New Orleans Museum of Art

Christmas Storytime at NOMA
2023-12-21 15:30 (America/Chicago)
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

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.

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.

Gallery Talk on Debbie Fleming Caffery: In Light of Everything with Curator Brian Piper
2023-12-13 12:30 - 13:00, 2023-12-06 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.

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.
Register Now
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.

Hanukkah Storytime at NOMA
2023-12-07 15:30

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.

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.

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.

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.
Get Tickets
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.

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.

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).

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.
Register Now

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.

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.
REGISTER NOW
Not a Member?

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.
Join Today

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.

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)

Museum Store Sunday
2023-11-26 10:00 - 17:00
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).

Gallery Talk in Spanglish (Spanish and English): Fernando Botero’s Mother and Child
2023-11-22 12:30 - 13:00 | 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, join Museum Educator, Laura Moreno, for conversations about Fernando Botero’s influence on the Colombian canon with a focus on Mother and Child in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden. This talk will be presented in Spanglish—a mix of Spanish and English.

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.

Music in the Garden Feat. Salvador Avila and Susanne Ortner
2023-11-19 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 19
Salvador Avila (duo)
Susanne Ortner (duo)

Gallery Talk on Fashioning America: Grit to Glamour with Curator Mel Buchanan
2023-11-15 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 Mel Buchanan, RosaMary Curator of Decorative Arts and Design, for a conversation about the exhibition Fashioning America: Grit to Glamour.

Fashioning America admission required. 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.

Music in the Garden Feat. Blan Blan and Tatiana Pino
2023-11-12 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 12
Blan Blan (duo)
Tatiana Pino (solo cello)

Starstruck: A Fashion Odyssey Presented by First Horizon
2023-11-10 19:00 - 23:00 | New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA, 70119
You’re Invited to
Starstruck: A Fashion Odyssey
Presented by First Horizon
Patron Party | 7–8 pm
Gala | 8–11 pm
Odyssey Chairs
Elly and Merritt Lane
Permele and Garner Robinson
NVC Chair
Elizabeth Grimes

Celebrate NOMA during an elegant evening inspired by the star-studded, iconic designs featured in Fashioning America: Grit to Glamour. One of the most anticipated events of the fall, Odyssey raises necessary funds supporting NOMA’s exhibitions, programs, and initiatives all year round.

Silent Auction
Exclusive, one-of-a-kind experiences at NOMA.

Dinner or Cocktail Party in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden Pavilion

Outdoor Movie Night in
the Besthoff Sculpture Garden

NOMA Rooftop Cocktail Party

Entertainment​

Dr. Michael White Quartet
Dr. Michael White is an accomplished, multi-faceted New Orleans-based clarinetist, bandleader, composer, musicologist, jazz historian, and educator widely regarded as one of the leading authorities and culture-bearers of traditional New Orleans jazz music. With a career now spanning over three decades, Michael White continues to grow his musical legacy as one of the authoritative figures on New Orleans Jazz Music, and one of the finest clarinetists to walk the streets of the crescent city.

Rebirth Brass Band
Whether seen on HBO’s Treme or at their legendary Tuesday night gig at The Maple Leaf, Grammy-winning Rebirth Brass Band is a true New Orleans institution. Formed in 1983 by the Frazier brothers, the band has evolved from playing the streets of the French Quarter to playing festivals and stages all over the world. While committed to upholding the tradition of brass bands, they’ve also extended themselves into the realms of funk and hip-hop to create their signature sound.

DJ Brice Nice
Brice Nice is a radio and club DJ, music historian, and vinyl junkie. He hosts a weekly Block Party radio show on WWOZ New Orleans 90.7. Nice has rocked parties in just about every venue in New Orleans such as House of Blues, Metro, Republic, and Ampersand. His taste is respected internationally and his musical versatility is unmatched in the Crescent City. From all 45 sets of New Orleans and Gulf Coast R&B, Soul, Garage, Funk, Disco, rocking all original 12″ singles to digital DJing, Brice is not limited to any one genre and can rock any crowd.

