMO (SOLD OUT)
2023-12-20 17:00 - 21:00
Join odAOMO and NOMA to connect local and global communities using fashion as a language. We kick our journey off with an interactive avant-garde evening of couture, during which we invite you to dress to impress and join us in discussion, refreshments, and a runway presentation like no other.
The evening begins with a panel discussion in the Great Hall. The discussion will address the nuances of what we wear, why we wear, internal and external drives for what we wear, and the origins, foundations, and pillars of fashion and clothing.
Dr. Sophia Omoro and Brand Director Quentin Alexander will be leading the hour-long discussion in the Great Hall. Panelists for the evening are Big Chief Demond Melancon of the Young Seminole Hunters, City Council Member Lesli Harris, Mariah Celeste from the New Orleans Opera, and fashion influencer Tiffany Lashaé.
Guests will then be immersed in the interactive fashion experience with live music, dance, spoken word, and fashion.
Visit the NOMA Museum Shop during regular museum hours to browse through exclusive odAOMO shop pop-up items.
Tickets for this event are sold out.

Schedule
5:00–6:00 pm | Panel Discussion
7:15–8:45 pm | Fashion Show

This program is supported by New Orleans Fashion Week.

Christmas Storytime at NOMA
2023-12-21 15:30

Kwanzaa Storytime at NOMA
2023-12-26 15:30

Gallery Talk with Creative Assembly Cohort Member Daniel Fitzpatrick
2023-12-27 12:30 - 13:00 | New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA, 70119
Join us in the galleries each Wednesday for weekly talks with artists, curators, and other special guests. During these casual conversations, we’ll take a close look at different works currently on view at NOMA.
This week, join Creative Assembly Cohort member Daniel Fitzpatrick for a poetic journey through NOMA’s permanent collection. Danny’s poems bring the museum and its galleries into dialogue with New Orleans culture and communities as well as with the poetic tradition. He hopes to encourage viewers to join the artistic conversation and to see their own lives and traditions reflected in NOMA’s paintings, sculptures, and spaces.
Free with museum admission. Louisiana residents receive free admission to NOMA on Wednesdays courtesy of The Helis Foundation. When you arrive at NOMA, check in at the front desk for directions to the appropriate gallery.
GET TICKETS
To book your ticket in advance, click the link above and select the day for the gallery talk you’d like to attend.

About Daniel Fitzpatrick
Daniel Fitzpatrick is the author of the novel Only the Lover Sings. Born in New Orleans, he studied Philosophy at the University of Dallas, and he holds an MA in Philosophy from Holy Apostles College and an MPhil in Creative Writing from Trinity College Dublin. His translation of the Divine Comedy was published in 2021 for the 700th anniversary of Dante Alighieri’s death. His poetry and essays have appeared in places like Dappled Things, New Oxford Review, and Ocean State Review. He is the editor of Joie de Vivre, a journal of art, culture, and letters for South Louisiana, and he teaches English at Jesuit High School in New Orleans.

Film Screening and Panel Discussion: The Black Indians of New Orleans
2024-01-07 13:00 - 15:00
Join us on Sunday, January 7, in NOMA’s Lapis Center for the Arts for a screening of The Black Indians of New Orleans, directed by Dr. Maurice Martinez.
A panel discussion with Big Chief Darryl Montana, Big Chief Tyrone “Pie” Stevenson, and artist Ron Bechet follows the documentary.
This program is free and open to the public. When you arrive at the museum, check-in at the admissions desk.
Get Tickets

About the Film
The Black Indians of New Orleans (1976, dir. Maurice M. Martinez, 33 min.)
The Black Indians of New Orleans is the first internationally acclaimed film to explore the origins and rituals of the Black Masking Indians of New Orleans. The film documents the cultural history of the Black Masking Indians, their artful suit creation, music, call and response chants, dance movements, and gatherings for Sunday practices. The film includes sunrise-to-sunset coverage of the Black Indians in their suits on Mardi Gras in the 1970s. The film was produced by Dr. Maurice M. Martinez, a New Orleans–born poet, photographer, musician, filmmaker, and scholar steeped in African American culture through both his heritage and academic endeavors.
View Trailer

