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Here's the latest on arts and cultural events happening in the Greater New Orleans area. Listen for Johnny Scott's updates on Magic 101.9!
Click here for a handy guide to 2008 Festivals in South Louisiana...other local/area arts events are listed below:
New Orleans Ballet Assocation
www.nobadance.com
UP NEXT!
ABSOLUTE BALLET! Featuring Dancers of Pacific Northwest Ballet
MAY 9 & 10, 8 p.m.
Dixon Hall, Tulane University
Click on the Nobadance link to order tickets...
"There is no one like Milov in the size and scope of his dancing." -Seattle Post-Intelligencer |
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New Orleans Museum of Art
City Park
www.noma.org
NEW HOURS! Now open five days a week, Wednesday, 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Thursday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
The New Orleans Museum of Art Presents George Rodrigue's Louisiana: Cajuns, Blue Dogs, and Beyond Katrina
Work of Louisiana's most famous contemporary artist to be featured in retrospective
 NEW ORLEANS - The New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) is hosting a retrospective featuring the work of famed Louisiana artist George Rodrigue, best known for his now-iconic Blue Dog series. The exhibition, which will run until June 8, will feature over forty years of RodrigueÕs work showcasing his evolution as Louisiana's most famous contemporary artist.
"George Rodrigue is a Louisiana treasure," said NOMA Director E. John Bullard, Òand the museum is proud to showcase the past forty years of his work. From the Blue Dog and Louisiana landscapes to hurricanes and scenes of Cajun life, George Rodrigue's art epitomizes a culture that is distinctly Louisianan.Ó
The three-month exhibition will include nearly two hundred original works which have been borrowed from private and public collections across the country. Highlights include Watchdog, his very first Blue Dog painting, two of his greatest Cajun works, Jolie Blonde and The Aioli Dinner as well as commissions for Neiman Marcus and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, presidential portraits and examples from the Hurricanes and Bodies series. Early works, sketch books and memorabilia from the artistÕs personal collection will also be featured.
"This is not your typical exhibition," says Rodrigue, "anyone who knows my art realizes that my greatest influence is Louisiana, so it is particularly exciting to be featured by the New Orleans Museum of Art."
Rodrigue, a native of New Iberia, Louisiana, the heart of "Cajun country," began painting Oak trees in the late 1960's before expanding his creations to include his interpretations of various myths and Cajun scenes. His paintings are credited with heralding a revival of Cajun culture that swept the country in the 1970's.
In 1984, Rodrigue's Blue Dog, based on the Cajun legend of a loup-garou or werewolf, first appeared, and the continuous series of original paintings and prints catapulted him to a new level of fame in the art world and the Blue Dog has become a Pop Art icon. The exhibition includes portraits of famous Louisianans and presidents, a unique abstract series interpreting Hurricanes and most recently, Bodies, which reflect a return to the bayou and the classical nude.
 In 2006, Rodrigue was featured in the Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism's "Come Fall in Love with Louisiana All Over Again" campaign. The campaign's goal was to reignite the state's tourism industry following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and Rodrigue was the sole representative from the visual arts community.
For the Rodrigue exhibition, Admission for Louisiana adults is $5.00 (seniors 65 and older $4.00) and $10.00 for non-residents (seniors 65 and older $9.00.) All children under 18 are admitted free courtesy of The Helis Foundation.
An audio tour of the exhibition featuring commentary from the artist and his wife Wendy Rodrigue, is available with admission.
The exhibition was made possible by generous funding from the following sponsors: Acadian Ambulance Service, Chevron, Lakeside Shopping Center and The Feil Organization, and Anonymous Donors. Additional support was received from The Helis Foundation, the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport and WWL-TV.
Editor's Note: Images from the exhibition and a full list of works are available upon request.
Contemporary Arts Center
900 Camp St.
www.cacno.org
ArtSpeak 2008!
The ArtSpeak series is back at the CAC! One Wednesday a month, enjoy moderated discussions and slide presentations with visual artists from the New Orleans community. Everyone is invited to attend. Free admission. Sponsored by National Art & Hobby.