Catering

Event Design

Personal Fashion Illustration Sketches by Artist Rhonda Corley

Thank You to Our Current Sponsors
Presenting Sponsor

Platinum

Odyssean

The Eugenie and Joseph Jones Family Foundation

Feil Family Foundation

The Goldring Family Foundation

Kim and Thomas Henley

Elly and Merritt Lane

The Lupin Foundation

Permele and Garner Robinson

Jane and Rodney Steiner

Zemurray Foundation

Benefactor

Walda Besthoff

Elizabeth A. Boh

Carey Bond and Henry Lambert

Katherine and Tony Gelderman

The Helis Foundation

Elizabeth and Willy Monaghan

Donna and Benjamin Rosen

Aimée and Mike Siegel

Vulcan Materials Company

Supporter

Anonymous
Jennifer and Fred Heebe
Robin Rankin and Nassir Marrouche

AOS Interior Environments
Dr. and Mrs. Henry J. Hefler, Jr.
Linda and Gary Raphael

Ella Bartlow
Sarah and Marshall Hevron
Carol and Ronnie Rauch

Margaret and Ken Beer
Mia and Minor Jahncke
Red River Bank

Bellwether Technology Corporation
Sara and David Kelso
Anne and Edmund Redd

Deanna Blackburn
Diane Sustendal Labouisse
Pixie and Jimmy Reiss

Edel Blanks
Mary Lucy and David Lane
Mary Grace and Perrin Rome

Virginia Boulet and Alvin R. Albe, Jr.
Sally and Jay Lapeyre
Pamela and William Ryan

Susan and Ralph Brennan
Renee and Paul Masinter
Katherine and Robbie Saer

Lynne Burkart
Cammie and Charles Mayer
Saks Fifth Avenue

Caroline and Murray Calhoun
Rick and Lynne McMillan
Sheila and Britton Sanderford

Mathilde and Richard Currence
Megan Evans Interiors
Leigh Ann Schell and McGready Richeson

Eileen and Joey Devall
Gregory Morey and Scott James
Robyn and Andrew Schwarz

Shaun and Foster Duncan
Denise and Paul Morse
Susu and Andrew Stall

Catherine and David Edwards
J. Edgar Monroe Foundation
Pamela and Robert Steeg

EskewDumezRipple
Jill Knight Nalty
Susan Talley and Jay Gulotta

Sarah and Richard Freeman
Thomas M. O’Keefe
Suzanne and Robert Thomas

Frischhertz Electric Co., Inc.
Drs. Joy and Howard Osofsky
Kathleen and Charlie Van Horn

Julie and Ted George
Judith Young Oudt
Suzie and Pierre G. Villere

Elizabeth and Chip Goodyear
Machelle and John Payne
Jenny and Robb Vorhoff

Drs. Leslie and Brad Gottsegen
Brad and Dodie Powers
Lele and Brent Wood

Susan and Jimmy Gundlach

Helen and Tim Young

Media Sponsors

Premium Patrons

Valerie Besthoff
Parker and Toto Robinson
Kenya and Tod Smith

Courtney Coleman

Patrons

Holly Callia

Dathel and John Georges
Margaret Maxwell

CAPTRUST
Joe Giarusso
Becky and Tommy McGoey

Basi and Michael Carbine
Stephanie Leigh Goliwas
Hope and James Meyer

Mary Cavanaugh
Claudio Hemb
Dr. and Mrs. J. Lockwood Ochsner, Jr.

Mr. and Mrs. Dane S. Ciolino
Marilee and Andew Hovet
Mary Celeste O’Neill

Philip DeNormandie
Joan and Steven Jacob
David G. Perlis

Lauren and Jeffrey Doussan
Tully Forrester Jordan
Susan and Mauricio Prieto

Permele and William Doyle
Anne Teague Landis and Cuyler Boad
Susanne and David Purvis

Margo and Clancy DuBos
Patti and Robert Lapeyre
Melissa and Alfred Rufty

Ann R. Duffy and Dr. John R. Skinner
Courtney and Ted Le Clercq
Troy Scroggins

Sweet and Ben Dupuy
Betty and Jerry Maizlish
Melanee and Steve Usdin

Liz and John Eiser
Jamie M. Manders, DDS and James M. Riopelle, MD
Zannie and Glenn Voss

Eric and Nadia France
Beverly Matheney
Tim and Jenny Williamson

Young Fellows Patron

Mary Beth Benjamin
Haley Helm
Amy and Garrison Neill

Billion Dollar Boy
Shane M Hubbs and Ashley Rayborn
Henry Opotowsky

Katie and Blake Brinson
Samantha Jacob
Permele Robinson

Laura Finn and Nigel Campbell
Elizabeth Jacob
Meg Roussel

Alejandra Cano
Anne S. Kock
Malakani Severson

Kelly Cravens
Margaux and Stew Krane
Samuel and Andrea Scofield

Julia-Claire Evans
Caroline Lane
Meghan Spell

Andre Feigler
Caroline Lee
Martha Thibaut

Kate Fitzgerald and Merrick Sloss
Dreda and Conor Lutkewitte
Claire Elizabeth Thriffiley

