Femme, femme, fini

So tonight was the close of the big exposition at the New Orleans Museum of Art, and Charlie was really hot to go, but has been so hard at work that there hasn’t been time. I’ve found that there’s nothing like a deadline for a writer- and so when it was announced that the museum would stay open until midnight on this, the last day of its run, it was a done deal.

There was really something decadent about heading into NOMA as the sun went down, walking past the swans gliding along in the dusk and dogs chasing each other on the lawns.

So we walked past the animals, and Mitch Landreau walked past us, smiling and generally looking affable as always. *

I’d resisted this show, primarily because I thought it was all impressionist (which it wasn’t), but came away really amazed. The change of heart was due in no small part to the lineup- Degas (naturally), Picasso, Manet, and many more, but also because I hadn’t appreciated how the exhibit came to be.

It turns out that the collection was assembled in under a year as a gift from France Post-Katrina. As a nod to the women in New Orleans who’ve done so much for the city since the storm, paintings were chosen from museums all over France that illustrate the lives of women.

They sent a billion dollars worth of art that did a huge amount to boost NOMA.
Now if only we could get our government to do the same for the city.

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