About the Panelists
Big Chief Tyrone “Pie” Stevenson
In 1972, Big Chief Tootie introduced the world to the newest member of his tribe, 12 year-old Spy Boy Tyrone “Pie” Stevenson. Stevenson was mentored by Melvin Reed and Jerome Smith, who started the influential Tambourine and Fan. He masked 23 years as Spy Boy and Gang Flag. In the ’90s, Stevenson decided to start his own tribe. To pay tribute to Yellow Pocahontas and his neighborhood, he requested the Monogram Hunter tribe from Big Chief Tootie and his brother Second Chief Edward Montana, and they gave him their father’s tribe name.
On Mardi Gras Day 1992, Stevenson presented his first suit as Monogram Hunter Big Chief. Stevenson brought many friends and family into the tradition including his young son Jeremy. The tribe thrived in the ’90s under his leadership, but in the early 2000s Stevenson had to step away from actively masking to deal with the realities of the day.
In 2014, Big Chief Pie returned to the needle and thread to inspire the next generation of Black Indians. Big Chief Pie and the tribe’s first Big Queen Denice Smith wore black in memory of everybody lost during and after Hurricane Katrina. They were joined by many of their original members over the following years.
Artist Ron Bechet
Ron Bechet is an abstract painter from New Orleans and a relative of the early jazz pioneer Sidney Bechet. He began drawing in the fourth grade, studied art at the University of New Orleans, and went on to earn a graduate degree from Yale University. He returned to New Orleans in 1982, and soon began a career in teaching art, first at Delgado Community College, then at Southern University in New Orleans, and since 1998, at Xavier University. For many years Bechet shared a studio with renowned sculptor, John Scott. Ron Bechet is currently the Victor H. Labat Endowed Professor of the Arts at Xavier University in New Orleans and is a member of NOMA’s Board of Trustees.
Big Chief Darryl Montana
Big Chief Darryl Montana celebrated his 50th year masking as a Black Masking Indian at Mardi Gras 2023. His Seventh Ward Creole family has masked for several generations, beginning in the late 1800s with his great-great uncle “Becate” Baptiste Eugene of the first known tribe, the Creole Wild West. Darryl’s father, Big Chief Allison “Tootie” Montana (1922–2005), was known as the “Chief of Chiefs” and remains a legend within the Black Masking Indian community.
Darryl Montana’s intricate designs and superb beading work have earned him widespread recognition. He received the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant in 2012 and a United States Artist Fellowship in 2015. He has exhibited around the world, including at SITE Santa Fe’s Fourth International Biennial, Beau Monde: Toward a Redeemed Cosmopolitanism, and at Reg Vardy Gallery at the University of Sunderland in England. Recently, the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac in Paris acquired Montana’s 2015 suit for its collection and featured it in the exhibition Black Indians de la Nouvelle-Orléans.
Montana passes along the tradition of Black Masking Indians and his artistry through various classes. He has taught children in workshops and summer programs through Xavier University of Louisiana’s Community Arts Program; and since 2019, he has conducted a series of older adult beading classes at the Louisiana State Museum. Darryl was recognized this year by the Louisiana Folklife Commission as a tradition bearer for carrying on the Black Masking Indian tradition for over 50 years.

