Ogden Museum of Southern Art
925 Camp St
New Orleans, LA 70130
504.539.9650 | HOURS
925 Camp St
New Orleans, LA 70130
504.539.9650 | HOURS
Dawn DeDeaux, photo courtesy of Paul Costello for The New York Times, and Randy K. Haynie
(New Orleans, LA) – On Saturday, October 18, 2025, Ogden Museum of Southern Art will host its annual O What a Night! Gala, the Museum’s signature black-tie fundraiser celebrating the art and culture of the American South. This year’s gala will honor internationally acclaimed New Orleans-based multimedia artist Dawn DeDeaux and Louisiana arts advocate and philanthropist Randy K. Haynie with the prestigious Opus Award. O What a Night! guests will enjoy a seated dinner, live music and both live and silent art auctions, with proceeds supporting the Museum’s dynamic exhibitions, educational programming and community initiatives.
Festivities will begin with a Patron Party on Thursday, October 16, 2025, hosted at the Uptown home of gala co-chair Kaye Courington. The Patron Party will offer supporters an exclusive first look at live auction items, as well as an intimate evening of cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. Courington is joined in her co-chair duties by Fern Watters, whose leadership will help ensure a memorable and impactful celebration.
Ogden Museum’s Opus Award is presented to individuals who continue to make significant contributions to the vibrant and complex fabric that is the genre of American Southern art. This year, the Museum is proud to honor artist Dawn DeDeaux and philanthropist Randy K. Haynie, two visionaries whose work has shaped and advanced the cultural landscape of the American South.
Dawn DeDeaux is an internationally acclaimed, New Orleans-based multimedia artist whose career spans five decades. Her interdisciplinary practice draws upon art history, philosophy, anthropology, literature and science to address the human condition and the future of the planet. Her work has been featured at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Mass MoCA, Hammer Museum, Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, New Orleans Museum of Art and Ogden Museum of Southern Art, as well as Prospect New Orleans and the Poydras Corridor Sculpture Exhibition. Among her many accolades, she is the recipient of the American Academy in Rome’s prestigious Prix de Rome.
Randy K. Haynie, also receiving the Opus Award, is the owner and president of Haynie & Associates, a government relations firm with offices in Baton Rouge and Lafayette, Louisiana. Beyond his professional achievements, Haynie has served civic and cultural organizations including the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, Hilliard Art Museum, University of Louisiana at Lafayette Foundation, Louisiana Governor’s Mansion Preservation Foundation and the Arts and Culture Fund of the Community Foundation of Acadiana. A founding board member of Ogden Museum, Haynie has been instrumental in the Museum’s growth, most recently assisting with the acquisition of the Patrick F. Taylor Library and Stephen Goldring Hall. His dedication to the arts has been recognized with lifetime achievement awards from the Louisiana Partnership for the Arts, the Acadian Center for the Arts and the Louisiana Association of Museums.
In addition to the presentation of the Opus Awards, the evening will showcase silent and live art auctions, featuring both emerging and established regional artists. The gala is not only an experiential celebration of the very best in Southern art, music and food, but is also the Museum’s top fundraising event. Contributions to the 2025 O What a Night! Gala will provide critical funds for the Museum’s award-winning educational programs and for dynamic exhibitions of art of and about the American South.
The silent auction will be available online and open for bidding starting on October 13, and will close on October 19. Artwork in the silent auction will be on view at the Museum for visitors to see and bid on starting October 13.
O What a Night! Gala 2025 co-chairs include Kaye Courington and Fern Watters, and the event is made possible with generous support from Beverly Dale, Thibodaux Regional Health Systems, The Haynie Family Foundation, The Jenkins Family, FirstDay Foundation, Neal Auction, Michael Mimeles, Wendy Rodrigue & Doug Magnus, LCMC Health, ELEMENT, The Helis Foundation, Premium Parking, SAZERAC / Goldring Family Foundation, St. Charles Avenue, The Times-Picayune | nola.com.
For a full list of auction artists names, and to purchase tickets to the O What a Night! Gala, visit www.ogdenmuseum.org. For questions about the gala, please contact Capri Guarisco, Marketing and Communications Manager, at cguarisco@ogdenmuseum.org or 504.539.8170.
About Ogden Museum of Southern Art
Located in the vibrant Warehouse Arts District of downtown New Orleans, Louisiana since 1999 and open to the public since 2003, Ogden Museum of Southern Art invites visitors to experience and learn about the artists and culture of the American South. Ogden Museum is home to a collection of more than four thousand works, making it the largest and most comprehensive repository dedicated to Southern art in the nation, with particular strength in the genres of Self-Taught art, Regionalism, photography and contemporary art. The Museum is further recognized for its original exhibitions, public events and educational programs, which examine the development of visual art alongside Southern traditions of music, literature and local craft.
Ogden Museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Admission is free to Museum Members and admission for Non-Members is $15.00 for adults, $12.00 for seniors 65 and older, $7.00 for children ages 5-17 and free for children under 5. Prices are subject to change when exhibitions are being rotated. Admission is free to Louisiana residents on Thursdays, courtesy of The Helis Foundation.
The Museum is located at 925 Camp Street, New Orleans, Louisiana 70130. For more information visit ogdenmuseum.org or call 504.539.9650.