Exhibitions and Public Programming

Tulane University Special Collections (TUSC) welcomes students, educators, and learners of all kinds for communal exploration and study. If you would like to partner with us on our outreach activities or learn more about TUSC programming, please contact specialcollections@tulane.edu.

For directions and hours, please see our Visitor Information page. 

Printing Beauty: The Kelmscott Press and the Arts & Crafts Movement

September 20, 2024 – January 17, 2025

The exhibition features holdings from the Kelmscott Collection at Tulane University Special Collections. It places the materials in dialogue with items from other contributors to the Arts & Crafts Movement during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Europe and the United States. Advocating economic and social reform, proponents of the Arts & Crafts Movement addressed the creative and domestic needs of a growing middle class. They believed that art should be accessible to all and incorporated into the fabric of everyday life. To these ends, the movement emphasized the value of handmade objects, slow production, and traditional design techniques. The materials in this exhibition highlight their creators’ lasting impact on book design, craftsmanship, and cultural heritage in the wake of the Industrial Revolution.

Curated by Agnieszka Czeblakow, Faye Daigle, and Kevin Williams, Printing Beauty: The Kelmscott Press and the Arts & Crafts Movement opens September 20, 2024 and runs through January 17, 2025 at the Tulane University Special Collections 2^nd Floor Gallery, 6801 Freret Street, Joseph Merrick Jones Hall, on Tulane University’s Uptown campus. Hours are 10am–4pm Monday-Friday. Admission is free and open to the public.

For more information contact: 

Kevin Williams, Coordinator for Exhibits & Outreach, 
Tulane University Special Collections 
(504) 247-1836
kevinw@tulane.edu 

Intentional Listening: Mardi Gras Indians
Monday, February 17, 2025
1:00 - 2:00 p.m.

Howard-Tilton Memorial Library - Room 430, 7001 Freret St.
Tulane University

RSVP required
For the security of the primary source materials on view, food and drink will not be permitted in the room.

Learn about the Black Masking Indian culture of New Orleans and the music making of the Wild Magnolias Mardi Gras Indians, and listen to recordings representing their history and traditional and contemporary sounds.

This session will incorporate both audio recordings and rare archival materials representing the Wild Magnolias, including a Q&A session.

Co-led by:

• Matt Sakakeeny, Associate Professor, Newcomb Department of Music
• Melissa A. Weber, curator of the Hogan Archive of New Orleans Music and New Orleans Jazz, Tulane University Special Collections
• lisa Hooper, Head of Media Services, Howard-Tilton Memorial Library
• Special guest Big Chief Bo Dollis Jr. of the Wild Magnolias

The Intentional Listening Series is a production of Media Services at Tulane University Libraries and is a monthly exploration of the creative and natural sounding world. This series creates the space and time to experience listening in a way that takes us beyond the everyday cacophony to hear our world with curiosity and intention.

Sponsors: Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane University Special Collections, Newcomb Department of Music

For more information, email mweber3@tulane.edu.
 

In the Archives: Researching and Learning with Primary Source Materials about New Orleans
Wednesday, March 19, 2025
3:00 - 4:00 p.m.

Louis Prima Room (room 306) in Jones Hall, 6801 Freret St.
Tulane University

RSVP required

This hands-on introduction to archives allows attendees to engage with holdings from the Hogan Archive of New Orleans Music and New Orleans Jazz, a unit of Tulane University Special Collections.

Learn about what archives are, how they're interesting and can benefit you, and why archives about New Orleans music and culture are important. Led by Melissa A. Weber, Hogan Archive curator.

This workshop is open to both the Tulane University community and the general public. Students are encouraged to attend. Capacity: 20 attendees.

For more information, email mweber3@tulane.edu.

Recent exhibitions include “I Shall Not Be Moved”: Black Student Life at Tulane, 1963-2023 (April - December 2023); Absolutely Unpredictable: Anne Rice in the City of Transgression (October 2022 - February 2023); Music IS the Scene": Jazz Fest's First Decade, 1970-1979 (March - May 2022); Captive Voices: Hearing, Seeing, and Imagining Angola Prison, launched as a complement to the 2019 Tulane Reading Project selection, Vengeance by Zachary Lazar; and Proteus 1892, Teunisson 1902, and Louis Armstrong 1949: Selections from the Carnival Holdings.

TUSC staff, as well as many Tulane students, have created several digital exhibitions that feature TUSC collections. Some highlights are linked here; to view all of the TUSC digital exhibitions, please visit the Tulane Libraries portal for online exhibitions. 

Tulane University Special Collections (TUSC) welcomes loan requests from institutions with established exhibition programs and professional staff qualified to handle the materials requested. Loan requests are judged on their own merits and the final decision to loan an item is made on a case-by-case basis. TUSC will provide an agreement for approved loans and cannot sign agreements from a borrowing institution. For more information about our loan program, please email Kevin Williams, Coordinator for Exhibits & Outreach, Tulane University Special Collections, kevinw@tulane.edu.