Poetry Workshops with Creative Assembly Cohort Member Daniel Fitzpatrick
2024-01-10 15:30 - 17:00, 2024-01-17 15:30 - 17:00, 2024-01-24 15:30 - 17:00
This three-week series of workshops hosted by Creative Assembly Cohort member Daniel Fitzpatrick aims to give poets of all ages and experience levels the space to write. In NOMA’s permanent collection galleries, participants will explore a few techniques that can help to cultivate a habit of poetry and jumpstart new writing. Participants will also discuss ways that visual art can help to understand different approaches to poetry, and how the space between images and words can open windows into the self.
Participants are invited to attend all three sessions or to select one or two of special interest, based on the themes below. Notebooks and pencils, along with reading material tailored to each session, will be provided. All poets will have the opportunity to receive feedback on their work in a supportive group setting or on an individual basis.
Advance registration is required.
Register Now

Schedule
Week One January 10: Poetry as Listening
Discuss poetry as a way of listening—to nature, to the divine, to our own bodies, memories, and emotions—and think about how visual art can cultivate a poetic habit of listening.
Week Two January 17: Poetry as Lens, Poetry as Mirror
Learn different approaches to poems as fashioned objects. How can language become a window to a world beyond itself? How can language itself be the object of poetic experience?
Week Three January 24: Metaphor as Guide
Explore ways that metaphors our minds suggest can help get to the emotional core of experience and guide the drafting and re-drafting process.

Gallery Talk on Portrait Miniatures from the Latter-Schlesinger Collection
2024-01-17 12:30 - 13:00, 2024-01-17 18:00 - 18:30 | New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA, 70119
Join us in the galleries each Wednesday for weekly talks with artists, curators, and other special guests. During these casual conversations, we’ll take a close look at different works currently on view at NOMA.
This week please join Lance Voxel, Museum Floor Lead, for a conversation about Portrait Miniatures from the Latter-Schlesinger Collection on the second-floor Decorative Arts wing. The talk will delve into the fascinating history of miniature portraiture, unraveling the techniques behind their creation, and examining their contemporary counterparts.⁠ This talk will be offered at 12:30 pm and 6 pm.

Free with museum admission. Louisiana residents receive free admission to NOMA on Wednesdays courtesy of The Helis Foundation. When you arrive at NOMA, check in at the front desk for directions to the appropriate gallery.
GET TICKETS
To book your ticket in advance, click the link above and select the day for the gallery talk you’d like to attend.

Book Club Discussion | All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me
2024-01-18 12:00 - 13:00 | New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA, 70119
The NOMA Book Club meets monthly to discuss fiction and non-fiction books related to art in NOMA’s collection and exhibitions. It is an informal group open to anyone on a month-to-month basis. In addition to monthly book discussions, the book club meets periodically for curatorial programs related to the book selections. You do not have to attend every meeting or read every book to join.
Book selections are inspired by the museum’s exhibition schedule. Participants are expected to procure their own copies. Selections are also available at the NOMA Museum Shop, where museum members receive a 10% discount.
Meetings are held in person or via Zoom. All meetings begin at 12 pm.
For information or questions about the NOMA Book Club, please email kmccurdy@noma.org.
Register Now

January 2024
Book Club Discussion | Thursday, January 18, 12 pm

All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me by Patrick Bringley
A fascinating, revelatory portrait of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and its treasures by a former New Yorker staffer who spent a decade as a museum guard.
Millions of people climb the grand marble staircase to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art every year. But only a select few have unrestricted access to every nook and cranny. They’re the guards who roam unobtrusively in dark blue suits, keeping a watchful eye on the two million square foot treasure house. Caught up in his glamorous fledgling career at The New Yorker, Patrick Bringley never thought he’d be one of them. Then his older brother was diagnosed with fatal cancer and he found himself needing to escape the mundane clamor of daily life. So he quit The New Yorker and sought solace in the most beautiful place he knew.
To his surprise and the reader’s delight, this temporary refuge becomes Bringley’s home away from home for a decade. We follow him as he guards delicate treasures from Egypt to Rome, strolls the labyrinths beneath the galleries, wears out nine pairs of company shoes, and marvels at the beautiful works in his care. Bringley enters the museum as a ghost, silent and almost invisible, but soon finds his voice and his tribe: the artworks and their creators and the lively subculture of museum guards—a gorgeous mosaic of artists, musicians, blue-collar stalwarts, immigrants, cutups, and dreamers. As his bonds with his colleagues and the art grow, he comes to understand how fortunate he is to be walled off in this little world, and how much it resembles the best aspects of the larger world to which he gradually, gratefully returns.

