• Upcoming

    Contemporary Arts Center

    Meg Turner Tintype Portrait Shoot (Postponed)

    January 26, 2020

    NOTE: This event has been postponed due to a scheduling conflict with the artist. Please stay tuned to our website, social media channels, and newsletter for updates on when it will be rescheduled. Thank you!

     

    Ever wish your portrait was on the walls of a gallery? On Sunday, January... Read more →

    Past Shows

    Contemporary Arts Center

    2019 SEASON OPENING NIGHT

    November 2, 2019
    You're Invited! On Saturday, November 2, please join us for the CAC's 2019 season opening reception celebrating the debut of five exhibitions that will examine the reclamation of identity, Black femininity, queer and chosen love, and the 10th Anniversary of New Orleans Airlift! This event is FREE & OPEN to the public. The five CAC exhibitions that will open November 2 include: MICKALENE THOMAS: FEMMES NOIRES (The Helis Foundation First Floor Galleries) FEMMES FEROCES: MATERIAL LIFE X FEMMES NOIRES (Oval Gallery and CAC Cafe) AKOSUA ADOMA OWUSU: WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE (Second Floor Galleries) MEG TURNER: HERE AND NOW (Second Floor Galleries) NEW ORLEANS AIRLIFT: FROM NEW WATER MUSIC (Atrium) Explore each of these exhibitions by visiting the links at the bottom of this page! Music by DJ Felice Gee Born in Brooklyn and inspired by New Orleans, Felicia Gee curates sound waves fine-tuned specifically as a form of meditation and celebration. Expect African Diasporic sounds from every era, introduced through emphasis on drum-beats and storytelling! Late Night Bites by La Vie En Rose Cafe La Vie En Rose Cafe will be on site offering tasty options from their menu, including creole gumbo, vegan red beans, and sweet treats including macaroons and pastries. Make Us Your Center! Opening Night is the perfect time to join the CAC! Get the most out of this season by receiving complimentary admission year-round to CAC visual arts exhibitions, receive exclusive discounts to CAC performances, share guest passes with your friends and family, take advantage of priority seating, and more! Talk to our Member Services team at the front desk or join online today.

    PhotoNOLA | Keith Calhoun and Chandra McCormick: Labor Studies

    December 14, 2018
    Living and working in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, Keith Calhoun and Chandra McCormick have documented the city and its people for forty years. This comprehensive exhibition will present their photographs of laboring communities including the last sugar cane and sweet potato harvesters, unionized dockworkers, musician day laborers, hospitality and restaurant workers, domestic caretakers and one of the largest workforces in the state of Louisiana, the inmates of the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. This will be the first exhibition to present Calhoun and McCormick’s extensive documentation of the city’s changing labor force. On Friday, December 14 there will be gallery talk & exhibition walk through with the artists, Keith Calhoun and Chandra McCormick, and Andrea Andersson, the CAC’s Chief Curator of Visual Arts. This event is free and open to the public. Please mention PhotoNOLA at front desk to be given access to the second floor galleries free of charge. ABOUT THE ARTISTS Keith Calhoun and Chandra McCormick were born and raised in the lower ninth ward of New Orleans, Louisiana. As husband and wife team, they have been documenting Louisiana and its people for more than 40 years. Calhoun and McCormick have documented the soul of New Orleans and a vanishing Louisiana: the last of the sugar cane workers, the dockworkers, the sweet potato harvesters, and the displacement of African Americans after Katrina. In New Orleans, they have documented the music culture, which consists of Brass Bands, Jazz Funerals, Social and Pleasure Clubs, Benevolent Societies, and the Black Mardi Gras Indians. They photograph the traditions of black church services and religious rituals; community rites and celebrations, such as parades, and jazz funerals; and the cruel conditions of the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, a former slave-breeding plantation named for the African nation from which “the most profitable”...

    Lunch at the Museum: Presented by YLC and The Helis Foundation

    January 28, 2018
    Join the CAC, YLC, and The Helis Foundation to celebrate the CAC's weekly Free Day for Louisiana residents and the final event in the Lunch at the Museum series. Enjoy free gallery admission for Louisiana residents, music in the CAC Atrium by DJ HYENA, and delicious brunch offerings at the newly opened Revelator Coffee . SEE: Prospect.4: The Lotus in Spite of the Swamp EAT: Brunch at Revelator Coffee at the CAC LISTEN: DJ HYENA Stay for the Sunday matinee performance of Urban Bush Women !