Mirell and Augie Gallo
Kyle Lutkewitte
Dr. Michelle Todd

Elizabeth Grimes
Jeremy Meyer
Jennie Cannon West and Jason Richards

Odyssey Committee

Tony and Dana Adams
Jennifer and Fred Heebe
Jill Nalty

Meg and Will Baldwin
Elizabeth Hefler
Amy and Garrison Neill

Margaret and Ken Beer
Kim and Thomas Henley
Thomas O’Keefe

Walda Besthoff
Sarah and Marshall Hevron
Machelle and John

Elizabeth Boh
Jane Scott and Philip Hodges
Sarah and Phil Petitto

Caroline and Murray Calhoun
Deirdre and Christian Hooper
Marilyn and Ed Pointer

Basi and Michael Carbine
Marilee and Andrew Hovet
Taylor and Martin Pospisil

Anne Lynn and Storey Charbonnet
Scott and Janet Howard
Dodie and Brad Powers

Gretchen and Dook Chase
Mia and Minor Jahncke
Susan and Mauricio Prieto

Carolyn and Michael Christovich
John and Boo Kallenborn
Anne and Edmund Redd

Wendy and Dane Ciolino
Carey Bond and Henry Lambert
Leigh Ann and McGready Richeson

Courtney Coleman
Anne Teague Landis and Cuyler Boad
Permele and Garner Robinson

Mathilde and Richard Currence
Elly and Merritt Lane
Mary Grace and Perrin Rome

Meghan L. Donelon
Mary Lucy and David Lane
Melissa and Alfred Rufty

Pam and William Doyle
Patti and Robert Lapeyre
Katherine and Robbie Saer

Sweet and Ben Dupuy
Sally and Jay Lapeyre
Aimee and Mike Siegel

Catherine and David Edwards
Courtney and Ted Le Clercq
Liz and Poco Sloss

Sarah and Gregory Feirn
Ralph Mahana
Kenya and Tod Smith

Katherine and Tony Gelderman
Catherine Makk
Susu and Andrew Stall

Julie and Ted George
Robin Marrouche
Pamela and Robert Steeg

Dathel and John Georges
Renee and Paul Masinter
Jane and Rodney Steiner

Joe Giarusso
Beverly Matheney
Meredith and Minor Strachan

Stephanie Leigh Goliwas
Margaret Maxwell
Katie and Gray Stream

Elizabeth and Chip Goodyear
Cammie and Charles Mayer
Jenny and Robb Vorhoff

Leslie and Brad Gottsegen
Sam and Skip McAloon
Zannie and Glenn Voss

Elizabeth Grimes
Becky and Timmy McGoey
Jenny and Tim Williamson

Karen and Mark Gundlach

Lele and Brent Wood

Odyssey Young Fellows Committee

Ella and Christopher Baldwin

Caroline Lane
Josh Reed

Mary Beth Benjamin

Brett and James Lapeyre

Laura Rutledge

Katie and Blake Brinson

Caitlin and Killian Lapeyre

Jennifer Schnidman

Eliana Chiovetta

Dreda and Conor Lutkewitte

Sarah and Doug Stokes

Julia Craig and Andrew Stall

Mamta Melwani
Claire Thriffiley

Andre Feigler
Charlie Mentz

Rosalind and Peter Wilson

Carroll Gelderman and Emory Zimmer

Geoffrey Philabaum and Jacob Anderson
Eugenie Stall

Benjamin Karp

Partner Session on Race, Equity, and Museums
2023-11-08 17:30 - 19:00
As part of our commitment to be an antiracist and welcoming institution, NOMA is hosting a series of participatory conversations to frankly discuss race, equity, and the museum field and the responsibilities museums have to their audiences. Our goal is to listen to and address the needs of the communities we serve, while deeply assessing opportunities for growth and partnership.
Each conversation will be moderated by an outside moderator and include invited community stakeholders, NOMA staff, and curators.
Due to capacity limitations, advanced registration is requested.
Register Now
If you have any questions, please email partnersessions@noma.org.

Partner Session Dates and Locations
Wednesday, November 8, 5:30 pm in NOMA’s Lapis Center for the Arts
Tuesday, November 14, 5:30 pm in NOMA’s Lapis Center for the Arts
Tuesday, December 12, 8:30 am at Chapter IV (1301 Gravier Street)
Tuesday, January 16, 5:30 pm in NOMA’s Lapis Center for the Arts — Canceled due to inclement weather.
Wednesday, February 28, 8:30 am at Chapter IV (1301 Gravier Street)
Wednesday, March 20, 5:30 pm in NOMA’s Lapis Center for the Art

Gallery Talk on Fashioning America: Grit to Glamour
2023-11-08 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 Museum Shop Manager, Jackie DeBlieux, for a conversation about American fashion designer Christian Siriano’s influence on the fashion industry with focus on Dress for Nicole Byer, Emmy Awards Red Carpet.
Fashioning America: Grit to Glamour admission is required. 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.

