Artist included in 7th Annual HBCU Art Showcase:

Kennedi Andrus

Allana Barefield

KaLya Ellis

Barriane Franks

Lauren Gray

Ashley A. Miller

Reid Hobson-Powell

La’Shance Perry

Michael Riley

Makeda Wells

Bryce Williams

Maliya Vaughan

In collaboration with the New Orleans Chapter of The Links, Incorporated, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art is pleased to present the 7^th annual HBCU Art Showcase, a curated show of works from students attending Xavier University of Louisiana, one of the state’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

Xavier University of Louisiana is America’s only Historically Black and Catholic University. Xavier is a nationally recognized leader in the STEM and health sciences fields, producing more African American students who graduate from medical school each year than any other university in the United States. Its College of Pharmacy is also among the top producers of African American pharmacists.

Xavier’s liberal arts based programs in areas such as art, business, education, psychology and political science – as well as recent additions of bioinformatics, data science, neuroscience, crime and social justice and jazz studies – offer students an unbeatable combination of traditional classroom study, hands-on research, service-learning opportunities and life experiences.

Today, Xavier remains committed to its founding mission of serving the underrepresented Black population and the “the promotion of a more just and humane society.” Its doors have, and still are, open to all races and creeds. The current student population is 71.6 percent black and 19 percent Catholic.

The Links, Incorporated has celebrated more than 67 years as a women’s volunteer service organization committed to enriching, sustaining and ensuring the cultural and economic survival of African Americans and other persons of African ancestry. A premier international service organization with nearly 14,000 members in 280 chapters located in 41 states, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, its legacy of friends providing service that changes lives, established by the original circle of nine friends in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1946, is alive and well. The members of The Links, Incorporated are influential decision makers and opinion leaders. The Links, Incorporated has attracted many distinguished women who are individual achievers and who have made a difference in their communities and the world. They are business and civic leaders, role models, mentors, activists and volunteers who work towards a common vision by engaging like-minded organizations and individuals for partnership. With more than 2 million service hours recorded in the past three years, members regularly contribute more than 500,000 documented service hours in their respective communities annually.

Since it was chartered on November 20, 1957, the New Orleans Chapter of The Links, Incorporated has engaged in implementing program services through the five National Program Facets: Services to Youth; International Trends and Services; National Trends and Services; Health and Human Services; and the Arts. The chapter’s major initiatives include co-sponsoring the local competition for the Scripps National Spelling Bee and Law Day, in which students are trained in legal proceedings and participate in a mock trial. The main focus areas are: education and youth activities to assist youth in fulfilling their intellectual potential; addressing issues affecting the African-American community through health and wellness projects; fostering cultural appreciation through the arts; and collaborating with other Link chapters to provide services and assistance to global friends.