Education and outreach initiatives at NOMA are supported in part by the Zemurray Foundation; the Lois and Lloyd Hawkins Jr. Foundation; The Helis Foundation; The Gayle and Tom Benson Foundation; The City of New Orleans; IBERIABANK; The Wagner Foundation; Janice Parmelee and Bill Hammack; the Diversifying Art Museum Leadership Initiative, funded by the Walton Family Foundation and the Ford Foundation; Sara and David Kelso; Patrick F. Taylor Foundation; Dr. Scott S. Cowen; The RosaMary Foundation; The Azby Fund; the Louisiana Division of the Arts, Office of Cultural Development, Department of Culture, Recreation & Tourism, in cooperation with the Louisiana State Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, a Federal agency; The Collins C. Diboll Private Foundation; Burkenroad Foundation; Marian Dreux Van Horn Education Endowment; The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; Ruby K. Worner Trust through the PNC Charitable Trusts Grant Review Committee; The Harry T. Howard III Foundation; New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Foundation, Inc.; Harvey and Marie Orth; The Bruce J. Heim Foundation; and Mrs. Bennett A. Molter, Jr. This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Gallery Talk with Curatorial Fellow Laura Ochoa Rincon
2024-01-24 12:30 - 13:00 | New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA, 70119
Join us in the galleries each Wednesday for weekly talks with artists, curators, and other special guests. During these casual conversations, we’ll take a close look at different works currently on view at NOMA.
This week, join Laura Ochoa Rincon, Decorative Arts Trust Curatorial Fellow for a conversation about the exhibition Ring Redux: The Susan Grant Lewin Collection. This talk will be offered at 12:30 pm and 6 pm.

Free with museum admission. Louisiana residents receive free admission to NOMA on Wednesdays courtesy of The Helis Foundation. When you arrive at NOMA, check in at the front desk for directions to the appropriate gallery.
GET TICKETS
To book your ticket in advance, click the link above and select the day for the gallery talk you’d like to attend.

Film Screening and Panel Discussion: The Black Indians of New Orleans
2024-01-24 18:00
Join us on Wednesday, January 24, in NOMA’s Lapis Center for the Arts for a screening of The Black Indians of New Orleans, directed by Dr. Maurice Martinez. Following a sold-out program on January 7, the museum looks forward to presenting an encore screening of this important film.
A panel discussion follows the documentary. Panelists are Big Chief Darryl Montana, Bruce Sunpie Barnes, and Kamau Wesley Phillips.
This program is free and open to the public. Admission and seating are first come, first served. No registration is required. When you arrive at the museum, check-in at the admissions desk.

This program is organized by Creative Assembly Cohort member Diane Honoré, who is Big Queen of the Yellow Pocahontas.
About the Film
The Black Indians of New Orleans (1976, dir. Maurice M. Martinez, 33 min.)
The Black Indians of New Orleans is the first internationally acclaimed film to explore the origins and rituals of the Black Masking Indians of New Orleans. The film documents the cultural history of the Black Masking Indians, their artful suit creation, music, call and response chants, dance movements, and gatherings for Sunday practices. The film includes sunrise-to-sunset coverage of the Black Indians in their suits on Mardi Gras in the 1970s. The film was produced by Dr. Maurice M. Martinez, a New Orleans–born poet, photographer, musician, filmmaker, and scholar steeped in African American culture through both his heritage and academic endeavors.
View Trailer

