LETTER FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

This is the 12th year for Louisiana Contemporary, Presented by The Helis Foundation. If this moment were hands on a clock, the minute and hour hand would be aligned, and it would be high noon or midnight –either instance lasting for just a second but in a moment of confluence that happens twice a day.

There are many things we can count on with a situation that is frequent, periodic and cyclical. Just as with every annual tradition that brings the comfort of consistency, there are always new elements being introduced that keep the moment current. Louisiana Contemporary feels like this. It’s always the same exhibition, but it’s not quite ever the same thing, just as one cannot step into the same muddy river twice. Celebrating consistency through change is contradictory and creates friction to power the engine of inquiry that this exhibition thrives on each year. What holds all of the contradictions together is an underlying theme of investigation of art being made in this very moment, and further, how this exhibition allows us to celebrate the community of artists who cyclically make the commitment to live and work in our communities across the state of Louisiana.

Our unique educational mission would not exist without the artists in this community, nor without all of the artists who are related by many familiarities and contrasts from communities across the American South and beyond. This moment reminds us to make the experience of art current, critical to our experience of witnessing the future legacy of this artistic community happening in the present. We leave with our own stories of the art and community to share, tell and retell and remember either later this year or many years after.

We always want Louisiana Contemporary to present outwardly to a much larger audience, to have a network of understanding and appreciation organically growing from this point. This year Ogden Museum embarks on a five-year strategic plan whose goal is for us to become the internationally acknowledged authority on art of the American South. We would not be embarking on these bold steps, in part, if not for the elevated reach this exhibition has allowed for the last 12 years. Through the network of jurors and the gathering of contemporary forces, we speak about art of today to galvanize, clarify or inspire our gaze into art of the past and the future.

This exhibition exists because of the community of artists we seek to serve, the staff, volunteers and Board of Trustees of Ogden Museum, the members and visitors, patrons and supporters, and all of those who believe our distinct focus on this wild, undiscovered territory should robustly advance yearly.

Our collective thanks are always for the juror, this year Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander, the Robert M. and Ruth L. Halperin Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University.

Ogden Museum staff are all deeply engaged with this exhibition. In particular the efforts of the entire curatorial team - Amy Newell, Director of Exhibitions; Bradley Sumrall, Curator of the Collection and Collections Manager; Richard McCabe, Curator of Photography and Chief Preparator; Sam Scoggins, Manager of Collections and Registration, who also contributed greatly to the promotion of the exhibition; and Selina McKane, Curatorial and Exhibitions Coordinator. Their efforts are aided by the careful diligence of Claire Wilkinson, Deputy Director of Exhibitions and Advancement.

Once again, we thank The Helis Foundation, for their ongoing presentation of this exhibition and for their tremendous commitment to our artistic community with The Helis Foundation Art Prize, an unrestricted gift in support of artistic practice, presented annually by the juror of this exhibition.

With extreme, heartfelt gratitude to our juror, presenting sponsors, host committee members, staff, trustees, volunteers and artists, I’m grateful to have Louisiana Contemporary be a nexus that has come around again for a 12th time.

William Pittman Andrews Executive Director Ogden Museum of Southern Art