A couple weeks ago I got an invitation to The New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA)’s opening of the new exhibit The New Orleans Arts & Crafts Club: An Artistic Legacy on Friday, January 5th. I called up Amy earlier this week knowing she’d appreciate it, and we had a night of it. First, let me tell you that the calzones at Fellini’s Cafe on N. Carrollton are great. Check it out if you’re ever in Mid-City.
After an early dinner, we headed back up Carrollton to the museum. I wasn’t sure what kind of gathering this would be: in New Orleans it can be a huge deal or nothing at all. Amy and I decided to pretend it was a big deal and dress up for the night, so I pulled out my never-worn suit. As we pulled up to the museum, we saw it was packed and almost everybody was dressed formal. It was a big deal, apparently. Sweet.
We were greeted as we entered and although it wasn’t a red-carpet event, it was pretty big. For a few minutes I felt like I was crashing a big-wig socialite party, but at least we blended in. Instead of going directly to the main event, we took a stroll through several other exhibits. ¡CARNAVAL! is the latest exhibit; apparently the one that replaced the Ansel Adams and Katrina exhibits I saw back in September. Carnival took us through Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday celebrations in Europe (Spain, Italy, and Switzerland), South America (Brazil and Bolivia), Central America (Trinidad & Tobago and Mexico), and New Orleans. By far my favorite piece in the exhibit was the sailboat hat which I cannot possibly describe with words. It was utterly amazing, though.
After Carnival, we moved upstairs to the Arts & Crafts Club Exhibit. It was beautiful in its own right. It was more of a history of New Orleans’ own artists throughout the last 150 years or so. “Between 1922 and 1951, the Arts and Crafts Club of New Orleans played multiple roles in shaping the Crescent City’s visual culture. Housed in several buildings throughout the French Quarter, the club provided a meeting place and a forum for visual artists, writers, and cultural patrons.” I learned about Newcomb College, which was mentioned several times in the exhibit- many artists featured were either students or teachers there. Newcomb was a women’s college that eventually folded into Tulane University, although it still maintains its own campus within Tulane’s in Uptown.
Not only did I have good food, I also soaked in some incredible art. My only disappointment is that I didn’t know the museum was also hosting an exhibit featuring pottery and glass artifacts from Egyptian, Greek, and Roman life. It ends in February, so I better make it soon. Maybe I can make it another night on the town.
by Joe Kennedy
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