Buy Tickets! Fall Reception

Overview

Buy Tickets to our Fall Reception!
GEAUX SOUTH: An Evening of Southern Art

Thursday, October 15 from 6–8 PM

• Members free; non-members $30
• Gothic-inspired attire / costumes are encouraged. Costumes must follow museum guidelines; please see the list below.
• Event check-in begins at 5:45 PM in the 1st-floor lobby of the Shaw Center for the Arts, 100 Lafayette St., Downtown Baton Rouge.
• This event is intended for adults and college students. Guests under 21 must present a valid ID at check-in and will receive a designated wristband.

Costume Guidelines
We encourage guests to get creative and dress for the occasion! To help protect the artwork and ensure an enjoyable experience for everyone, please keep the following guidelines in mind:
Not allowed:
Wings, tails, or other large/protruding accessories
Masks or headwear that obstruct visibility
Prop weapons
Hard, oversized, or cumbersome props and accessories
Glitter or costumes with glitter
Fresh flowers, feathers, or other organic materials
The LSU Museum of Art reserves the right to restrict costumes or accessories that may pose a risk to the artwork, interfere with museum operations, or disrupt the experience of other visitors.
The museum is located on the 5th floor of the Shaw Center for the Arts (100 Lafayette St.) in downtown Baton Rouge, LA.

About the Exhibition The LSU Museum of Art is pleased to present Southern Gothic: Literary Intersections with Art from The Johnson Collection. Drawing from the celebrated holdings of The Johnson Collection in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and Louisiana institutions and private collectors, this exhibition explores how visual artists have grappled with the American South’s layered history through a lens long cultivated in Southern literature.

Originally curated as a collaboration between The Johnson Collection and Wofford College, also in Spartanburg, the show examines how nineteenth- and twentieth-century artists employed potent visual language to transcribe the tensions between the South’s idyllic aura and its historical realities. Using Southern Gothic literary traditions as inspiration, the grouping considers how artists translate into visual form the same tensions found in the writings of William Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, Tennessee Williams, and Toni Morrison. Often described as a mood rather than a strict genre, Southern Gothic blends elements of horror, romance, decay, spirituality, and dark humor. In painting, printmaking, and sculpture, these sensibilities emerge as evocative landscapes, charged domestic interiors, allegorical scenes, stereotypical antebellum imagery, and portraits that hint at psychological depth and social complexity.

The core group of artworks has been expanded to engage Louisiana’s distinctive cultural environments, layered histories, and enduring traditions. Objects from The Johnson Collection are placed in conversation with selections from LSU Museum of Art’s permanent collection and significant loans from the Louisiana State Museums system, the Newcomb Art Museum at Tulane University, the renowned Roger Houston Ogden Collection, and art collector Jeremy Simien. This expanded framework creates a dynamic dialogue between regional voices and the broader scope of Southern art history. Together, the objects illuminate how artists have negotiated myth and memory, confronting the South’s romanticized imagery alongside its difficult and often contradictory realities.

This exhibition is on view October 1, 2026–January 3, 2027 at the LSU Museum of Art

Exhibition Support Funding for the 2026 Parish America 250 Mini Grant has been provided by the State of Louisiana and administered by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities in partnership with the Louisiana Office of the Lieutenant Governor and the America 250 Louisiana State Commission. The views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of either the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, the America 250 Louisiana State Commission, or the State of Louisiana.

Artwork: Thomas Noble (1835– 1907), Forgiven, circa 1872, oil on canvas, 50 1/8 x 65 inches. Image courtesy of The Johnson Collection, Spartanburg, South Carolina.