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PHOTOGRAPHY BY ASHLEYLORRAINE PHOTOGRAPHY

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A Tradition of Artistry
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Discover the myriad artistic contributions of our beloved region at a New Orleans museum
dedicated to the South’s distinctive cultural journey.
by Elizabeth Bonner Czapski | photography courtesy of Ogden Museum of Southern Art

At the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, you’ll find contemporary works like Ashley
Pridmore’s 2020 Dreams of Eve (above), a deconstructed forest tableau displayed in the
Entwined exhibition, as well as classics like Benny Andrews’ 1992 Grandmother’s Dinner
(opposite, left), a highlight of the museum’s permanent collection. Ogden also provides
countless creative learning opportunities for both children and adults. “Our museum is
unique in that it’s very community focused,” says Melissa Kenyon, director of marketing
and experience. “We try to make sure there’s programming for all ages and interests.”

PHOTOGRAPHY BY SCOTT MYERS PHOTOGRAPHY

Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly,
Ida Kohlmeyer, Howard Finster,
Thornton Dial, and more. “Work is
chosen to represent excellence or
innovation in any given style or
medium with an eye toward
representing the diversity of the
artists and communities within the
region,” Bradley says.
October’s special exhibitions
include Entwined, an exploration of
the ancient acts of wrapping and
impressive four-story atrium casts community through educational
ample light across the marvels programs, workshops, and ongoing
displayed with an open layout that events like Craft Happy Hour and
enables guests to glimpse each floor. Ogden After Hours, a weekly
Melissa Kenyon, director of entertainment series featuring live
marketing and experience, performances by Southern musicians
recommends starting your tour on the and DJs. Recently, they have started
fifth floor—where you can take in the offering many of these opportunities
fantastic city views from the rooftop online, allowing for a complete
terrace—and working your way down. virtual experience.
“Whether you are knowledgeable Whether reaching people near or
about art or you’ve never been to an far, the museum’s mission remains

A
mid the lively ambience of
New Orleans’ Warehouse
District, the Ogden Museum
of Southern Art stands out in its own
right, infusing unique character into
the vibrant sights and sounds all
around. Its striking edifice is cloaked
in an eclectic mural that blends a
kaleidoscopic assortment of shapes
painted by local artist MOMO. Inside
lies the largest, most comprehensive
collection of art tied to the American
South, boasting works from 1733 to
today that include classic rural
landscapes by Will Henry Stevens,
colorful folk depictions of plantation
life by Louisiana native Clementine
Hunter, and mixed-media
illustrations of social injustice by
Benny Andrews.
Ogden’s curator of the collection,
Bradley Sumrall, explains that
Southern art through the years has
hewed to expected themes—craft
traditions, narrative and vernacular
art, portrait and landscape painting—
but has also stayed in step with every
major Western art movement.
“The one unifying theme across all
genres and mediums is that thing
that is sometimes fully present and
sometimes quietly influential, that
thing which renowned Southern
writer Eudora Welty described as a
‘sense of place,’” he says.
The museum was founded in 1999
on a donation from New Orleans binding through the perspectives of art museum, Ogden is a very rooted in enhancing appreciation for the
entrepreneur Roger Ogden, who modern artists, and Revelations, welcoming environment and has Southern visual arts as well as other
realized his private collection was too which features a selection of something for everyone,” she says. cultural traditions, from music and
important to keep to himself. “He photographs that celebrates regional In the first-floor museum store, literature to culinary heritage. “We
considered Southern art the last identity taken from the early 20th peruse books, jewelry, apparel, and hope that by representing a broad range
frontier of American art scholarship,” century to the present. Louisiana works by regional makers facilitated of artists tackling a variety of subjects
Bradley says. In the two decades since, Contemporary, an annual exhibition through Ogden’s Center for Southern and practices—from depicting the
Roger’s original gift of more than 600 that will be open through the fall, Craft & Design, which offers artisans changing landscapes and demographics
works has expanded into a compilation showcases artists currently living in and designers a platform to sell their of the region to facing the brutal history
of 4,000-plus pieces spanning the state. creations. Monthly pop-ups bring in and enduring legacy of slavery—the
paintings, watercolors, drawings, The museum’s façade extends a new talent and keep inventory fresh, museum can help visitors separate
prints, photographs, sculpture, wood, vivid greeting to visitors thanks to and the center’s quarterly Artist the reality of the region from the
crafts, and beyond—all by artists from MOMO’s eye-catching mural. It’s a Spotlight Series grants exhibition stereotypes,” Bradley says. “Ogden
the 15 Southern states as well as the fitting universal backdrop to the space to a rotating craftsperson in the hopes to tell the story of the
District of Columbia. sundry works inside, as the artist has field of ceramics, glass, wood, metal, South—a complicated, rich, diverse,
The permanent collection touts described his paintings as “music fiber and textiles, or mixed media. and ever-changing story that is
legendary artists who happen to hail without lyrics,” carrying no theme or In addition to supporting local still being written.”
from the South, such as Jasper Johns, meaning. Upon entrance, an artists, Ogden also engages with the For information, visit ogdenmuseum.org.

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