OGDEN
MUSEUM RESIDENCY
In February 2002, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art/University
of New Orleans initiated its educational outreach program
called "The Artist and A Sense of Place" with a
month-long residency by multidisciplinary artist Jose Torres
Tama. Three artists whose work was in the Mueum’s permanent
visual arts collection were placed in schools to work in neighborhoods
with students from a local middle school and explore the richness
of each particular area. Jose was the first artist chosen
for a month-long residency at McDonogh 15 in the French Quarter--right
outside of his own Marigny neighborhood. He worked extensively
with the 6th grade class to develop a “Youth Performance
Project” that also contained a visual arts component.
As part
of the project, the students were involved in discovering
the rich heritage of the French Quarter, and they learned
about the lives of the “free people of color”
who were instrumental in building the Vieux Carre and and
were an integral part of the social and political life of
the city during the late 18th and early 19th Century.
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artist created three new drawings that celebrated and honored
“free people of color” such as Marie Laveau, the
renown Voodoo priestess; Edmond Dede, a classical composer
and violinist; and Rose Nicaud, an African woman who bought
herself out of slavery by starting the first coffee stand
on the river. The students learned about the heroic lives
of these individuals and their cultural contributions.
In addition,
about twenty the students performed an ensemble performance
piece called “Discovering the Quarter: A Sense of
Place in New Orleans” in which they performed their
spoken word poems, vignettes and musical pieces exploring
their lives as young students in historical New Orleans
and commenting on the legacy of the “free people of
color”.
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