ABOUT THE PANELISTS

Big Chief Darryl Montana
Big Chief Darryl Montana celebrated his 50th year masking as a Black Masking Indian at Mardi Gras 2023. His Seventh Ward Creole family has masked for several generations, beginning in the late 1800s with his great-great uncle “Becate” Baptiste Eugene of the first known tribe, the Creole Wild West. Darryl’s father, Big Chief Allison “Tootie” Montana (1922–2005), was known as the “Chief of Chiefs” and remains a legend within the Black Masking Indian community.
Darryl Montana’s intricate designs and superb beading work have earned him widespread recognition. He received the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant in 2012 and a United States Artist Fellowship in 2015. He has exhibited around the world, including at SITE Santa Fe’s Fourth International Biennial, Beau Monde: Toward a Redeemed Cosmopolitanism, and at Reg Vardy Gallery at the University of Sunderland in England. Recently, the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac in Paris acquired Montana’s 2015 suit for its collection and featured it in the exhibition Black Indians de la Nouvelle-Orléans.
Montana passes along the tradition of Black Masking Indians and his artistry through various classes. He has taught children in workshops and summer programs through Xavier University of Louisiana’s Community Arts Program; and since 2019, he has conducted a series of older adult beading classes at the Louisiana State Museum. Darryl was recognized this year by the Louisiana Folklife Commission as a tradition bearer for carrying on the Black Masking Indian tradition for over 50 years.

Bruce Sunpie Barnes—Bruce Sunpie Barnes
Is a veteran musician, park ranger, actor, former high school biology teacher, former college football All-American, and former NFL player for the Kansas City Chiefs. Barnes’s career has taken him far and wide and he has traveled to over 35 countries playing his own style of blues, zydeco, and Afro-Louisiana music incorporating Caribbean and African-influenced rhythms and melodies. He is a multi-instrumentalist playing piano, percussion, harmonica, and he learned to play accordion from some of the best, including Fernest Arceneaux, John Delafose, and Clayton Sampy. With his musical group Sunpie and the Louisiana Sunspots, he has played festivals and concerts internationally, and has recorded critically acclaimed CDs. Barnes is deeply involved in New Orleans parade culture and takes his music to the streets. He is Second Chief of the North Side Skull and Bone Gang, one of the oldest existing carnival groups in New Orleans and a member of the Black Men of Labor Social Aid and Pleasure Club.
Kamau Wesley Phillips—KAMAU & Spirit of the Drums
A highly regarded drummer and educator, Kamau Wesley Phillips regularly teaches about African rhythms, the musical connections between New Orleans and western African, and the joy of playing drums. He masks Black Indian and plays drums forthe Spirit of FiYaYa and the Mandingo Warriors for several decades.

Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined | Member Preview
2024-01-30 18:30 - 20:00 | New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA, 70119
Be the first to experience Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined.
NOMA members are invited to a special preview to explore the highly anticipated exhibition before it opens to the public.
Your membership grants you free admission to the museum all year long, discounted tickets to programs and events, and 10% off in the NOMA Museum Shop.
No registration is required.
Have a question about membership? Contact us at membership@noma.org or 504.658.5130.
Join Now

About the Exhibition
This major solo exhibition of work by Wangechi Mutu brings together nearly one hundred sculptures, paintings, collages, drawings, and films to present the breadth of the Kenyan–American artist’s multidisciplinary practice from the mid-1990s to today.
Learn More

Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined is organized by the New Museum, New York. Lead support for this exhibition is provided by the Henry Luce Foundation. Generous support for this exhibition is provided by the Ed Bradley Family Foundation, Agnes Gund, Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support is provided by The Robert Lehman Foundation. Support for the accompanying publication has been provided by the A4 Arts Foundation.
The presentation in New Orleans is sponsored by the Ford Foundation. Additional support is provided by Delta Airlines, Gladstone Gallery, Walda Besthoff, Victoria Miro Gallery, The Windsor Court, The Azby Fund, Keith Fox and Tom Keyes, Aimée Farnet Siegel and Mike Siegel, Robin Rankin, Elizabeth Boh, Pat Mitchell and Scott Seydel, Harvey and Marie Orth, and Jeff Childers and Onay Gutierrez.

