EVENTS & EXHIBITIONS

BLOOM!

Special Exhibition • 28 March - 12 May 2024

This spring, an explosion of color rocks the Norton inside and out. Just as our botanical gardens burst forth with blossoms, BLOOM! lavishes upon us an exhibit of canvases vibrant with pigmented petals. With over 435 submissions from 25 states and 12 countries around the world, it was truly a challenge to select the 60 pieces that make up this year’s display. So, please join us and enjoy the beauties of nature without the perils of pollen or bad weather.  

Featured Artists:

Ashley Anderson • Jennifer Anderson • Jillian Appelbaum • Sanya Arif • Lola Ashcraft • Beth Aucoin • Juliette Belmonte • Stacy Beuscher • Lauren Brasseaux
Jaleah Burris • Rachel Cabral • Sarah Clostio • Dorrie Ann Cobb • LaPetra Collins
Lissy Sanders Compton • Latesha Dickson • Susan Duke • Maryam El-Awadi
Hillary Frazier • Destiny Garcia • Taffie Garsee • Estelle Grengs • Naomi Hannis
Inique Harris • Jessica Hawkins • Terry Head • Sarah Hebert • Crystal James
Glenda Johnson • Lindsey Jones • Kelsey Kenneday • Jennifer LaFramboise
Leah Lawless-Smith • Amanda Lynn • Isabelle Massart-Bursh • Ann McCann
Stephanie McElhaney • Keith G. Morris • Linda Moss • Mark Nesmith • Rachelle Perez • Patrick Pietropoli • Shawne Reeves • Margaret Rehwinkel • Kim Rosin
Elena Rossato • Cecily Sammons • Marie Seguret • Stacy Spohn • Elizabeth St. Hilaire • Whitney Tates • Tessa Teixeira • Tonya Trest • Jane Ugah • Whitney Warren
Bridget Winder • Cayla Witt • Maureen Womack • Klavdia Zhernosek • Katie Zitlin 

CLICK HERE for Digital Catalogue

Sisters in Art: Women in Print

Special Exhibition • Women's Gallery

This spring, the Norton welcomes Women in Print, our latest Sisters in Art exhibition, to our permanent Women’s Gallery. This exhibition offers a delightful look at a baker’s dozen of women artists whose medium of choice is printmaking. It includes the rich and varied works of artists such as Kyra Markham, Christis Tirado, Inga Britta Mills, Karen Whitman, Deborah Maris Lader, Dame Laura Knight, Peggy Bacon, and Clare Leighton.

These women have employed printmaking to address topics as diverse as personal identity, social issues, and even the creative process itself. Among the works of art selected for this exhibition are a number of new additions to our permanent collection featured here for the first time.  

CLICK HERE for the Digital Catalogue

Melodious Masterpieces

Do you hear music when you look at a painting? Does a specific scene touch your heart and make you hum a melody? Well, if so, we ask you to join our amazing social media followers who helped curate Spotify playlists full of the songs they hear when looking at pieces from the Norton's permanent collection.

Be sure to follow us on Spotify, Instagram, and Facebook for more music challenges. 

A Day at the Museum Coloring Book

Welcome to the R.W. Norton Art Gallery's coloring book! 

CLICK HERE to download the full coloring book. 

Once you’ve had your way with the Crayolas, please share your creations with the world via social media, using the hashtag #colorthenorton 

Chess in the Gardens

Saturday | 11 May 2024 | Check-in at 8:30 AM

Sponsored by Elm Grove Middle School

Elm Grove Middle School and the R.W. Norton Art Gallery invite you to Chess in the Gardens on May 11, 2024. This spring chess tournament will take place on the museum’s south lawn. Registration opens at 8:30 am with the event starting promptly at 9:30 am and ending at 2:30 pm. Food trucks will be on hand to serve delicious lunch options from 11:00 am-1:00 pm. Students from kindergarten through 12th grade are welcome to participate.

• Junior Level: kindergarten - 6th grade

• Senior Level: 7th grade - 12th grade 

• $5 entry fee

• Prizes for 1st and 2nd place in both levels 

To register, click the link.https://forms.gle/AfXZWpuCQuoL9wcD7 

Reel Adventures: The Straight Story

Friday | 7 June 2024 | 5:30-8:00 PM

Do you like movies? Do you like exploring behind the scenes and learning the nuts and bolts of movie making? If so, please join us for Reel Adventures: The Straight Story! It’s like a book club, but MUCH better! Along with good fun, food and drink, prizes awarded, and more.

It works like this: We pick a movie that is either available free of charge, or at minimal cost, on one or more digital platforms. You watch this movie in the comfort of your own home, and then we meet at the museum for a discussion led by film expert and director Jeffrey Goodman, intermixed with trivia and games.

This is a BYOB evening, so please feel free to bring your favorite spirits and mixers. In addition, we will be providing complimentary water, soft drinks, a signature-themed cocktail (alcoholic and non-alcoholic available), and light hors d’oeuvres. However, you are encouraged to bring whatever snacks strike your fancy.

The Straight Story is a 1999 biographical road drama film directed by David Lynch. It was edited and produced by Mary Sweeney, Lynch's longtime partner and collaborator, who also co-wrote the script with John E. Roach. It is based on the true story of Alvin Straight's 1994 journey across Iowa and Wisconsin on a lawn mower. Alvin is an elderly World War II veteran who lives with his kind, intellectually disabled daughter. When he hears that his estranged brother has suffered a stroke, Alvin makes up his mind to visit him and hopefully make amends before he dies. Because Alvin's legs and eyes are too impaired for him to receive a driver's license, he hitches a trailer to his recently purchased thirty-year-old John Deere 110 Lawn Tractor, which has a maximum speed of about 5 miles per hour, and sets off on the 240-mile journey from Laurens, Iowa, to Mount Zion, Wisconsin.

