Aug 6–Sept 18 | BUREAU’s hip hop gospel Amazing Grace ft. Barack Obama at the Ogden Museum

August 6–September 18, 2016
Ogden Museum of Southern Art

925 Camp St, New Orleans, Louisiana 70130
Opening White Linen Night, Julia Street Block Party, August 6, 6-9PM
Hours: 10AM-5PM every day but Tuesday
Free to Louisiana residents on Thursdays from 10AM-5PM

 

BUREAU of CHANGE invites you to the New Orleans debut of our latest work, Amazing Grace featuring Barack Obama, at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in the exhibition Louisiana Contemporary.

 

Amazing Grace featuring Barack Obama is a rap gospel media installation that memorializes Black lives lost to racially influenced violence and voices reactions among the living.

 

Soundtrack | Drawing from White House archives, the beat and chorus samples the President’s voice as he sings “Amazing Grace” for the eulogy of Pastor Clementa Pinckney, one of nine Black women and men murdered in 2015 at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Charleston, South Carolina.  Rap lyrics and jazzy gospel vocals by a New Orleans musician and his mother bring home emotions from Cleveland to Charleston to Baton Rouge, as well as the impact of viral witness video of police shootings in Black Lives Matter activism.

 

Visuals |  A Black man costumed as the Statue of Liberty walks New Orleans’ streets, passing Confederate monuments, several of which City Council deemed a “public nuisance” after the Charleston Church shooting and slated for removal to a museum. Images sourced from news and social media online recall the lives and deaths of Tamir Rice, Walter Scott, Alton Sterling, Pastor Clementa Pickney, Reverend Sharonda Singleton, Myra Thompson, Reverend DePayne Middleton-Doctor, Cynthia Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lee Lance, Tywanza Sanders and Reverend Daniel Simmons, Sr.

ABOUT BUREAU of CHANGE

Based in New Orleans, BUREAU of CHANGE is a collaborative digital media studio that creates, curates and exhibits socially and politically engaged projects. We bring together artists and non-artists to collaborate while expanding skills in technology, creative communication and civic entrepreneurship.

 

ABOUT LOUISIANA CONTEMPORARY

Louisiana Contemporary is an annual event that promotes contemporary art practices in the state of Louisiana, provides exhibition space for the exposition of living artists’ work, and engages a contemporary audience that recognizes the vibrant visual culture of Louisiana and the role of New Orleans as a rising, international art center. Bill Arning, Director of the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, selected works for the 2016 exhibition.

 

ABOUT THE OGDEN MUSEUM

Located in the vibrant Warehouse Arts District of downtown New Orleans, Louisiana, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art holds the largest and most comprehensive collection of Southern art in the world and is recognized for its original exhibitions, public events, and educational programs which examine the development of visual art alongside Southern traditions of music, literature, and culinary heritage to provide a comprehensive story of the South. Established in 1999 and in Stephen Goldring Hall since 2003, the Museum welcomes over 77,000 visitors annually, and attracts diverse audiences through its broad range of programming including exhibitions, lectures, film screenings, and concerts which are all part of its mission to broaden the knowledge, understanding, interpretation, and appreciation of the visual arts and culture of the American South.

 

JULIA STREET BLOCK PARTY
300–700 blocks of Julia Street and throughout the Arts District New Orleans
Free Admission | 5:30–9:30pm

Exhibition Openings at more than 20 Galleries & Museums

Cocktails; Cuisine from 25 Local Restaurants

Cox Cool Down Lounge