Gallery Talk and Performance Inspired by Wangechi Mutu’s Crocodylus with Creative Assembly Cohort Member Lauren Messina and Javier Banks
2024-01-31 12:30
Expand your experience of Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined with monthly gallery talks inside the museum or in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden on select Wednesdays: January 31, February 7, March 6, April 3, May 1, June 5, July 10.
Inspired by Wangechi Mutu’s Crocodylus sculpture in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden, Creative Assembly Cohort member Lauren Messina has choreographed a dance that embodies her interpretation of the work’s transformative nature, “being—not woman, not animal,” and “depicting power and deep scrutiny of human relations between the body and nature.” The event begins with a short talk by Messina about the sculpture and creating the dance, followed by a performance from Javier Banks alongside the sculpture.
Gallery talks are free with museum admission. Louisiana residents receive free admission on Wednesdays courtesy of The Helis Foundation.
To book your ticket for this gallery talk in advance, click the link below.
Get Tickets
About the Exhibition
This major solo exhibition of work by Wangechi Mutu brings together nearly one hundred sculptures, paintings, collages, drawings, and films to present the breadth of the Kenyan–American artists’ multidisciplinary practice from the mid-1990s to today. On view January 31–July 14, 2024, Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined traces connections between recent developments in Mutu’s sculptures and her decades-long exploration of the legacies of colonialism, globalization, and African and diasporic cultural traditions. The exhibition travels to NOMA from the New Museum, New York.
Learn More
About the Performers
Lauren Messina
Lauren Ashlee Messina, M.F.A. (she/her) is a Big Easy Award-winning dance choreographer with a heart for community engagement. Born in Springfield, Illinois, Lauren has developed her career in the Greater New Orleans area in collaboration with the Marigny Opera Ballet, KM Dance Project, the New Orleans Opera, ELLEvate Dance Company, Dow-Dance Company’s Binge Dance Festival, and the CAC New Orleans as a 2022 Performing Artist-in-Residence. Her choreography has been performed at the New York Jazz Choreography Project, the 92nd Street Y, the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, and the Mississippi Museum of Art. Lauren received the Ailey School’s Oprah Winfrey Foundation Scholarship and participated in the Moving Toward Justice Open Workshop pilot program at Gibney Dance. She is a 2023 Platforms Fund grant recipient, founder of My Free Dance Class, and host of The Parent Artist Podcast on YouTube. In addition to dance, Lauren participated as a video editor for NOVAC’s 2022-2023 Community Documentary Cohort and published the creativity journal and college editions of ChatGPT Prompts for Dancers (available on Amazon). Lauren aims to create meaningful movement experiences that inspire empathy and transformation by collaborating with artists across disciplines in a thriving collective environment that prioritizes mutual respect, trust, and care.
Javier Banks
Javier Banks was born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and began dancing at the age of fourteen. They studied at Dancers’ Workshop, under Sharon Mathews and Susan Perlis. With awarded scholarships, Banks also studied at the American Ballet Theatre and Dance Theatre of Harlem. As a freelance dancer, they have performed works with the Alaya Dance Company, Kennedy Dancers, Brooklyn Ballet, Marigny Opera Ballet, and Ballet Hysell.

Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined is organized by the New Museum, New York. Lead support for this exhibition is provided by the Henry Luce Foundation. Generous support for this exhibition is provided by the Ed Bradley Family Foundation, Agnes Gund, Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support is provided by The Robert Lehman Foundation. Support for the accompanying publication has been provided by the A4 Arts Foundation.
The presentation in New Orleans is sponsored by the Ford Foundation. Additional support is provided by Delta Airlines, Gladstone Gallery, Walda Besthoff, Victoria Miro Gallery, The Windsor Court, Keith Fox and Tom Keyes, Aimée Farnet Siegel and Mike Siegel, Robin Rankin, Elizabeth Boh, Pat Mitchell and Scott Seydel, Harvey and Marie Orth, and Jeff Childers and Onay Gutierrez.
