The New Orleans Jazz Museum will celebrate the intersection of visual art and music through a mixture of musical performances, illuminated installations, digital sculptures and dance at a Sound Collage installation on the nights of December 3–4. The art-and-music experience will be among the many offerings at the Improvisations Gala, a fundraiser on Saturday, December 4, from 7–11 p.m.
Rooted in New Orleans’ long tradition of creative collaboration, the festival transforms the grounds of the Jazz Museum at 400 Esplanade Avenue into a space for culture bearers, musicians and artists to showcase their work in new and experimental ways. The Sound Collage will feature international artists, local musicians as well as Mardi Gras Indians and N’awlins D’awlins Baby Dolls.
Sound Collage opens to the public on Friday, December 3, from 7–9 p.m. with an evening of music, dance and interactive art installations, including performances by Jonathan Freilich, Joshua Starkman, Sasha Masakowski, Bon Bon Vivant, T-Ray and the international Rebel Babel Ensemble featuring Kevin Louis.
The Crystal Efemmes, a New Orleans based all-female art collective, will present their latest project, Unidentified Female Vocalist, inspired by the imagined stories of underrepresented, under-credited women musicians. Alison Norlen, Canadian artist/sculptor and professor of painting and drawing at the University of Saskatchewan, will display a piece titled Moulin De Nouveau Orléans, an illuminated windmill staged as a centerpiece of the museum’s Decatur courtyard, paying homage to the iconic Moulin Rouge nightclub of Paris. Steven Montalvo will present an interactive projection mapping installation inside the Jazz Museum’s Education Center utilizing archival second line parade footage from the Jazz Museum’s collections, enabling participants to become a part of, and interact with, one of the foundational elements of New Orleans culture.
Derek Brueckner’s Social Improvisations, a participatory project featuring performers and props, will be staged in the Jazz Museum’s Esplanade courtyard. The Krewe of Vaporwave, led by Kevin Centanni, will take over the museum’s Riverside Courtyard with light and laser projections as well as their signature installation of video and film clips played on television monitors. This avant-garde spectacle will include the Jazz Museum’s signature Halloween mascot, Mr Bones.
Furthering the New Orleans Jazz Museum’s educational mission, the Sound Collage will also set the stage for the unveiling of a newly acquired and rare artifact, the Megalethoscope. This 19th-century optical apparatus designed by Carlo Ponti of Venice, Italy, includes multilayered photographs that are viewed through a large lens. The Megalethoscope creates an optical illusion of depth and perspective using a singular light source. The device will be displayed in the recently established Ruth Fertel Jazz Lab
Through dynamic interactive exhibits, multigenerational educational programming, research facilities and engaging musical performances, the music New Orleans made famous is explored in all its forms at the New Orleans Jazz Museum. For more information on the Sound Collage and the Improvisations Gala, visit here.
