Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2008 - (Page 5)

June gala marks official grand opening of the Louisiana Humanities Center On June 27, the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities held a special gala to mark the official dedication of its new Humanities Education Center at Turners’ Hall. The Center, located in LEH headquarters at 938 Lafayette Street in New Orleans, consists of five meeting rooms and the 120-seat Patrick F. Taylor Auditorium, all with the latest on-line Internet and teleconferencing technology. The Humanities Center also contains the largest collection of artworks, now numbering 17, by the late New Orleans artist John Scott. Attending the gala were a number of LEH board members, donors and friends of the LEH. The evening highlights included tours of the Scott collection and a performance by pianist Ronald Markham and trumpeter Irvin Mayfield. Contributors to the creation of the Humanities Education Center were: • “Champion” $250k-plus donors: State of Louisiana, Kresge Foundation, The National Endowment for the Humanities, The Patrick Taylor Foundation. • “Benefactor” $100k-plus donors: Gustaf Westfeldt McIlhenny Family Foundation, The Historic New Orleans Collection, Community Foundation of Shreveport, Zemurray Foundation. • “Underwriters” $25k-plus donors: Booth Bricker Foundation, Helis Foundation, Libby-Dufour Fund, Michael Sartisky in memory of Jacques Sartisky, Selley Fund, R. Lewis McHenry, Houmas House Plantation, Capital One, Mr. & Mrs. Randy Ewing, Jones Walker Law Firm, The Pennington Foundation, Whitney Bank, Freeport-McMoRan, Walda and Patrick F. Taylor Auditorium at the Louisiana Humanities Center Pianist Ronald Markham and trumpeter Irvin Mayfield. Sydney Bestoff. • “Investors” $10K-plus donors: Mr. & Mrs. Lyndon & Janine Barrois, Darnell Bludworth & Mike Boyle, Mr. & Mrs. William K. Christovich, French Quarter Realty & Mr. Michael Wilkinson, Phil and Lucie Earhart, Mark Heller, Norman Kinsey, Jean & Saul Mintz & Melinda & Morris Mintz, Cleland Powell III, Drew & Sheila Ranier, George & Wendy Rodrigue, Sanford Foundation, Josef Sternberg Memorial Fund, and Mrs. Bert Turner. Business, civic, cultural and educational organizations interested in using the Humanities Education Center meeting facilities should contact Brian Boyles at 504-620-2632 or at boyles@leh.org. Getty grant aimed at helping Louisiana’s museums recover from Katrina and Rita Louisiana museums may be eligible for special Katrina and Rita “recovery” assistance through a special grant awarded by The Getty Foundation of Los Angeles to the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities (LEH) and Louisiana Association of Museums (LAM). The two-year $80,000 “Roadmap to Recovery” grant is intended to provide services and programs for Louisiana museums struggling to recover from hurricanes Katrina and Rita. In the months immediately following Katrina and Rita’s landfall in late 2005, it became clear that museums located in urban neighborhoods and at rural crossroads throughout south Louisiana suffered such devastating losses — physical, financial, personnel and constituency — that it was difficult, if not impossible, to gauge them. In response, in 2006 the LEH and LAM commissioned an indepth survey of museums affected by the storms to determine their immediate needs and how they could best be served to reduce the likelihood of such catastrophic damage in the future. The $80,000 grant from The Getty Foundation and the $480,000 in matching funds and services from the LEH and LAM will be used over two years to provide professional development workshops for museum staff, especially in areas of emergency preparedness and security, preservation and conservation of museum collections, and museum staff care and development. To provide follow-up training and information, LAM will develop a “mentor web chat program” to give workshop participants continued on-line access to museum professionals who will serve as ongoing mentors. In a collaborative effort, LAM will coordinate the programs underwritten by the grant and the LEH will serve as fiscal agent for the project as part of its statewide mission. Getty Foundation support was provided through the Getty’s Fund for New Orleans, established to help revitalize cultural organizations in the New Orleans region following Hurricane Katrina. To date, the Foundation has awarded 14 grants totaling more than $2 million to support conservation surveys and transition planning for arts organizations in the region. The Foundation is part of the J. Paul Getty Trust, an international cultural and philanthropic institution devoted to the visual arts. Louisiana museums and museum staff interested in participating in these Getty-sponsored programs should contact LAM director Genny Nadler Thomas in Baton Rouge at 225-383-6800 or genny@louisianamuseums.org or LEH grants director Walker Lasiter in New Orleans at 504-620-2631 or lasiter@leh.org. FRANK RELLE Fall 2008/LOUISIANA CULTURAL VISTAS 5

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2008

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2008 Contents Friends Editor’s Column Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities New Orleans Immortelle The Historic New Orleans Collection Highland-Fairfield: The Historic Heart of Shreveport The Ogden Museum of Southern Art Perils of the Mississippi River Louisiana Foodways Harvest of Life King Oliver: The Forgotten King of Jazz Louisiana Architecture Jazz Notes Louisiana State Museum Eye of the Storm Louisiana Association of Museums Soul Resin Bookstand Sound Advice Forum

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2008

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