New Orleans Museum to Re-Open

New Orleans Museum to Re-Open With a Salute to the Arts
Friday March 3, 10:27 am ET

NEW ORLEANS, March 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Good News! Six months after devastating Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) will re- open its doors on March 3, 2006, with a weekend celebration of the arts called "The HeART of New Orleans."

The festivities begin on Friday with a ribbon cutting and press conference at 10:00 AM. Richard Ford, recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and PEN-Faulkner Award, and Ernest Gaines, MacArthur Fellow and recipient of the National Humanities Medal will be NOMA's honored guests and will address the issue, Arts, Culture and Louisiana after Katrina & Rita: Now What?

Saturday and Sunday highlight all aspects of art including the visual, performing, and literary, and include the ever-popular, Mid-City Art Market with over 60 artists. The three-day weekend is FREE TO THE PUBLIC and will feature a full roster of music and dance performances, demonstrations, lectures and family activities.

Among the performers scheduled to appear are: Irvin Mayfield, Dr. Michael White, Bryan Batt, NOCCA Jazz, Nomadic Tribal Dancers, Delta Ramblers, Panorama Brass Band, Soul Rebels, Lionel Batiste & Lars Edegran, McTaggart Irish Dancers, New Orleans Ballet, Lionel Ferbos Palm Court Jazz, Phil Melancon, Fredy Omar, Delta Festival Ballet, Celtic Harpists, and the acclaimed Anemone Ballet of New York City.

Many New Orleans writers are lined-up to present readings, answer questions and sign their latest books among them are Richard Ford, Julia Reed, John Barry, Chris Rose, Patty Friedmann, James Gill, Chris Wiltz, Patricia Brady, M.A. Harper, C.C. Lockwood, Josh Clark, Tom Varisco, Christina Vella, Kerri McCaffety, and George Rodrigue. Best known for his Blue Dog paintings, George Rodrigue will also be on hand to sign his Hurricane Katrina prints. Children's writers and performers entertain families throughout the weekend. The finale to this festival is a performance by the Imagination Movers taking place in NOMA's Besthoff Sculpture Garden.

The Museum re-opens with three new exhibitions with works being seen for the first time in New Orleans. First, Seen in Solitude: Robert Kipniss Prints from the James F. White Collection presents both the quietly evocative prints and vivid paintings of this New York Artist. Kipniss describes his work as, "an endless range of feelings and thoughts evoked by the basic act of seeing, usually in isolation, and with a haunting intensity."

Second, Inside the Congo: An Introduction to Field Research Archives of Frere Joseph Cornet introduces the rich collection of photographs and field notebooks from a man who, during several decades in Africa, painstakingly documented the beauty and complexity of several African cultures. Third, NOMA will display 40 paintings by Louisiana artists titled, A Keen Eye: Louisiana Art from the Collection of Martha Ann Samuel.

Following the grand re-opening, the New Orleans Museum of Art and the Besthoff Sculpture Garden will be open Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 AM - 4:30 PM. For more information on exhibitions, events, schedules, membership and how to contribute to NOMA's Katrina Relief Fund log onto www.noma.org .