When first entering the Shaw Center, a five story marvel of architecture, one is overtaken with what is known to some as the “wow” factor. It is extremely impressive as you look up at the sky scraper like view of the open foyer. Riding up to the fifth floor on the freight elevator might be one’s first thrill but the real sensation is the new LSU Museum of Art dominating the 13,000 square feet of top floor space, a big jump from its previous 2500 square feet of space in the LSU Memorial Tower.
The museum features some unusual passions, an eclectic collection from the LSU alumni’s personal collections. It included Pezz dispensers, model cars, spoons and the like. Ms. Laura Gautreau, education coordinator for the LSU Museum of Art and our group’s tour guide, said that it makes the visitors feel more welcome and at home. The collection also includes a painting by Diego Rivera and an extra special portrait of Caroline Durieux, a former print making teacher at LSU who painted satire paintings including the famous “Pig” painting displayed in one of the other exhibits.
The LSU Museum of Art started out in 1959. An anonymous contributor donated money to get the museum started. This donor had an interesting request. Most museums in Louisiana show our ties to the French culture. This donator wanted to display our ties to the British. Thus the broad array of British collections in the museum ranges from furniture and clothes to whole British style doors! If you have visited the museum in its previous location you would now notice that things are arranged differently. Items would have been in “period rooms” where there was everything for a certain period. Now things are more spread out and individualized to help the observers see particular pieces instead of a blur of a specific time period.
Many of the items seen on display are from the alumni’s personal collections. This is evident when you enter the room of Chinese Jade on loan from alumni Dr. James R. Pelishea. His collection includes items from the fifteenth century and things from the Qung pronounced (Ching) Dynasty. However if you want a glimpse at this exhibit, you’d better hurry because it will soon be gone in May of this year. Other more familiar exhibits contain collections unique to Louisiana. There are over 3500 objects, half fine arts and half are decorative arts. The Louisiana silver gallery contains pieces of silver that were either made in Louisiana or for Louisiana. Seeing as though Louisiana has no silver, it might seem strange that there would be silver made here. The remarkable thing however is that some of these pieces were made from old silver coins. These coins were 90% silver and 10% copper and some of the pieces date back as far as 1816. Other items that are distinctly Louisiana style are furniture and clothes displayed in a fashionable manner. Paintings and hand crafted furniture lined the exhibit walls including a Spanish Campeche chair wanted by many including Thomas Jefferson. It took Jefferson ten years to acquire one of these unique chairs.
Moving on to a more modern tone the museum houses Inuit Art from the Canadian Nomads. This exhibits includes sculptures that represent the Inuit way of life. One of the most famous exhibits in the museum is the Newcomb Pottery Exhibit. This exhibit includes pottery that was made at Newcomb College in New Orleans from the 1890’s to the 1940’s. Newcomb College was then affiliated with Tulane University. No two pieces of pottery are alike. The pottery was made by the men and painted by the women in the college to give women a job after graduating in the field of art. The pottery evolved from being glossy and monochromatic to being dull, but also more colorful. These pieces of pottery are extremely valuable and are known for their unique beauty.
The Shaw Center currently is exhibiting art from Africa in the African Gold exhibit. Students from Zachary Elementary and Northwestern Middle went on a quest to find the meanings of Akan proverbs in the exhibit. Living on what was known as the “gold cost” in Africa the Akan made intricate and ornate pieces of jewelry, sword handles, staffs, etc. If you’re more of a “hands on” person you can take an art class or two that correlate with the exhibits. Such as the Plate Painting class that lets you paint plates to look similar to that of Newcomb Pottery or you can make a “soul washer” similar to the pure gold originals made by the Akan people. The students had opportunities to create original works of art relating to the exhibits while visiting the Shaw Center. The students also acted as roving reporters during their visit as they took notes on each exhibit they experienced and recorded important information.
After a full day of being cultured in the area of art, one would think that this is the perfect place to learn about our history and the history of others, while enjoying every minute of it!
