FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 2, 2023
(New Orleans, LA) – On Saturday, October 21, Ogden Museum of Southern will host its annual O What a Night! Gala. A black-tie affair, the glamorous evening will honor New Orleans based artist Luis Cruz Azaceta with the 2023 Opus Award. The gala will feature a seated dinner, live music and a live and silent art auction.
Each year, Ogden Museum of Southern Art selects one or more individuals who have made a significant impact within the arts and culture of our region to honor with the Opus Award. This year, the Museum has selected Luis Cruz Azaceta as the recipient. A Cuban American artist, Azaceta’s artistic practice develops parallel series in several media at once, combining materials in unexpected ways. For Azaceta, art is a way of facing the world and addressing the human condition. He has had over 100 solo exhibitions, most recently a major retrospective at Ogden Museum of Southern Art in 2022. Azaceta has been in more than 400 group exhibitions and has been awarded grants from The National Endowment for the Arts, The Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and The Joan Mitchell Foundation. His work is part of major museum collections including Ogden Museum of Southern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Smithsonian Institution, Artium Museo De Arte Contemporaneo, Spain, Museo De Arte Contemporaneo De Monterrey and Kerry Stokes Art Collection, Australia.
O What a Night! Gala will start at 6 p.m. with a cocktail hour held in the Museum’s historic Patrick F. Taylor library, where guests will be able to view and bid on the works of art in the silent auction, presented by Neal Auction, and enjoy passed hors d’oeuvres from boutique New Orleans caterer, Palate New Orleans. Following the cocktail hour, gala attendees will enjoy a seated dinner featuring a crafted menu from Palate’s executive chef, Glenn Vatshell alongside acclaimed American jazz trumpeter and singer Jeremy Davenport and his band. This year’s live auction will be presided over by the renowned auctioneer Nicholas Lowry of Swann Galleries and PBS’ Antique Roadshow. The auction will feature exclusive, major works from Southern artists such as George Dunbar, John Isiah Walton, Kaori Maeyama, Alex Beard and Aimée Farnet Siegel. The celebration continues into the evening with live entertainment provided by highenergy New Orleans band, D’Play.
“We’re proud to honor an artist whose life’s work speaks directly to the excellence and diversity of art of the American South,” said William Pittman Andrews, The Helis Foundation Executive Director of Ogden Museum of Southern Art, “and we’re thrilled to celebrate once again with a community of artists, collectors and patrons who gather in support of our unique educational mission to inspire and enlighten audiences of all ages and backgrounds.”
The evening is not only an experiential celebration of the very best in Southern art, music and culinary delights, but is also the Museum’s top fundraising event. Contributions to O What a Night! Gala 2023 provide critical funds for the Museum’s award-winning educational programs and dynamic exhibitions of Southern painting, photography, sculpture and much more.
The silent auction presented by Neal Auction will be available online and open for bidding starting on October 14 and will close on October 22. This year’s silent auction features over 100 works of art and includes artists like Aron Belka, Emily Lovejoy, Richard Sexton, Paige DeVries, Horton Humble and Kennedy Timmons. Artwork in the silent auction will be on view at the Museum for visitors to see and bid on starting October 14.
O What a Night! Gala 2023 co-chairs include Coleman E. Adler II, Tiffany Adler, Penny Francis and Deanna Rodriguez, and the event is made possible with generous support from ELEMENT, LCMC Health, Goldring Family Foundation, Signature Events, The Helis Foundation, Neal Auction, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, Palate New Orleans, Premium Parking and SAZERAC.
To preview the live and silent auctions and to purchase tickets to O What a Night! Gala, visit www.ogdenmuseum.org/owhatanight2023. 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 $13.50 for adults, $11 for seniors 65 and older, $6.75 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.