The New Orleans Besthoff Sculpture Garden
The Besthoff Sculpture Garden in New Orleans City Park ( provides a wonderful, art-filled oasis that's perfect for the whole family. Join Lauren Fleurty Girl Thom as she heads to New Orleans City Park to check out the gardens.
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A Tour of the New Orleans Museum of Art's Sculpture Garden
New Orleans City Park Sculpture Garden
Earlier this month — on May 15th, 2019, the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden in New Orleans City Park re-opened it’s gates to the public.
The garden has undergone an expansion, almost doubling its size and adding 26 new sculptures to its collection; it’s free to all and open everyday from 10am — 6pm.
I had the opportunity to visit the garden one week after it’s re-opening and thought I would share what I saw.
NOMA and The NOLA Project present 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'
The NOLA Project and NOMA's hit production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' returns this October for a very limited engagement October 6,7,9,13,14,16! Come bask under the stars of the Besthoff Sculpture Garden and experience that magic! Tickets can be purchased at noma.eventbrite.com
Driving Into Downtown New Orleans at Sunset – New Orleans Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state ofLouisiana. The population of the city was 343,829 as of the 2010 U.S. Census.[2][3] The New Orleans metropolitan area (New Orleans–Metairie–Kenner Metropolitan Statistical Area) had a population of 1,167,764 in 2010 and was the 46th largest in the United States.[4] The New Orleans–Metairie–Bogalusa Combined Statistical Area, a larger trading area, had a 2010 population of 1,452,502.[5]
The city is named after the Duke of Orleans, who reigned as Regent for Louis XV from 1715 to 1723, as it was established by French colonists and strongly influenced by their European culture. It is well known for its distinct French and Spanish Creole architecture, as well as its cross-cultural and multilingual heritage.[6] New Orleans is also famous for its cuisine, music (particularly as the birthplace of jazz),[7][8] and its annual celebrations and festivals, most notably Mardi Gras, dating to French colonial times. The city is often referred to as the most unique[9] in the United States.[10][11][12][13][14]
New Orleans is located in southeastern Louisiana, straddling the Mississippi River. The city and Orleans Parish (French: paroisse d'Orléans) are coterminous.[15] The city and parish are bounded by the parishes of St. Tammany to the north, St. Bernard to the east, Plaquemines to the south, and Jefferson to the south and west.[15][16][17] Lake Pontchartrain, part of which is included in the city limits, lies to the north and Lake Borgne lies to the east.[17]
Before Hurricane Katrina, Orleans Parish was the most populous parish in Louisiana. It now ranks third in population behind neighboring Jefferson Parish and East Baton Rouge Parish.[18]
The National WWII Museum
The Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden at NOMA
Historic New Orleans Collection
New Orleans City Park
Royal Street
Immaculate Conception Church
Save Our Cemeteries
Audubon Park
Saenger Theatre
Frenchmen Street
Garden District
Jackson Square
Tipitina's
St. Augustine Church
Faubourg Marigny
Metairie Cemetery
Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve
French Quarter
Audubon Zoo
Mardi Gras World
Backstreet Cultural Museum
New Orleans Streetcars
St. Louis Cemetery No. 1
St. Charles Streetcar
New Orleans Pharmacy Museum
Driving Downtown - Early Morning on Bourbon St – New Orleans Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state ofLouisiana. The population of the city was 343,829 as of the 2010 U.S. Census.[2][3] The New Orleans metropolitan area (New Orleans–Metairie–Kenner Metropolitan Statistical Area) had a population of 1,167,764 in 2010 and was the 46th largest in the United States.[4] The New Orleans–Metairie–Bogalusa Combined Statistical Area, a larger trading area, had a 2010 population of 1,452,502.[5]
The city is named after the Duke of Orleans, who reigned as Regent for Louis XV from 1715 to 1723, as it was established by French colonists and strongly influenced by their European culture. It is well known for its distinct French and Spanish Creole architecture, as well as its cross-cultural and multilingual heritage.[6] New Orleans is also famous for its cuisine, music (particularly as the birthplace of jazz),[7][8] and its annual celebrations and festivals, most notably Mardi Gras, dating to French colonial times. The city is often referred to as the most unique[9] in the United States.[10][11][12][13][14]
New Orleans is located in southeastern Louisiana, straddling the Mississippi River. The city and Orleans Parish (French: paroisse d'Orléans) are coterminous.[15] The city and parish are bounded by the parishes of St. Tammany to the north, St. Bernard to the east, Plaquemines to the south, and Jefferson to the south and west.[15][16][17] Lake Pontchartrain, part of which is included in the city limits, lies to the north and Lake Borgne lies to the east.[17]
Before Hurricane Katrina, Orleans Parish was the most populous parish in Louisiana. It now ranks third in population behind neighboring Jefferson Parish and East Baton Rouge Parish.[18]
The National WWII Museum
The Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden at NOMA
Historic New Orleans Collection
