FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Special Events:

5/7 (6pm-8pm) - Ogden After Hours presents The SpeakerBox Experiment

5/8 (6pm-8pm) - Sippin' In Seersucker
Join us at the annual Sippin' in Seersucker event at The Shops at Canal Place for an evening of light bites, Southern cocktails, shopping specials and live entertainment featuring the New Orleans Swamp Donkeys! Food will be provided by many New Orleans favorites including BakerMaid, Acme Oyster House, Redemption, Southern Candymakers, Highly
Seasoned Catering, Chappy's, Tivoli & Lee, Ma Momma's House of Chicken, Cornbread and Waffles, and many more! Tickets include open bar and free parking. To purchase tickets visit ogdenmuseum.org/events/sippin or call 504.539.9616.

5/14 (6pm-8pm) - Ogden After Hours presents Andre Bohren

5/21 (6pm-8pm) - Ogden After Hours presents Susan Cowsill

5/23 (6pm-8pm) - Opening reception for The Rising exhibition

5/28 (6pm-8pm) - Ogden After Hours presents Mississippi Rail Company

Special Exhibitions:

Mark Steinmetz: South (January 17 - May 10, 2015)
Mark Steinmetz lives and works in Athens, Georgia. His work transcends the traditional boundaries of documentary, street and fine art photography. Photographing almost exclusively in black and white, Steinmetz explores the fragile and sublime visual tapestry of everyday life, where the mundane and banal become elevated to the exquisite through the lens of his camera. Mark Steinmetz: South will include photographic selections from
three of his books published by Nazraeli Press - South East, South Central and Greater Atlanta, along with a compilation of new and unseen work. Mark Steinmetz is represented by several galleries around the world including - Jackson Fine Art, Atlanta, Georgia, Yancy Richardson Gallery; New York City; and Gallerie Wouter Van Leeuwen, Amsterdam. In 1994, Steinmetz was awarded a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship.

Tennessee Williams: The Playwright and the Painter (February 7 - May 31, 2015)
Tennessee Williams was one of the most admired playwrights of the 20th century. While he wrote fiction and motion picture screenplays, Williams is best known for his plays, which are chiefly set in the South. Several of his plays including "A Streetcar Named Desire," "The Glass Menagerie," and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" are considered among the finest of the American stage. For more than 30 years, Williams lived and wrote in a cottage on a quiet
Key West street. As a form of relaxation, he took up oil painting on his patio, often sketching friends, acquaintances and characters from his plays.

Jim Roche: Cultural Mechanic (February 27 - July 12, 2015)
Born in 1943, Jim Roche received a BA from Florida State University (1961) and an MA and MFA from University of Dallas (1968 and 1970). He was Professor of Art at Florida State University from 1973 until his retirement in 2013. Over the course of a career that spans the better part of five decades, he has created a narrative of place, ecology, Southern culture, the art world, and the human condition through his work. His practice has ranged from the groundbreaking and meticulous ceramic work in his Potted Mama Plants from the 1960s, through conceptual and expressive drawings, massive maximalist installations in museums and in the landscape, found object constructions, art cars, video, spoken word performance, and the delicately detailed documentation of his life as Dr. Curve, a motorcycle legend. Drawing inspiration from his native Northern Florida, the lush and delicate environment of his home, the complicated and often controversial self-taught artists and common people of that place, Americana, evangelical traditions, and his never-ending observations and critiques on human culture, Roche has created a body of work that stands as testament to a career lived by an artist with an unflinching vision and unstoppable creativity. After working in ceramics at the University of Dallas (1966-1970), Roche's thesis exhibition was displayed for only three hours before being shut down for it sexually charged content. Following that, Roche was invited to the Whitney Museum of American Art Annual in 1970. His Life Symbols, Human Condition Packets and Animal Ascension Plot installation opened at The Walker Art Center in 1972. A solo exhibition of his installation, All in my Background, was mounted at the Whitney in 1974. Tree Grave Site was chosen for the Art Park in Lewiston, New York in 1975. He was included in the Venice Biennale in 1976, and his piece, Vampire Alarm, was included in the Paris Biennale in 1977. His work has been reviewed in both national and international publications, including ARTnews, Art Forum, Time Magazine, Stern, and The New Yorker.

Tina Freeman: Artist Spaces (March 7 - July 12, 2015)
With this body of photographs, and the subsequent book, Tina Freeman documents the working spaces of twentyone New Orleans artists. From George Dureau to Willie Birch, each of the artists included invested their aesthetic into the spaces where they work. Ranging from established masters to a young graffiti artist, these images give insight into process and personality, providing the viewer glimpses into the creative process.
An exhibition planned at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art will contextualize these images with masterful examples of each artist's work. Beautiful objects in their own right, Tina Freeman's photographs will become windows into the history of the objects, and into the creative soul of their makers. 

