Join us in celebrating the installation of Monumental Deity XX on the Poydras Corridor Sculpture Exhibition and the extraordinary life and legacy of artist George Dunbar.

The Helis Foundation, in partnership with Ogden Museum of Southern Art, invites you to a special screening of WLAE’s documentary film George Dunbar: Mining the Surfaces on Tuesday, September 17, at Ogden Museum. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., with a cash bar available, followed by the screening at 6:30 p.m.

Enjoy free popcorn and other tasty treats as we honor the work of renowned painter and sculptor George Dunbar. This event is free and open to the public with registration so secure your seat today!

About George Dunbar

New Orleans native George Dunbar (1927-2024) studied at the Tyler School of Art at Temple University and later received a BFA in painting from the Grande Chaumiere in Paris in 1953.

Since his first solo exhibition in Philadelphia in 1953, Dunbar’s artwork has been displayed in museums, galleries and exhibits around the world, including a one-man show of his work titled, George Dunbar: Elements Of Chance, at the New Orleans Museum of Art in 2016.  His public works can be viewed at such esteemed institutions as the British Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, Ogden Museum of Southern Art and the New Orleans Museum of Art.

Dunbar received the Governor’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008 for his contributions to art and culture in Louisiana. He was also awarded the Delgado Society’s Distinguished Art Award by the New Orleans Museum of Art in 2001. In 2022 he received the Opus Lifetime Achievement Award from Ogden Museum of Southern Art.  He taught at 331 Art School in New Orleans, Isidore Newman School and Tulane University.

About Poydras Corridor Sculpture Exhibition

The Poydras Corridor Sculpture Exhibition presented by The Helis Foundation (PCSE) is the South’s leading outdoor, rotating public sculpture exhibition located in the heart of downtown New Orleans spanning Poydras Street between Convention Center Boulevard and North Galvez Street.  Since 2013, PCSE has featured over 40 sculptures along the Poydras Corridor, showcasing the work of renowned local, regional and international artists.  The vision of PCSE is to increase accessibility to interesting and inspiring sculpture for the residents of and visitors to one of New Orleans’ most highly trafficked thoroughfares.

PCSE is a collaboration between The Helis Foundation, Ogden Museum of Southern Art and the City of New Orleans Department of Parks and Parkways.  The Helis Foundation is the exhibition’s sole funder.

As the South’s largest rotating public sculpture exhibition, with fourteen installations currently on view, Poydras Corridor Sculpture Exhibition presented by The Helis Foundation reinforces New Orleans’ status as a leading international destination for the visual arts; creates economic and programming opportunities for a diversity of artists; and beautifies and provides visual interest to the heavily-trafficked vehicular and pedestrian artery connecting the Arts District, Central Business District and historic French Quarter.

/// Event image: George Dunbar, Monumental Deity XX, photo courtesy of Crista Rock