Mini Masters at the Library
2023-11-06 10:30 - 11:30 | Norman Mayer Library, 3001 Gentilly Boulevard, New Orleans, LA, 70122, United States
NOMA and the New Orleans Public Library have partnered to bring together art and early literacy activities for this community program designed for children ages 2–5 and their caregivers. Inspired by NOMA’s Mini Masters, an arts-integration program that provides visual arts experiences and museum interaction for preschool students, participants of Mini Masters at the Library will engage in hands-on art-making activities and develop the early literacy skills needed to become ready to read.
Monday, November 6 — Communities and Culture: Exploring our world creatively with people, places, and things (Register now)
Monday, November 13 — Our Environment: A focus on seasons, weather, plants, water, astronomy, and recycling (Register now)
Monday, December 4 — Elements of Art: Awareness of shape, color, line, space, texture, form and value (Register now)
Monday, December 11 — Living Creatures: An artistic look at animals, insects, and their habitats (Register now)
This program is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Please note: Each session takes place at the Norman Mayer Library (3001 Gentilly Boulevard).

NOMA is grateful to the following donors for their support of the Mini Masters program: The City of New Orleans, First Horizon, Janice Parmelee and Bill Hammack, Sara and David Kelso, Karen and Henry Coaxum, Hancock Whitney, and The Patrick F. Taylor Foundation.

Music in the Garden Feat. Victoria Doutón and Simon Moushabeck
2023-11-05 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 5th
Victoria Doutón (trio)
Simon Moushabeck (solo accordion)

NOMA at Night Feat. Double Whisky Trio and Sunpie & the Louisiana Sunspots
2023-11-03 18:00 - 22:00 | New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA, 70119
Unwind from the week with NOMA at Night—an evening of music, art, and fun at the New Orleans Museum of Art.
On select Fridays throughout the year, we’re open late so that you can #ExploreNOMA after hours, enjoy special performances and pop-ups, and get creative.
Tickets to NOMA at Night include access to the special exhibition Fashioning America: Grit to Glamour.
$30 General Admission | $15 for Members
PURCHASE TICKETS
Please note that food and drinks are not included in the ticket price. They are available for purchase directly from our partner vendors.

NOMA AT NIGHT LINE-UP
Meet NOMA’s 2023-24 Creative Assembly cohort during an evening of live music, food, tours, and more inspired by this year’s Creative Assembly theme: New Orleans Neighborhoods.

Live Performance by Double Whisky Trio
6:15–7:30 pm in the Great Hall

Live Performance by Sunpie & the Louisiana Sunspots
8:00–9:30 pm in the Lapis Center for the Arts
Artist Lounge
6:00–9:30 pm in the Great Hall
Engage in insightful conversations with the Creative Assembly cohort about their artistic processes, gain a deeper understanding of their inspirations, and discover the stories behind their creations.
Gallery Talk with Community Engagement Manager Kelci Baker
6:30 pm and 9 pm in the first-floor elevator lobby
Join Community Engagement Manager, Kelci Baker, for a talk on the inspiration behind the theme for this year’s Creative Assembly, what to expect to see from the cohort during their Assembly year, and the Forever mural by Odili Donald Odita, a representation of the crossroads of life in New Orleans.
Scavenger Hunt
6:00–9:30 pm in Coleman Courtyard
Learn more about the new Creative Assembly Cohort members through a scavenger hunt, and win an exclusive prize.
Art-Making Activity: Memories
6:00–9:30 pm in the first-floor elevator lobby

Featured Exhibition | Fashioning America: Grit to Glamour
From cowboy boots and bathing suits to Hollywood gowns and streetwear, Fashioning America: Grit to Glamour presents American fashion as a powerful emblem of global visual culture. Highlighting historical garments, ready-to-wear classics, and iconic red carpet fashion moments, Fashioning America demonstrates the widespread impact of media and celebrity culture through fashion. This bilingual Spanish–English presentation includes more than 100 objects—from a rare 19th-century denim frock coat to a zero-waste wedding dress and Savage X Fenty lingerie—and amplifies the voices of Indigenous, Black, immigrant, and women designers who are often left out of dominant narratives of American fashion history.