ArtSpeak is organized by the CAC’s Visual Arts Committee. This advisory committee is composed of leading New Orleans artists and is appointed by the CAC Board of Trustees. Held once a month throughout each season, ArtSpeak provides a forum for area artists to discuss their art with one another. At each program, three artists offer twenty-minute slide presentations on their work, followed by one hour of discussion.
Pearson-Widrig Dance Theatre of New York
May 31 8pm
Tickets: $25 gen.; $20 students, seniors; $15 members
Since 1987, the PearsonWidring Dance Theatre, led by artistic directors Sara Pearson and Patrik Widrig, has gained an international following for work which transforms the familiar into the mysterious, the subversive, and the intimate, creating and presenting "American dance theater at its funniest and most compelling" (NZZ, Switzerland).
The company will present Katrina, Katrina: Love Letters to New Orleans, a full-evening dance/theater/video "live documentary" which addresses and embodies the unfathomable loss and love felt by so many, as well as chronicling the historical, political and personal decisions that are affecting the recovery of individuals and the city itself. All text and video are continually evolving as the work tours from city to city. The Washington Post calls it "heart-wrenching and wryly comic."
PWDT will also perform an excerpt of The Return of Lot's Wife, an edgy dance/theater/salt epic in which Lot's Wife finally confronts God in her 1950's Brooklyn kitchen. Through beautifully choreographed images, heartbreakingly funny monologues, original music, and the poetry of 14th Century Persian mystic Hafiz, this poignant sequel to the Old Testament tale has wowed audiences with its breathtaking finale featuring dancers swathed in swirling arcs of salt and light.
To purchase tickets: visit the CAC (900 Camp St.) from 11am-4pm; or all the CAC Box Office at 528-3800. On day of event, tickets can also be purchased in person from 11 a.m. to one-half hour after curtain.
Louisiana Children's Museum
420 Julia Street
www.lcm.org
Check out the ongoing activities for 2008!
Toddler Time - Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10a.m.
Join us in First Adventures for a special story, music and art project.
Theatrical Storytelling - everyday at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.
Art Trek - Daily art projects in the Art Trek studio. Check here for activities.
Weekly free child psychologist consultations: Wednesdays, 1 p.m. - 4:30p.m.; Thursdays 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.; Saturdays 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.
LA SPCA Pet Care - Second Thursdays 10 a.m.
C.Y.C.L.E.S. - Louise S. McGehee students present C.Y.C.L.E.S, a recycled art program on the third Thursday of the month at 10 a.m.
www.lpomusic.org
Gershwin Revue
May 9th - 7:30pm First Baptist Church, Covington
May 10, 2008 - 8:00pm First Baptist, New Orleans
Gershwin: An American in Paris
Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue
Gershwin: Suite from Porgy and Bess
Celebrate the unforgettable combination of jazz-inspired melodies, steamy rhythms and Classical composition that is only found in the music of George Gershwin. Performing Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris and selections from Porgy and Bess, Maestro Carlos Miguel Prieto and the Dillard University Chorus present the extraordinary finale of the Spotlight Series.
Purchase tickets online here.
The Historic New Orleans Collection
www.hnoc.org
May 2008
"The French and Indian War" • A lecture by Dr. Fred Anderson
presented by The Historic New Orleans Collection in partnership with the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Louisiana and the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Louisiana
Wednesday, May 14 • 6:30 p.m. • Boyd Cruise Room, Williams Research Center, 410 Chartres Street
Registration fee: $45, includes reception following lecture
Professor of history at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Dr. Anderson is the author or editor of five books, including Crucible of War: The Seven Years’ War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754–1766 (2000), which won the 2001 Francis Parkman Prize as best book in American history. His newest book, The War That Made America: A Short History of the French and Indian War (2005), is the companion volume for the PBS television series of the same name. In addition to presenting the evening lecture at The Collection, Dr. Anderson will offer a teachers’ workshop and a program for students. Please call (504) 523-4662 to register.