The Straight Story is available on Disney+ with a subscription and to rent on YouTube, Google Play, Apple TV, and Amazon Prime for $3.99.

CLICK HERE to purchase your tickets.

Pastoral Promises & NATURALish Opening Reception

Friday | 30 May 2024 | 5:00 - 7:00 PM

The R.W. Norton Art Gallery invites you to the opening reception for NATURALish featuring author and illustrator Jared Chapman and Pastoral Promises. Both exhibitions will run through the summer, and we want YOU to be the first to see them! Please join us Thursday, 30 May from 5:00–7:00 pm and enjoy speaking with the guest curator, mingling with art lovers, and more. Be the first to view both summer exhibitions and enjoy an evening at the Norton. This event is free and open to the public. Bring a friend! We hope to see you there! 

Pastoral Promises

Pastoral themes have been depicted in literature, music, poetry, and fine art throughout mankind’s history. These idealized rural settings with their languid livestock were quite popular in the early 19th century, especially in Germany, England, and France. American artists also contributed to the growing popularity of this genre with their portrayals of idyllic landscapes, noble peasants, and cattle and sheep offering an escape from the rapidly urbanizing cities. These artists explored the romance of an untouched nature and simple country life in serene settings, unsullied by the damaging effects of industrial progress. Ironically, the artworks of this genre were often favored by wealthy patrons, who had made their fortunes in the very same noisy, crowded cities they longed to escape.
From sheep and cows to rolling verdant hills and fields of wildflowers, the Elysian scenes featured in Pastoral Promises are sure to transport you to a simpler and slower time.  

NATURALish featuring Jared Chapman

The R.W. Norton Art Gallery invites you to join us for our new exhibition, NATURALish, featuring author and illustrator Jared Chapman. In the artist’s own words, NATURALish is about things I daydream when I’m supposed to be working. It’s also what I mindlessly draw when I’m doodling in my sketchbook to avoid doing other, more pressing stuff. Apparently, I procrastinate a lot. Books and documentaries about nature are nice, but they never answer the questions I have – like, how do horses spend their weekends or do rocks get along since they’re stuck on the ground together? The pieces in NATURALish are answers to those questions. It is also the reason why I will never be asked to teach science in a public school.  

Jared Chapman is the author-illustrator of the popular books Vegetables in Underwear and Fruits in Suits. Other books he has written and illustrated include: Steve, Raised by Wolves, Pirate, Viking & Scientist, T.Rex Time Machine and Seals Are Jerks. He is the illustrator of It’s Not My Fault by Jory John, the Didi Dodo series by Tom Angleberger, and the Crab & Snail series by Beth Ferry. Jared was born in Louisiana, grew up in Texas, went to college in Georgia, and now calls the piney woods of northeast Texas his home.  

Summer Camps 2024

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Gamp Camp

Join us for Game Camp and ignite some old school cool as we teach new dogs old tricks. From chess to Monopoly, we will spend the day playing classic board and card games. Your game masters will engage you in exercises for your brain as we participate in everything from solo to group games. So, put down the electronic devices and get ready to engage in some old fashioned fun. 

CLICK HERE • June 18-21: Game Camp Session 1 is for students who have completed 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade.

CLICK HERE • June 25-28: Game Camp Session 2 is for students who have completed 5th, 6th, or 7th grade. 

Times: 8:00 am - 12:00 pm • Location: 4747 Creswell Ave. Shreveport, LA 71106 • Fee: $30 

Scribes & Scribbles Camp

Join us as we explore and transmute art into words. Capitalizing on museum pieces for inspiration, we will use a variety of media to create art, poems, stories, word art, collage, journal writing, and more! 

CLICK HERE • July 9-12: Scribes & Scribbles 1 is for students who have completed 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade.  

CLICK HERE • July 16-19: Scribes & Scribbles 2 is for students who have completed 5th, 6th, or 7th grade. 

Times: 8:00 am - 12:00 pm • Location: 4747 Creswell Ave. Shreveport, LA 71106 • Fee: $30  

Art & Architecture Camp

If it were your job to construct a bridge that could hold hundreds of cars without falling down, how would you do it? What shapes, structures, and materials would you use to ensure your bridge was strong enough to handle the weight? How would it look?
Join us this summer to learn techniques engineers use in making sturdy structures out of simple materials. Experiment to learn which shapes hold the most weight, and which are easiest to make. In this camp, you’ll get to design, build, and then test your own bridge against other designs to see whose is strongest! 

CLICK HERE • July 23-26: Art and Architecture Camp is for students who have completed 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 6th grade.  

Times: 8:00 am - 12:00 pm • Location: 4747 Creswell Ave. Shreveport, LA 71106 • Fee: $30   

Twilight Talkies

Join us for our Twilight Talkies series on the first Friday of each month! Starting in April and lasting through October, we show a family-friendly movie on the front lawn of the museum for FREE!!  Bring your chairs and blankets and enjoy a movie under the stars.  Sing, dance, and have a GREAT time! Local food trucks will be on hand with yummy treats to enjoy.

Movies start at dusk. 

Food trucks available from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm (Check our social media for a list of trucks.)

No Pets Allowed at this Event

• May 17: The Sandlot sponsored by the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana

• June 21: Legally Blonde 

• September 6: Grease

• September 20: The Secret Life of Pets sponsored by Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers 

• October 11: Hocus Pocus sponsored by Ivy B Photography