Additional Credits
Mahmoud Chouki
NOMA is pleased to work with internationally renowned multi-instrumentalist and composer Mahmoud Chouki, who is organizing musical performances for each NOMA at Night program in collaboration with museum staff.
Thank You to Our Supporters
NOMA at Night is supported in part by grant funds from the Azby Fund; Ruby K. Worner Charitable Trust through the PNC Charitable Trusts Grant Review Committee; New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Foundation; and the Louisiana Division of the Arts, Office of Cultural Development, Department of Culture, Recreation, and Tourism, in cooperation with the Louisiana State Arts Council. Funding has also been provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Iris 1956 in the NOMA Museum Shop
2023-11-03 18:00 - 21:00 | NOMA Museum Shop
In conjunction with Fashioning America: Grit to Glamour, the NOMA Museum Shop is hosting a permanent jewelry pop-up by Iris 1956 on Friday, November 3, during NOMA at Night, 6–9 pm. Products are available in-store only.

From the Designer
Iris 1956 imagines a new modern ideal in jewelry that balances timeless, ancient, and modern-day minimalist organic forms and shapes into undeniable conversation pieces with refined organic texture. Inspired by ancient culture and nature, our pieces are carefully crafted using the lost-wax casting technique to showcase a sophisticated aesthetic.

Elders Sacred Talk Series with Ronnie Moore and Doratha “Dodie” Smith Simmons
2023-11-01 17:30 | New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA, 70119
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 November 1, 5:30 pm, in NOMA’s Lapis Center for the Arts, the program will highlight Civil Rights activists Ronnie Moore and Doratha “Dodie” Smith Simmons. 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.
Plan Your Visit
To book your ticket in advance, click the link above.

About the Speakers

Ronnie Moore
Ronnie Moore is a veteran civil rights activist, community developer, and photographer. At the age of 15, he and his peers attempted to integrate a public park in his hometown of New Orleans. In 1961, while a student at Southern University in Baton Rouge, he led a group of 2,500 students to the state capitol to protest the city's hiring policies and segregated lunch counters. That activism led to his arrest and expulsion from the university and prompted his full-time commitment to CORE (the Congress of Racial Equality). Moore worked as a field secretary for CORE from 1961 to 1965, which included establishing voter registration initiatives in parts of Louisiana. From 1965 – 1973, he worked as the executive director of the Scholarship, Education and Defense Fund for Racial Equality, Inc. Moore also served as the director of the Institute for Resident Initiatives at Tulane University from 1996 to 2005 and the director of the African American Youth Congress from 1982 to 1994. During his lifetime of activism, Moore was arrested over 17 times and held in solitary confinement for 56 days for advocating for voting rights in Louisiana.

Doratha “Dodie” Smith-Simmons
Doratha “Dodie” Smith-Simmons joined New Orleans chapter of CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) in 1961 when she was 14 or 15 years old. It was one of the most active chapters in the region and she became a very active member participating in sit-ins and picketing. Her participation resulted in police arresting her several times. Her dedication led her to become a Freedom Rider and test the law that made segregation on public buses unconstitutional. She and other members of the New Orleans CORE rode a bus from New Orleans to McComb, MS where they were met with severe violence and some of them suffered life-threatening injuries. “After the rides, Smith-Simmons trained freedom riders and taught members how to participate in nonviolent protests. In the ‘60s, she also worked to integrate hotels and Florida beaches and participated in the March on Washington.

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.

Book Club Discussion: The Chiffon Trenches: A Memoir
2023-10-26 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.
Register Now

October 2023
Book Club Discussion | Thursday, October 26, 12 pm

The Chiffon Trenches: A Memoir by André Leon Talley
Ballantine Books, 2021, ISBN-13: 978-0593129272
During André Leon Talley’s first magazine job, alongside Andy Warhol at Interview, a fateful meeting with Karl Lagerfeld began a decades-long friendship with the enigmatic, often caustic designer. Propelled into the upper echelons by his knowledge and adoration of fashion, André moved to Paris as bureau chief of John Fairchild’s Women’s Wear Daily, befriending fashion’s most important designers (Halston, Yves Saint Laurent, Oscar de la Renta). But as André made friends, he also made enemies. A racially tinged encounter with a member of the house of Yves Saint Laurent sent him back to New York and into the offices of Vogue under Grace Mirabella.
There, he eventually became creative director, developing an unlikely but intimate friendship with Anna Wintour. As she rose to the top of Vogue’s masthead, André also ascended, and soon became the most influential man in fashion.
The Chiffon Trenches offers a candid look at the who’s who of the last fifty years of fashion. At once ruthless and empathetic, this engaging memoir tells with raw honesty the story of how André not only survived the brutal style landscape but thrived—despite racism, illicit rumors, and all the other challenges of this notoriously cutthroat industry—to become one of the most renowned voices and faces in fashion.

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.
