December
18, 2005
Friends and Family of the Arthur Roger Gallery:
I
wish to extend heartfelt holiday greetings and best wishes for 2006
to the gallery's many loyal friends. During this holiday season I
remain deeply grateful for the ongoing concern so many people have
expressed to me regarding the welfare of the gallery's artists and
staff.
We
are pleased to announce that we are kicking off the New Year with
two exceptional exhibitions by artists John Alexander and Mitchell
Gaudet. The opening receptions for both exhibitions will be on Saturday,
January 7th from 6 to 8 pm and are part of the ARTS ALIVE weekend
being coordinated by the galleries of the Warehouse Arts District
along with the Contemporary Arts Center and the Ogden Museum of Southern
Art.
John
Alexander's recent paintings, watercolors and drawings will be on
display at our Julia Street gallery through February 25th. This extraordinary
exhibition was originally intended for Art for Art's Sake last October.
Alexander will conduct a walk-through of the exhibition at 1:30 pm
on Saturday, January 7th.
”The
Myth of Romance,” an exhibition of glass sculpture by Mitchell
Gaudet will be also be on display through February 25th at the Arthur
Roger Gallery Project on Tchoupitoulas Street. A special reception
will be hosted by the gallery on Valentine’s Day, Tuesday, February
14th.
ARTS
ALIVE celebrates the re-opening of the Contemporary Arts Center, The
Ogden Museum, and the galleries of the Arts District following Hurricane
Katrina. In addition to the gallery walk hosted by the Arts District
galleries on Saturday, January 7th from 6 – 9 pm, ARTS ALIVE
will include a street party in conjunction with the openings, walk-throughs
with the artists of the new gallery exhibitions, special music presentations
by the Contemporary Arts Center and the Ogden Museum, and a series
of panel discussions. We will post a schedule of the special four
day event on our web site.
I
would also like to mention that the New Orleans Museum of Art’s
Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden is open, and the Museum
will resume normal hours on Ash Wednesday, March 1st.
On
Friday, January 27th from 7 – 8:30 pm the gallery is hosting
a discussion by an outstanding panel entitled “New Orleans Culture
in a Post-Katrina Environment”. The noteworthy panelists include
Douglas Brinkley, the highly successful author now at Tulane University,
Dan Cameron of the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, and
Rick Powell, Professor of Art History at Duke University. The panel
will be moderated by John Hankins, Director of Community Affairs at
the New Orleans Museum of Art. We invite you to attend.
The
gallery's group "Comeback Exhibition" opened on November
19th and was hugely successful. Every gallery artist provided a superb
piece for the exhibition. I am genuinely moved by how strong the work
of each artist is. There was tremendous show of support with an incredible
turnout for the opening event. That evening was memorable for the
special energy that was unmistakable. Friends of the gallery and the
art community were reconnecting, hugging and sharing the remarkable
storm stories that still dominate the conversation at social gatherings
in New Orleans. That same evening the Ogden Museum coordinated its
re-opening with the gallery’s group exhibition. The Ogden also
had an impressive turnout for the Museum’s “Missing New
Orleans” exhibition and the related book signing.
Earlier
in the day on November 19th the gallery hosted a luncheon at the Rio
Mar restaurant in the Arts District. On a beautiful Saturday afternoon
artists and friends were reunited. We too embraced one another, celebrated
our reunion and shared our determination to recover what we all treasure.
Bradley
Sabin accompanied me to Toronto in late November where the gallery
participated in the 2005 Toronto International Art Fair. We also hope
to participate in other national art fairs in 2006. I encourage artists
to read on the gallery website the forceful statement
by Michael Klein, Director of the International Sculpture Center,
calling for major input from the very beginning from artists in the
design and rebuilding of New Orleans and other costal communities.
Almost
all of the artists have now returned to New Orleans. A few New Orleans
artists have received generous offers of temporary studio space out
of the city. Willie Birch, for example, is presently working in a
studio in New York City but he still intends to return to his 7th
Ward neighborhood. Dawn DeDeaux, who had an excerpt
from her Katrina journal published in the November Art In America,
is traveling back and forth from Mobile. Jim Richard has stayed in
Texas for the time being but will likely return to New Orleans in
time for the spring semester at UNO. John Scott, who lost both his
studio and his home, is still in Houston with family. He, along with
Dawn DeDeaux, was featured in a segment on National Public Radio regarding
artists of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Links
to this broadcast as well as articles featuring artists of the gallery
are posted on the News
and Reviews page of our web site, www.arthurrogergallery.com.
Debbie
Fleming Caffery is now back Santa Fe but from the very beginning of
the post-storm rescue effort she was immersed in assisting evacuees
and photographing their ordeal, often while she was being harangued
by "officials." She is currently working on a book of photography
documenting the plight of evacuees. Additionally, next October, one
year after the events of Hurricane Katrina, our Art for Art’s
Sake exhibition will address the response of our gallery artists to
this life-changing event.
Currently
all of us here at the Arthur Roger Gallery are focusing our energy
on working with artists to assure that they are able to resume their
creative work. In addition, restoring damaged works of art in the
collections of the gallery’s patrons and providing appraisals
for insurance claims are a high priority.
To
those residing outside of New Orleans I want to assure you that the
French Quarter, the Arts District, the Garden District and much of
Uptown were largely spared the damage that is so extensive throughout
large areas elsewhere in the city that tragically flooded. In these
historically significant areas that were spared, almost all of the
leading restaurants and most of the hotels are now open. The gallery
staff will gladly assist you in making plans to visit New Orleans.
The character of the city is altered and there are enormous challenges
facing New Orleans, but we welcome your visit and can assure you that
there is still a unique vitality and creativity here to be enjoyed.
Happy
holidays and best wishes for 2006,
