The Ogden Museum of Southern Art — located just three miles from Tulane’s Uptown campus —  has been offering a wide variety of engaging activities and exhibits throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. 

This Thursday, March 18, use your 12-1 p.m. lunch break to join Museum Educator Michelle Pontiff’s “Drawing 101” class, where participants learn to draw, taking inspiration from nature. This free event is a beginner-level class that is designed to build your drawing skills. Unique to this once-a-month series, each class participants learn about Southern artists whose works are inspired by the environment. This session will focus on “From the Vine to the Vein” by Jaqueline Bishop, featuring a guided conversation about the artist’s style and interpretation with an instructional drawing exercise. The event is via Zoom and registration can be found on the museum’s website. 

If you are a more advanced artist and are interested in collage and sculpture, consider joining Ogden Museum’s series “A Deep Exploration of Three Dimensional Sculptural Approaches.” This six-week session runs every Monday from March 22 through May 3 from 1-3 p.m. via Zoom. Draw inspiration from Ogden Museum’s exhibitions, “Built: Sculptural Art from the Permanent Collection” and “Preservative Force: Recent Acquisitions to the Collection.” Mel Chin, William Dunlap and Lin Emery are some of the artists featured. This class will not only enhance your creative skills, as Museum Educator Mikhayla Harrell provides the opportunity to delve deeply into critical thinking, art-making procedures, art observation and mindfulness practices. This series encourages students to use items found in their natural surroundings in their artwork, such as natural organic materials, intertubes, wood and even strange objects from around the home. By the end of the series, participants will have created four unique sculptures. There is a fee for this series, which can be found on the website.

From March 27 through Sept. 5, 2021, the Ogden Museum will debut Roland L. Freeman’s portfolio, cultivated by The Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi in conjunction with Diogenes Editions. Freeman’s photography is a beautiful testament to “the spirit and resilience of the Black communities in the South.” This portfolio compares experiences of rural countryside life to urban centers, all while amplifying the cultural diversity and regional traditions of Black American life. These photos are accompanied with introductory text from Director William Ferris, of The Center for the Study of Southern Culture, as well as essays by Tom Rankin, associate professor of art and southern studies at the University of Mississippi, and D. Gorton of Diogenes Editions.