Online Collection

COLLECTIONS ONLINE DATABASE

In the wake of March’s stay-at-home order for Louisiana, museum staff were left reeling, wondering: How can we fulfill our mission if no one can visit the museum? One easy way to provide visitors access to the museum’s collection and galleries was already on our radar: expanding LSU MOA’s online collection database. If you’ve explored the museum’s website, you may have clicked “explore the collection,” which has been available for some time. When museum staff went home in March, there were only 542 objects available to see. Since then, the records available have more than doubled (over 1,133 objects) and continue to grow with collective efforts from museum staff and student workers.

see the collection from home Go to lsumoa.pastperfectonline.com

Use the keyword or advanced search to find a specific object, artist, or collection.

Try “Caroline Durieux” in the Artist field or “Newcomb” in the Collection field. Or try “Art in Louisiana” in the On View In field and see everything on view.

Check in often to see what new records have been added. Take our survey on the LSU MOA collections page to help LSU MOA add more useful search keywords.

RECENT ACQUISITION NOW ON VIEW: TINA FREEMAN

Inspired by childhood memories of fishing in Louisiana’s wetlands and impacts of climate change on these sites, Freeman took aerial photographs of southern Louisiana and glacial ice at the North and South poles. This work represents Freeman’s understanding of “the deeper underlying relationship between melting glaciers and vanishing wetlands, two aspects of climate change and rising waters that threaten the survival of our species on this planet. Seeing the melting polar ice not only showed me the reality of global sea level rise, but brought home the vulnerability of New Orleans…”

EDUCATION

NEIGHBORHOOD ARTS PROJECT

Among the vast impacts of the pandemic is the limited access children have to handson arts programming. The LSU Museum of Art’s community arts education program, Neighborhood Arts Project, has adapted to the special challenges of the pandemic. Traditionally, NAP functions as a neighborhood gathering point with creative activities for families. This year we encapsulated the program in over 1,000 kits for families to use to be creative and safe at home in this ongoing project.

•39 volunteers packaging kits •15 distribution points •1,073 kits distributed •606 activity bags distributed through EBRPS Nutrition Sites March–May (adapted ArtWorks program)

LSU MOA NAP art kits include: LSU MOA lessons and activity worksheets, crayons, watercolors, chalk, scissors, glue, and pencils

By safely distributing these boxes, the museum hopes to give children and parents an arts education resource and a connection to the museum during this time. NAP kits were distributed through the following partners:

•Village Resource Center •Gardere Initiative •Interfaith Federation’s Holy Grill at Cadillac Street Park •Family and Youth Services of Baton Rouge •EBRP Libraries •CEO Mind, INC •Start Corporation •Unity: A Juneteenth Family Picnic •HYPE

IMAGES: (pictured top right) LSU MOA Educator Grant Benoit teaching at Interfaith Federation’s Holy Grill at Cadillac Street Park; (top left) Baton Rouge Magnet High School Key Club students volunteering to package kits; (bottom left) Gardere Initiative participants with NAP art kits