A Guide to Art Museums in New Orleans
The Crescent City's primary visual art institutions, from historic collections to contemporary works
New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA)
The Isaac Delgado Museum of Art was founded in 1911, imagined and funded by its local art collector and philanthropist namesake. Delgado died less than a month after the opening of his grand art museum, which crowns City Park’s central circle, today named the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA). NOMA became home to several collections of New Orleans paintings, as well as the Morgan Whitney jades and the Howard collection of Greek pottery; but attendance and programming remained relatively stagnant until 1948, when Alonzo Lansford was appointed its first director. Lansford and the museum board brought in new contemporary works, as well as other esteemed collections from the Renaissance and throughout history.
In 1970, a renovation and massive expansion of the Greek Revival building, along with reinvigorated art acquisitions, positioned NOMA in the upper twenty five percent of art institutions in the country in terms of scale and importance. It remains the oldest and largest fine art museum in New Orleans, and today boasts a collection of over fifty thousand works.
Exhibitions at NOMA have ranged in scope from a retrospective of Louisiana photographer Debbie Fleming Caffrey’s portfolio; to a showcase of how photographs have historically been intertwined with the written word; to Afropolitan, which celebrates some of the most influential African artists of recent centuries; to a solo exhibition of works by Kenyan-American multidisciplinary artist Wangechi Mutu—and those are just what you can see right now.
"New Orleans's art scene is so vibrant because it is a network of many different types of artists and organizations—from large museums to DIY spaces and artist-run galleries, from creators who went to art school to culture bearers who are building on artistic traditions passed down over generations. Each of these components supports a dynamic ecosystem that is motivating, inspiring, and crucial for artists." —Charlie Tatum, Director of Marketing and Communications, New Orleans Museum of Art
NOMA also features the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden, which displays ninety significant sculptural works along twelve acres of finely landscaped paths and gardens.
Each year, NOMA engages directly with the New Orleans community through its Creative Assembly Cohort, a group of artists from across neighborhoods and disciplines who the museum supports and encourages by inviting them to utilize NOMA and its collections as inspiration for their own work.
The museum offers a rich slate of other programming—like NOMA at Night, where the galleries are opened after hours and live music, art talks, performances and other unique offerings let visitors immerse themselves in the arts. Gallery talks, unique film screenings, book clubs, family days, and art workshops round out an ever-changing calendar.
Learn more about the museum’s offerings at noma.org.
The Ogden Museum of Southern Art
In 1999, the Roger Ogden Museum of Southern Art was established, finding its home in the Warehouse District across the street from the Contemporary Arts Center in 2003. The Ogden not only holds the largest and most substantial collection of Southern Art in the world, with over four thousand holdings by artists from fifteen southern states; but also regularly hosts exhibitions and other programming that examines contemporary art in the context of southern cultural traditions, presenting a “comprehensive story of the South.”
Each year, the Ogden’s annual juried Louisiana Contemporary exhibition invites living Louisiana artists to submit works across mediums, which collectively speak to the energetic arts community in our state and the variety of experiences and modes of expression present here. The call for entries for the 2024 Louisiana Contemporary exhibition is currently open until May 24.
Right now, the Ogden’s galleries feature a comprehensive posthumous retrospective of works by Louisiana artist Tina Girouard, the first painting in what would become George Rodrigue’s Blue Dog series, and an exhibition examining southern Modernism from the 20th century through today.
The Ogden hosts a whole slate of educational arts programing for a variety of ages, plus weekly meditations in the galleries on Thursdays, monthly “Hey Y’all” art talks, and Ogden After Hours events featuring live music.
Learn more about the exhibitions and programs offered at the Ogden Museum of Southern art at ogdenmuseum.org.
The New Orleans African American Museum
Established in the Tremé neighborhood in 1996 with the assistance of the City of New Orleans Department of Housing and Neighborhood Development, the New Orleans African American Museum of Art, History, and Culture showcases and preserves artworks by Black artists from New Orleans and across the world. Through immersive exhibitions and other public programming, the NOAAM's mission and vision are centered around showcasing and elevating the many ways African Americans have contributed to the arts and culture across both geographic space and history.
Among the NOAAM's programming is their monthly Saturdays at NOAAM event each third Saturday, which invites local vendors and artists to showcase their work in a festival-like atmosphere, and offers free admission to the museum. The NOAAM also hosts quarterly ticketed events centered on music and culture (Features) and food and culture (Conversations & Calas), respectively, plus the annual The Revival festival aimed to restore the spirit-body connection with an experience of the "Grand Black Aesthetic". The NOAAM also hosts a wide range of historic and contemporary art exhibitions, including a recent traveling exhibition of James Baldwin's works; in addition to other exhibitions relevant to Black history and culture.
Learn more about the exhibitions and programs offered at the New Orleans African American Museum at noaam.org.
The Contemporary Arts Center (CAC)
The Contemporary Arts Center was founded in 1976, and its expansive Warehouse District building continues to host visual arts exhibitions in its galleries, as well as theater performances, lectures, and concerts.
Currently on display at the CAC is Gestures of Refusal: Black Photography and Visual Culture, which explores the ways contemporary photographers capture the nuance of the Black experience.
The CAC offers artist residencies for both visual and performing artists, as well as programing that includes Inter[SECTOR], a three-year multidisciplinary project inviting visual and performing artists to collaborate to address issues related to social justice. There ae also youth programs, including a teen museum board.
Learn more about all that’s going on at the Contemporary Arts Center at cacno.org.
The Louisiana State Museum in the Cabildo
The turn of the twentieth century also brought the formation of the Louisiana State Museum, which includes ten museums across the state, but found its home in the historic Cabildo and Presbytere buildings on Jackson Square in 1912. Besides keeping extensive historical records and artifacts, the collections include both historical and contemporary art, and the museum in the Cabildo regularly hosts exhibitions ranging in focus from traditional and contemporary art to local history.
Currently the Cabildo is host to a retrospective of works by whimsical and bold neo-expressionist painter Hunt Slonem, whose works are particularly beloved by Louisiana collectors.
Learn more about what’s currently on exhibit and coming up at The Louisiana State Museum at the Cabildo at louisianastatemuseum.org/museum/cabildo.
The Historic New Orleans Collection (THNOC)
In addition to housing, preserving, and stewarding tens of thousands of library items and artifacts in its historic collections; The Historic New Orleans Collection’s holdings include artworks like photographs, paintings, drawings, and prints. Their recently-renovated Exhibition Center on Royal Street presents exhibitions on a broad swath of local culture and arts topics.
Currently on display in the first floor gallery is an exhibition of works from THNOC’s collections titled Unknown Sitters, which features portraits of subjects whose identities are a mystery, and invites the viewer to imagine who they might have been and piece together clues based on the art style and details like dress and expression.
THNOC’s other programming frequently delves into the visual arts, as well. Past topics included as part of the Williams Lecture series are the life of New Orleans sculptor Enrique Alvarez, Carnival photography, and other art-related subjects.
Learn more about the museum’s offerings at hnoc.org.