    Members-Only Curatorial Walkthrough: Prospect.4

    January 24, 2018
    Get an exclusive look at Prospect.4: The Lotus in Spite of the Swamp with Emily Wilkerson, Prospect.4 Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs. After the walkthrough, join us for the premiere performance of Urban Bush Women's Hair & Other Stories at 7:30pm. CAC Members receive $10 off tickets and priority seating. This event is open to current CAC Members only. JOIN or RENEW Membership

    An Evening of Prospect.4 and Poetry

    December 6, 2017
    Join the CAC for a wine-and-cheese reception and special after-hours viewing of Prospect.4: The Lotus in Spite of the Swamp , followed by a one-night-only poetry reading by Russ M. Herman from his new book of poetry, “The Topography of Life, Love and Travel.” Russ Herman, who is nationally recognized as one of the top litigators in the country, has published his first book of poetry, “The Topography of Life, Love and Travel.” The poems and prose are divided into three parts - Part One is the Geography of Love which includes eight poems - travel to South America, Portofino, Saint Barts, Amsterdam and Jerusalem. Part Two is The Topography of Love, nineteen poems of courtship and love. Part Three is the Romance of My Muse - from the first date through a honeymoon on the Isle of Lido in Venice. Wednesday, December 6 CAC Galleries Open at 6:00pm with complimentary wine and cheese Poetry Reading at 7:30pm in CAC Theater

    Opening Reception with James Hoff and Jacqueline Humphries

    November 19, 2015
    Join artists James Hoff and Jacqueline Humphries, on the evening of their individual solo exhibition openings at the CAC, as they explore each other’s work during a lively artist talk. Opening Reception 6:30–8pm Artist Talk 7pm James Hoff is an artist living and working in Brooklyn, NY. His work encompasses painting, sound, performance, and publishing among other media. He has maintained a strong focus on distributed forms and experiments with language, including cross-disciplinary investigations that address orally-transmitted syndromes, computer viruses, and ear worms. Hoff has released two records with PAN, with the latest being BLASTER, which documents his experiments with infecting 808 beats with computer viruses. He has performed and exhibited his art work extensively throughout the United States and Europe over the last ten years. Hoff is also a co-founder of Primary Information, a non-profit arts organization devoted to publishing artists’ books and art historical documents. Jacqueline Humphries Jacqueline Humphries lives and works in New York City. Recent solo exhibitions include Greene Naftali, New York (2015); Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburg, PA (2015); Stuart Shave/Modern Art, London (2014); Greene Naftali, New York (2012); and Prospect.1 New Orleans, LA (2008). Her work was included in the 2014 Whitney Biennial. Humphries' work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Tate Modern, London; Albright-Knox Art Gallery; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and the Smithsonian Institution, D.C.

    REVERB: Past, Present, Future

    REVERB: Past, Present, Future explores the evolution of art and artistic practices in New Orleans and its surrounding region over the last decade.

     
    Taking the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina as its chronological starting point, it positions the vast social, economic, and political reverberations of this monumental event as ... Read more

    In Conversation with Nicolás Dumit Estévez

    June 4, 2015
    Join us for a conversation with EN MAS’ contributing artist, Nicolás Dumit Estévez, as he delves into his elusive art practice, his relationship to the Caribbean, and the impact that his piece C Room , created specifically for EN MAS’ , has had on his ever-evolving notions of identity and home. Born in Santiago, Dominican Republic, in 2011 Nicolás was baptized as a citizen of the Bronx in a performative ceremony that took place along the banks of the Bronx River. Nicolás Dumit Estévez treads an elusive path that manifests itself performatively or through experiences where the quotidian and art overlap. He has exhibited and performed at Madrid Abierto/ARCO, The IX Havana Biennial, PERFORMA 05 and 07, IDENSITAT, Prague Quadrennial, NYU Cantor Film Center, The Pontevedra Biennial, The Queens Museum, MoMA, Printed Matter, P.S. 122, Hemispheric Institute of Performance Art and Politics, Princeton University, Rutgers University, Anthology Film Archives, The Institute for Art, Religion, and Social Justice at Union Theological Seminary, The MacDowell Colony, Provisions Library, El Museo del Barrio, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, The Center for Book Arts, Longwood Art Gallery/BCA, The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Franklin Furnace, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, among others. During the past seven years Estévez has received mentorship in art in everyday life from Linda Mary Montano, a historic figure in the performance art field. Montano and Estévez have also collaborated on several performances. Residencies attended include P.S. 1/MoMA, Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony. He has received grants from Art Matters, Lambent Foundation, National Association of Latino Arts and Culture, Printed Matter and Puffin Foundation. Estévez Holds an MFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA; and an MA from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. Publications include Pleased to Meet You , Life...