Self-Taught, Outsider & Visionary Art from the Permanent Collection (April 2 - November 7, 2015) 
Self-Taught, Outsider and Visionary Art will showcase works from the Ogden Museum's growing collection in this genre. From the naïve abstracted landscapes of Civil War veteran Charles Hutson (1840-1936) to Elayne Goodman's Altar to Elvis, which borrows liturgical forms to represent a secular icon - this exhibition will showcase the depth and breadth of the Ogden Museum's collection of Self-Taught art from the American South. Also included will be work by Thornton Dial, Reverend Howard Finster, Clementine Hunter, Nellie Mae Rowe, Wellmon Sharlhorne, George Andrews, and others. This exhibition is one of a continuing series, which examines the correlation of southern self-taught art with other forms of artistic expression such as music, literature and culinary heritage. 

Center for Southern Craft & Design/Museum Store presents Artist Spotlight featuring Matt Long (April 9 - June 30, 2015)
Matt Long, Associate Professor of Art at the University of Mississippi, has a passion for functional pottery, which he has been masterfully creating for 22 years. He believes that in a fast-paced world oriented around convenience, functional pots allow the user to enjoy the important aspects of human interaction and self-introspection.

Breakthrough New Orleans Arts Building Community Program with artists Keith Duncan & Nicole Charbonnet (April 9 - May 3, 2015)
Dedicated to educational equity and excellence for all children, Breakthrough New Orleans aims to foster a love of learning and strengthen core academic skills, helping at-risk students reach their full potential - placing them on the path towards college. Established in 1990, Breakthrough New Orleans (BTNOLA) continues to respond to the ongoing need for high-quality supplementary educational services for New Orleans public school students.
BTNOLA prepares high potential middle-school students with limited resources for rigorous academic experiences in high schools and colleges, while inspiring bright high school and college students to become educators and advocates for education. This "Students Teaching Students" model at Isidore Newman School is a tuition-free, year-round program that pairs underserved middle school students with enthusiastic young teachers.

Developed to increase the availability of dynamic arts education options in the independent and charter school communities of New Orleans, the Breakthrough Artist Residency Program is a collaboration made possible by the Harry Howard Foundation and the Elizabeth Oudt Fund. During five intensive Saturday workshops, Breakthrough students worked with three nationally known studio artists showcased in Tina Freeman and Morgan Molthrap's book Artist Spaces. An exhibition of the same name is currently on view on the 4th floor of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. During this program, students from Isidore Newman School acted as documentarians for the workshops, capturing the artistic process. Finally, with guidance from Tina Freeman and Morgan Molthrap, the last step of the project will produce a collaborative book consisting of Breakthrough students' artwork and Newman students' photo-documentation.

The Rising (May 23 - September 20, 2015)
The Rising celebrates the renewal and re-birth of the City of New Orleans ten years after one of the worst disasters in American history, and examines how art and photography was central to the revitalization of New Orleans. Spearheaded by the Ogden Museum (the first arts institution in New Orleans to open after the storm), the New Orleans Photo Alliance (formed in 2006), and Prospect.1 (organized in 2008), a collective arts exhibition
throughout the city which fostered a creative outlet that helped enable a community to recover and begin the process of healing, and attracted by the lure of what is frequently called the most unique city in America, young photographers flocked to New Orleans and infused their creativity and vision into a city already known for its incomparable culture. The Rising will highlight the photographic work of Sophie Lvoff, Jonathan Traviesa, and
more.

Museum Hours:
Wednesday through Monday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.*
*Additionally: Thursday evenings, 6 - 8 p.m. for Ogden After Hours

Admission Prices: $12.50 adults; $10 seniors (65+); $10 students & teachers (18+) with ID; $6.25 children age 5 to 17. Free for museum members, children under 5, UNO students, faculty, and staff with university ID.
$12.50 during Ogden After Hours.

About Ogden After Hours:
Each Thursday evening, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art is pleased to present Ogden After Hours, featuring a live musical performance by Southern Musicians and interview by Southern music historian(s). Ogden After Hours is a family friendly event with a children's activity table, and food and drinks available for purchase. For artist info for each Ogden After Hours performance, please see our Events Calendar at www.ogdenmuseum.org.

Location: OGDEN MUSEUM OF SOUTHERN ART
925 Camp St., New Orleans, LA 70130
www.ogdenmuseum.org