Concerts in the Courtyard with the Washboard Chaz Blues Trio
Friday, May 16, 2008
5:30–8:00 p.m. • Royal Street Complex Courtyard, 533 Royal Street
Admission is $10 at the door; free for THNOC members
The Collection continues its spring series of concerts and cocktails with the Washboard Chaz Trio. Though comfortable in all forms of our diverse American musical heritage, Washboard Chaz Leary has achieved dominance and international recognition in acoustic country blues. Chaz has shared the stage with Bonnie Raitt, John Hammond, Taj Mahal, Anders Osborne, and Corey Harris among others. He has opened for many blues greats, including Muddy Waters, Robert Cray, Doc Watson, and Keb Mo. Chaz's musical talents have been featured on over 70 recordings, including John Hammond's 1998 Grammy nominated "Long as I Have You." For more information, visit www.washboardchaz.com. Cocktail offering to be announced.
The Historic New Orleans Collection’s Annual Family Day
Sunday, May 18
11:30 a.m.–4:00 p.m. • 533 Royal Street
Celebrate the history of the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain with a fun afternoon the whole family can enjoy.
Each month for a year, the museum will exhibit works corresponding chronologically to Ed McGowin's name change and subsequent persona. He continues to make work under the guise of all these personas except Nathan Ellis McDuff, whom, we believe, met an untimely and mysterious death.
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Benny Andrews: A Memorial Exhibition
The exhibition featuring the work Georgia born artist Benny Andrews is drawn from the permanent collection of the Ogden Museum. It reflects the range of Benny's work including narrative pieces about his Southern upbringing, his experiences in the New York art world and his ongoing concerns for the subjects of family social justice and equality. The initial installation of this exhibition is from Benny's well known narrative collage work. Subsequent other installations will follow featuring drawings from early years and more recent work. Benny passed away in November of 2006. He was a leading figure in American art and his influence as an artist, arts administrator, advocate and teacher continues to touch the lives of many. Benny was one of the members of the founding Board of Trustees of the Ogden Museum. The Andrews Humphrey Family Gallery will maintain a presence of the work of Benny, his father George and his wife Nene in perpetuity.
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New Aquisitions: Lin Emery and Jesus Morales from the Pat and Denver Gray Collection
Highlights new aquisitions to the Museum's permenant collection made by a donation from the Gray Collection. |
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George Ohr Pottery
From the collections of Robert Tannen and Jeanne Nathan and Roger Houston Ogden. Self-proclaimed as "The Mad Potter of Biloxi," George Ohr is nationally recognized as one of America's greatest art potters. This exhibition features a range of early red clay vessels, to his later works, such as his signature pinched vessels. The works from Tannen and Nathan are paired with vessels from the Roger H. Ogden Collection forming a small survey of Ohr's work from 1886 to 1915.
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Native Shrimp Man, Grand Isle, Louisiana
Fonville Winans, the son of a highway engineer who took his family to construction sites across the Southwest, was raised primarily in Fort Worth, Texas. As a young man he learned to play the saxophone and also brought himself a Kodak camera and taught himself photography. He worked for a short time on one of his father's road-building projects near Grand Isle, Louisiana, and became curious about the bayou country.
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William Christenberry
William Christenberry began as a painter, achieved renown as a photographer, and has moved on to create collages and sculptures. An accident when he was fourteen life him blind in one eye, but he nonetheless when on to study art at the University of Alabama in his native Tuscaloosa and to teach there and at Memphis State University in Memphis, Tennessee.
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Other great events to enjoy!!
The Warehouse Arts District
Gallery hop along the mall on Julia Street and tour the art — from classic to contemporary art to outstanding photography, sculpture and more. Cash bars are located outside many galleries.
Magazine Street
With many of the art galleries, gift shops, antique and jewelry stores on Magazine Street open for business, what could be more exciting? Wander from shop to shop, sip a glass of wine, and view the exquisite art, gifts, jewelry, fashion and antiques.
Dozens of restaurants along the Warehouse Arts District and Magazine Street are open for the evening, but reservations are a must! Dress is casual to chic, and comfortable walking shoes are advised. Galleries are open from 6-9 p.m.
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