NEW ORLEANS (WGNO )— The city’s newest museum will open in mid-October. It’s not an opening downtown or in a traditional gallery but on the college campus, in fact, it will be the Southern University at New Orleans Museum of Art or SUNOMA.
Ted Ellis is a famed artist, but he’s also the director of the new museum.
According to Ellis, “When we look at what we have here with the African artifacts, you’re talking about the preservation of history and of culture, of identity, of ideology. That’s the basis of it.”
SUNO is also home to a graduate-level museum studies program, so it’s quite natural for the school to now have its own museum.
Adjunct Museology Professor Erika Witt is the curator of SUNOMA and she says that while the collection contains what we consider stunning works of art, many pieces were originally utilitarian.
“They all served a purpose to be used. It’s not looked at to be just solely decorative. I want you to be able to feel the essence and the intention that was crafted into each piece that you see,” said Witt.
The target open for SUNOMA is October 22nd. The theme of the opening exhibition is “I Fear For My Life- The Art of Justice”