With so much to do in New Orleans, many forget that the city’s art scene is just as vibrant as the food and music. Check out the highlighted exhibits below and search our calendar to find even more art in New Orleans.
"The Trail They Blazed"
Built collaboratively with people who participated in the local Civil Rights Movement, “The Trail They Blazed” presents stories of social and racial justice straight from the people who lived them. The multimedia experience immerses visitors in the movement, with ambient musical recordings of songs sung by activists, more than three dozen audio excerpts from oral history interviews, archival news footage, stirring photography, an interactive voter registration test, and more. The voices of those who experienced it firsthand narrate the tremendous and often dangerous effort to transform Louisiana from a Jim Crow holdout into a more equitable place for all residents. See it at The Historic New Orleans Collection from June 6, 2025 - June 7, 2026.
“Battle of the Bands”
Ogden Museum of Southern Art is proud to present “Battle of the Bands,” Keith Duncan’s most recent body of work that celebrates the vibrant tradition of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) marching bands. The exhibition features large-scale fabric paintings of 15 Southern HBCU bands, along with human-scale fabric paintings and smaller works on paper depicting each band’s drum major. The exhibit is on view from February 15 – August 10, 2025.
Vince Fraser: Ancestral Odyssey
Vince Fraser's "Ancestral Odyssey" re-envisions the enduring legacy of the Black Masking Indians and the wider African diaspora through the vibrant lens of Afro-surrealism. This permanent, immersive installation at the New Orleans African American Museum, opening on June 19, leverages cutting-edge digital artistry to explore profound themes of identity and history. Fraser, a London-based visionary, collaborates with New Orleans' own cultural guardians to create digital "portals of transformation"—powerful lenses to venerate the mysticism of the Black Masking Indians. The installation invites viewers into a multi-sensory environment where ceremonial practices become conduits for profound metamorphosis, and ancient African mythological realms are fused with technology to foster contemplation on identity, resistance, and reverence. See more about the opening event on Juneteenth here.