New Orleans Cultural Recovery Continues

Speaking of post-Katrina New Orleans, Stevenson Swanson recently published a comprehensive update on the cultural impact of Katrina in the Chicago Tribune. From Swanson's piece:

"There's no quick fix for a disaster like this," said John Bullard, director of the New Orleans Museum of Art, which suffered an estimated $6 million in damage to its building and adjacent sculpture garden. "It's going to be 5 to 10 years before the city comes back, but it won't look the same"....

Seepage through the basement floor left as much as 4 inches of standing water in storage areas and offices. Most of the art stored in the basement was spared because works are kept in raised storage racks, but one Japanese screen was damaged....Conservators at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art repaired the damage.

Here in New York, the gallery Wildenstein & Co. is currently hosting in a benefit exhibition, to Feb. 9, for the New Orleans Museum, comprised of 86 works from its European and American collections (14th-21st century), plus 9 additional pieces from private New Orleans collections. (More on the Wildenstein show here.) That show will travel to the Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, June 9-Oct. 11, with a portion of the proceeds to benefit NOMA.

And on the web, NOMA has a "Make a Donation" button on the home page of its website.