New Orleans Museum of Art

Coordinates: 29°59′11″N 90°05′36″W / 29.9864°N 90.0934°W / 29.9864; -90.0934

New Orleans Museum of Art
Established	1911
Location	One Collins C. Diboll Circle, City Park, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA 70124
Director	Susan Taylor
Website	http://www.noma.org/

The New Orleans Museum of Art (or NOMA) is the oldest fine arts museum in the city of New Orleans. It is situated within City Park, a short distance from the intersection of Carrollton Avenue and Esplanade Avenue, and near the terminus of the "Canal Street - City Park" streetcar line. It was established in 1911 as the Delgado Museum of Art.^[1]

Museum

The New Orleans Museum of Art was initially funded through a charitable grant by local philanthropist and art collector Isaac Delgado. ^[2] The museum building itself was partly designed by the former chief engineer of New Orleans Benjamin Morgan Harrod.

The museum includes the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden, a 5-acre (20,000 m²) landscaped area behind the main building. The gated garden features fifty modern sculptures set among live oaks, pines, magnolias, camellias, lagoons, several bridges, and a walking trail.

The museum also includes a gift shop, a small theater for film screenings, and the "Courtyard Cafe: A Ralph Brennan Restaurant."

Although City Park suffered extensive damage from Hurricane Katrina, the museum is elevated and located on relatively high ground. As such, flooding was restricted to the basement, and most of the museum's permanent collection was not affected by the storm. ^[3]

Collection

Renoir's "Seamstress at the Window"

The permanent collection at the museum features over 40,000 objects, from the Italian Renaissance to the modern era.^[4] The museum is noted for its collection of European and American works, including works by Degas, Monet, Renoir, Picasso, Matisse, Pissarro, Rodin, Gauguin, Braque, Dufy, Miró, Jackson Pollock, Mary Cassatt, and Georgia O'Keeffe. The museum features a comprehensive survey of French art, including several important works by the French Impressionist Edgar Degas, who lived with his mother's family in New Orleans between 1871 and 1872.^[5]

Among the permanent exhibition is a survey of local Louisiana artists, as well as other American artists.^[6] The museum also features collections of photography, glass, ceramics, Fabergé eggs, portrait miniatures, Native American Art, Central American art from pre-Columbian and Spanish eras, Chinese ceramics, Japanese painting, Indian sculpture and folk arts from Africa, Indonesia, and the South Pacific.

Events

The museum works in close collaboration with other local museums, especially the The Historic New Orleans Collection and the Louisiana State Museum, in developing its special exhibitions. Special exhibitions in the past have included the treasures of Tutankhamun's tomb, relics of Alexander the Great and his times, artifacts from the Louisiana Purchase and that era, a retrospective of Edgar Degas in Louisiana, "Femme! Femme! Femme!" featuring depictions of women in 18th century French painting, "Carneval!" focusing on pre-Lenten festivals across several European and American cultures (including Mardi Gras in New Orleans), and several anniversary exhibitions related to Hurricane Katrina.

The museum offers guided group tours, teacher workshops, online teacher guides, and visits to local schools through a museum-on-wheels known as "Van Go." The museum also hosts festivals, film screenings, music programs, lectures, and wellness activities ^[7]

External links

• New Orleans Museum of Art official website
• 2011/2012 Centennial anniversary website

References

1. ^ Dunbar, Prescott N. (December 1990.), The New Orleans Museum of Art: The First Seventy-Five Years., Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press 
2. ^ "Delgado, Isaac". Louisiana Historical Association, An Encyclopedia of Louisiana Biography. http://www.lahistory.org/site21.php. 
3. ^ Marszalek, Keith I. (Tuesday, August 28, 2007). "City's Cultural Comeback Marches On". The Times Picayune. http://blog.nola.com/dougmaccash/2007/08/citys_cultural_comeback_marche.html. 
4. ^ "New Orleans Museum of Art, permenant collection". http://www.noma.org/pcol.html. 
5. ^ "New Orleans Museum of Art, European art". http://www.noma.org/european.html. 
6. ^ "New Orleans Museum of Art, Louisiana art". http://www.noma.org/louisiana.html. 
7. ^ "New Orleans Museum of Art, special events". http://www.noma.org/special.html.