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Possibly one of the most significant structures for the revitalization
of downtown Baton Rouge launched at the worst possible time. The
55-million dollar Shaw Center for the Arts, located at 100 Lafayette
Street, opened its doors in March of 2005 – five months before Hurricane
Katrina.
Needless to say, the devastating effects of the hurricane impacted
progress for everyone at the Shaw Center, including the main museum, the
LSU Museum of Art.
“The building has been open now for a couple of years, and we’ve gotten
our feet under ourselves now,” Thomas Livesay, Executive Director for
the LSU Museum, said. “Everyone was mentally and physically displaced
with Katrina, but now we’re back on track and we’re doing something
really exciting.”
 Livesay is
referencing three exhibits that bring the museum schedule through April
2009. The current exhibit, “Adventures in Art,” opened on March 8, and
features over seventy paintings, sculptures, photographs and works on
paper from the permanent collection of the Guild Hall Museum in East
Hampton, New York.
Spanning 120 years of American art, some of the more recognizable
artists featured in the exhibit include Jackson Pollock and his wife Lee
Krasner (abstract), Andy Warhol (pop art), Willem de Kooning (action
painting), and Chuck Close (photo realism).
Truly, understanding modern art can be a daunting task when studying
images reproduced in a book, which is why this exhibit is so
fascinating.
“You can actually see the places where his fingers have pushed in
paper,” Renee Bourgeois Payton, Marketing Director for the LSU Museum
said about a Chuck Close piece while conducing a tour of the exhibition.
“Seeing a reproduction of his work isn’t the same as seeing the real
thing upclose.”
Although the exhibit teaches a great deal about modern art, it also
explains the impact East Hampton and the Guild Hall Museum had on this
particular group of artists.
 “The Guild Hall
was a place for artists to gather,” Payton explained. “It was the idea
of having an artistic community where artists could congregate and
talk.”
The Guild Hall was dedicated as a cultural center in 1931, and over time
acquired and collected works by artists living and working in the
region. In 1973 the museum found its next purpose as it was accredited
by the American Association of Museums, and now houses some of the most
influential works on 19th, 20th, and 21st century American art.
“Adventures in the Arts” is just the beginning for the museum. At the
close of this exhibit on June 8, the museum will open a collection of
American masters from the Blanton Museum of Art’s of the Mari and James
A Michnener collection.
“The first part of July we will have our second major American exhibit,
and it will not be quite as New York centric [as the Adventure in the
Arts’ collection],” Livesay explained.
The “American Masters” exhibit will run June 27 through November 20, and
will feature nearly forty paintings from the Blanton Museum of Art at
the University of Texas in Austin. The exhibit will feature works by
Robert Henri (realist), Robert Indiana (pop art), and Alan Cote
(experimental abstraction).
Once the “American Masters” exhibit closes, the three-part exhibition
series will come to a close with the opening of “Rodin: A Magnificent
Obsession,” on January 24, 2009. The exhibit will feature sixty-five
original bronze sculptures by the legendary French artist, Auguste Rodin,
who is best known for piece “The Thinker,” which was cast in 1880 and is
now recognizable worldwide.
“This will be a once in a life time opportunity,” Livesay said about the
Rodin exhibit. “The sculptures will be going back to their final resting
place once they leave Baton Rouge.”
The sculptures will be accompanied by photographs, works on paper and
the film, “Rodin: The Gates of Hell,” which explores both the creative
and technical process of Rodin’s work.
Each of the exhibits are accompanied by various actives and events. To
learn more about those events, visit
www.shawcenter.org .
General Admission to the museum is $8 for adults, $6 for seniors,
students and LSU faculty/staff, $4 for children ages 5-17, free for
children under 5.
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