Bright Lights of Louisiana
The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities presents the 2024 Humanities Awards winners.
Each year, the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities celebrates individuals who have contributed immeasurably to our state’s culture. On April 23, the following artists and culture bearers received Humanities Awards at Capitol Park Museum in Baton Rouge.
Humanist of the Year: Dickie Landry
Described as “a true Renaissance man,” Dickie Landry’s sixty-year career has spanned across artistic disciplines. In addition to playing saxophone and composing music (for which he has been inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame), Landry is a documentary photographer, abstract painter, and has been a true advocate for his fellow Louisiana artists for half a century. He connected Terrance Simien and Paul Simon, resulting in the zydeco-influenced album Graceland’s 1986 release, and in the 1970s he was instrumental in organizing Clifton Chenier’s Carnegie Hall concert.
Champion of Culture: Nick Mueller
Historian and educator Dr. Nick Mueller was influential in creating the National D-Day Museum in New Orleans, which is today the National World War II Museum. For nineteen years, Mueller served as the museum’s president and CEO, ushering in its expansion into one of the top-rated museums in the world.
[Read about the history of the National World War II Museum in this story from June 2019.]
Chair’s Award for Institutional Support: Charles Lamar Family Foundation
The Charles Lamar Family Foundation supports several nonprofit organizations that bolster Louisiana communities and culture. Among other programs, the Foundation’s contributions have supported the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities’ Prime Time Family Reading programs aiding childhood literacy efforts in the Baton Rouge area.
Documentary Photographer of the Year: Ben Depp
Ben Depp is a designated National Geographic Explorer, who turns his lens to the changing landscape of Louisiana’s coast. Besides having been funded by the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, his photographs have been featured in National Geographic, Scientific American, and Smithsonian Magazine. His book Tide Lines: A Photographic Record of Louisiana’s Disappearing Coast was published by University Press of Mississippi in 2023.
[Read this profile on photographer Ben Depp from our August 2018 issue, and see his images from our story on "Ghost Swamps" in our October 2022 issue.]
Light Up for Literacy: Jane Wolfe
Jane Wolfe founded the program Eat and Read at Melba’s, which encourages community love of literature by distributing free books to customers and organizing discussions, readings, and signings by acclaimed authors.
Humanities Documentary Film of the Year:The Precipice, directed by Ben Johnson and produced by Linda Midgett
Ben Johnson’s documentary for Louisiana Public Broadcasting, The Precipice, provides an intimate look at the Pointe-au-Chien Tribe, and their ongoing struggle to preserve their language and culture in the face of federal red tape and climate change severely impacting their home in Terrebonne Basin.
[The Precipice was one of our featured documentaries in 2023. Read all about the project, here.]
Lifetime Contributions to the Humanities: Freddi Williams Evans
Freddi Williams Evans has authored multiple books on the history and importance of New Orleans’s Congo Square, both for adults and young readers, and was instrumental in having historic markers on the slave trade in Louisiana erected on relevant sites.
Museum Exhibition of the Year: The Louisiana State Museum at the Cabildo’s Creole New Orleans, Honey!
The exhibition Creole New Orleans, Honey! at The Louisiana State Museum at the Cabildo highlighted the groundbreaking art of Andrew LaMar Hopkins, which assesses and questions popular ideas of what Creole identity means. It was selected for this award from exhibitions held during the past two years, as the Exhibition of the Year award is presented biannually.
Humanities Book of the Year: The Great Power of Small Nations: Indigenous Diplomacy in the Gulf South by Elizabeth Ellis
A member of the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, Dr. Elizabeth Ellis’s book The Great Power of Small Nations: Indigenous Diplomacy in the Gulf South published by University of Pennsylvania Press chronicles the many Native American Nations of Louisiana, the ways they influenced the early colony, and how they still impact the region today.