New Orleans City Park
Royal Street
Immaculate Conception Church
Save Our Cemeteries
Audubon Park
Saenger Theatre
Frenchmen Street
Garden District
Jackson Square
Tipitina's
St. Augustine Church
Faubourg Marigny
Metairie Cemetery
Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve
French Quarter
Audubon Zoo
Mardi Gras World
Backstreet Cultural Museum
New Orleans Streetcars
St. Louis Cemetery No. 1
St. Charles Streetcar
New Orleans Pharmacy Museum
Johan Creten – 8 Gods, Almine Rech Gallery Brussels
March 09 — April 08, 2017
Since the 1980s, Johan Creten has proven to be a true trailblazer in the resurgence of ceramics and the use of traditional techniques in the contemporary art world. This is demonstrated by the series of wall works entitled Wargames, exhibited in the first gallery room, which allow the viewer an opening glimpse of Creten’s artistic universe. Straddling the border between painting and sculpture, Wargames first began in 2013 following his Alfred Paintings executed during a residency at Alfred University, New York State. Wargames bring together melted glass and elements in sculpted clay, which once fired and glazed take on the radiant golden texture of a bee’s nest. While bringing to mind the bee’s meticulous method of honeycomb construction, the geometrical constellations covering each sculpture resemble mental landscapes, geopolitical maps or video game battle plans. From afar the pieces can be taken for intimate paintings; it is precisely this hybrid and lively character that reminds us of Creten’s interest for plays on perception. The sheer beauty of the seductive, shiny and translucent enamels contrasts with their solidity, opacity and handmade appearance. Enamel work is dear to the artist for its intrinsic symbolic values, reflecting a creative act of resistance at odds with abstraction, in the face of a world in constant change. This impulse towards commitment and to what Creten describes as “making tenacious (weerbarstig) works” evokes the themes of both personal and collective destiny already present in pieces such as Naissance d’une Ombre (1993) and Pliny’s Sorrow (2011).
A group of more architectural and figurative works is installed in the main room. Three imposing black columns, entitled Massu, cast in bronze, punctuate the space. Both stable and dynamic, these pillars shoot upwards in a burst of vital energy. The largest of the three stands at almost six meters high and seems to pierce the gallery’s ceiling. Creten took to working with bronze about ten years ago, seeing the material’s potential for sculptural experimentation. The continuity and regularity of these works cause them to enter into dialogue with Brancusi’s ‘Endless Columns’, revealing a shared gestural radicalness and a desire for immemorial elevation present in both artists’ practices. However, gathered together as a trinity, Creten’s columns differ from Brancusi’s primitivist vision by virtue of their emotional gravity. Different versions and editions of the sculptures have been shown at the Middelheimmuseum in Antwerp, Belgium (2014), the Gellone Abbey in Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert, France (2015) and are part of the permanent collection of the NOMA (The Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden, New Orleans Museum of Art) in the United States.
Among these monumental architectural elements will be placed 8 Gods, new figurative sculptures on coloured pedestals in glazed ceramics. Completed over the past two years at atelier Struktuur 68 in The Hague, these masculine and feminine characters come together in a lively yet silent council; partially or totally veiled, their postures recall antique sculptures or sacred figures. Each sculpture’s uniqueness is reinforced by the enamel firing technique, animating the works, which seem to converse between themselves and with the viewer. The latter is also invited to take a seat on one of the coloured ‘Points d’Observation (Viewpoints)’ in order to view the exhibition and interact with the surrounding muses. Creten specifically conceived of these works — whose shape echoes that of a mooring post — as a breath or pause between the other pieces. These ‘Points d’Observation (Viewpoints)’ urge us to take our time. This series also allows Creten to pursue his reflections upon the relationship between sculpture and pedestal, between the spectator and his environment of images. With the exception of The Boy, when reading the allegorical titles of the other works we discover a series of dualities and opposites: The Knife shies away from us, suggesting an archetypal figure of seduction, yet is she not also the victim who becomes the abuser? The quintessential tragedian; think Maria Callas in the spotlight. Like ghosts, The Ring and The Mirror evoke prudence and justice in equal measure to doubt and resistance. The Veil, with its face entirely covered, is perhaps even the allegory of this hidden system, indecipherable at first glance.
‘8 Gods’ opens like a theatrical staging or a contemporary temple wherein Creten’s Wargames at the exhibition entrance symbolize a sculpted peristyle. The ensemble of columns and statues gathered here by the artist meld individual memory and historical narratives in a syncretic and poetic sculptural universe, inviting the viewer to partake in a contemplative perambulation.
Life is neither good nor bad
Life is life and all we know
Good and bad and joy and woe
are woven fine
(Leonard Bernstein, Candide, 1956)