Events

The Butler’s Gallery features a small selection of art from our permanent collection. In April the Masur Museum’s permanent collection sustained major smoke damage as a result of a fire in our permanent collection storage facility. Some of the work on view was involved in the fire and was conserved by staff. Other works on view were in the process of being acquired by the museum when the fire occurred. Read the labels to learn more about individual works of art. If you would like to learn more about fire and art conservation, please be sure to visit on a Tuesday or Thursday to see our art conservation exhibition titled The Lab.

Marcus Journey’s video installation is one part documentary and one part self-portrait. When Journey, a practicing Mormon, moved to Shreveport, Louisiana from the West, he felt out of place. During this time he met young Mormon missionaries who were also acclimating to the South. Sensing they were kindred spirits he became friends with many of the missionaries during their time in Louisiana. A friendship quickly turned into collaboration with Journey documenting these young men as they completed an important rite of passage in the Church of Latter-Day Saints. Then, as a critical foil, he spent time with a disillusioned non-practicing Mormon for whom the mission and Mormon lifestyle was not rewarding. Journey’s Mormon identity lies somewhere in between these two parts of himself. His faith is an important part of his life and he questions it to renew his convictions and evaluate his relationships with others.

The Masur Museum of Art’s Annual Juried Competition showcases contemporary artists throughout the United States of America working in any medium. This long-running juried competition also showcases some of America’s best curatorial talent. Recent jurors include Holly Hughes, Albright-Knox Art Gallery; Sandra Firmin, Colorado University Art Museum; Kelly Shindler, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis; George Shackelford, Kimbell Art Museum; Liza Simone, Phantom Galleries, Los Angeles; Alison Greene, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; David Houston, currently Bo Bartlett Center; and Miranda Lash, currently Speed Art Museum.

We are honored to have this year’s juror Gia Hamilton, Joan Mitchell Center Director.

Hamilton’s practice as a cultural facilitator is collaborative and community-based. Artists she has recently hosted at the Joan Mitchell Center, New Orleans include Firelei Baéz, William Cordova, Blane De St. Croix, and Mei-Ling Hom. In 2009, Hamilton founded Gris Gris Lab, as a place-based incubator and cultural exchange space to ensure that emerging thought-leaders could actualize their interdisciplinary projects through an innovative live-work model in Central City, New Orleans. To date, her work with Gris Gris Lab includes the exhibition, Invisible Man at the McKenna Museum in New Orleans for Prospect 2. Her current projects include the Atlanta Biennial, Southern Parlour, and the Afrofuture Society Salon series. Hamilton founded the Afrofuture Society in 2015. The Afrofuture Society is an online platform for artists of color that provides a place to communicate across disciplines and communities. Hamilton is currently on the board of the Alliance for Artist Communities and was a Dr. Norman Francis Leadership Institute 2014 Fellow. The Huffington Post, Come Bien, Pelican Bomb, and Education Revolution have published her writing.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Gia Hamilton is no longer available to come to the reception. Daniel Stetson, Executive Director of LSU Museum of Art, has stepped in to be the Second Juror for this exhibition.

Daniel will select award winners and give a Gallery Talk at 6:45 pm.

We are happy to have been able to work with both jurors!

We are grateful to have Daniel Stetson, LSU Museum of Art Executive Director step in as our Second Juror.

Daniel E. Stetson has over 30 years of executive museum and curatorial leadership experience, including public and private universities and government-based and private not-for-profit organizations. Stetson assumed the position of Executive Director of the LSU Museum of Art in January 2016. Before coming to LSU, Stetson served as executive director of the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga, Tenn. Prior to that, he was the executive director of the Polk Museum of Art in Lakeland, Fla., for nearly 15 years. Stetson holds a BA in art history from the State University of New York at Potsdam and an MFA in museology from Syracuse University. He is a 2010 participant in the Getty Museum Leadership Institute at Claremont Graduate University in Los Angeles. He continues to believe that all art is local and that good art happens everywhere.

Participating Artists
Perry Angelora (NY), James Xavier Barbour (NY), Claire Bendiner (CA), Kelly Boehmer (GA), Jesse Lee Brongersma (NY), Lindy Chambers (TX), David Contreras (CA), Barbara Crawford (VA), Carla Crawford (CA), Julie Crews (LA), Dean Dablow (LA), Mary Jean Davis (TX), Rodrecas Davis (LA), Mira Dayal (NY), Brent Dedas (KY), Lisa DeLoria Weinblatt (NY), Matthew Derezinkski (MO), Kristen Downing (LA), Patty B. Driscoll (AL), Lauren Duffy (WI), Keith Dull (OH), Walter Early (NY), Sofia Echa (NY), Shelley Feinerman (NY), Morgan Ford Willingham (KS), Kit Gilbert (LA), Abigail Good (LA), Samantha Goss (SC), Isabel Gouveia (FL), C’naan Hamburger (NY), Frank Hamrick (LA), Carol Hanna (MI), Michael Hewett (TX), Kei Ito (MD), Wendy Kawabata (HI), James Kelson (NY), Judy Lipman Shechter & David Shechter (NY), Harry Longstreet (WA), Dana Mano-Flank (CA), Stacy Medaries (LA), P.J. Mills (FL), Katie Minyard (LA), Lacy Mitcham (TN), Lake Newton (MD), Trent Pechon (LA), Pat Phillips (LA), Julie Plasketes (AL), Brittany Powell Parich (OR), Amanda Roe (LA), Les Schmidt (LA), Robert Schwieger (IL), Jon Shannon Rogers (CA), Ruth Sharton (FL), Bertrell Smith (CA), Susan Stephenson (RI), Alessandra Sulpy (NC), Tore Terrasi (TX), W. Max Thomason (CO), Monica Tiulescu (CA), Siavash Tohidi (MD), Anne Wedler (AL), Simone Welsh (DE), Terrence Williams (LA), William Winbush (CA), Kalina Winska (GA), Carolin Wood (NY), Christine Wuenschel (IN), and Robert Zurer (NY)