Opened in 1911, the New Orleans Art Museum (NOMA) is the oldest museum of art in the city of New Orleans, and one of the premiere museums in the state of Louisiana. Fortunately, the placement of the Museum’s works spared almost its entire collection from the effects of the devastating Hurricane Katrina, and it reopened within months, in 2006.

The permanent collection contains over 40,000 objects, with strong representations of French and American art, photography, glasswork, African and Japanese artwork. The attached Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden contains 50 sculptures placed throughout five acres of natural landscape.  Also notable are the Museum’s Arts of the Americas collection (surveying the art and craft of pre-Columbian civilizations through the Spanish Colonial period) and a collection of works by Edgar Degas (who visited New Orleans and painted not far from the present site of the Museum).

An active educational program is dedicated to engaging the minds and creativity of visitors of all ages; NOMA offers educator workshops, school tours, an art therapy program, and hosts the Cox Art Contest, which gives annual awards to local youths for excellence in the visual arts.