New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA)

The New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA), located at 1 Collins Diboll Circle within City Park in New Orleans, Louisiana, is the oldest fine art museum in the Gulf South, founded in 1910. The museum's permanent collection of approximately 40,000 works spans 5,000 years of art history and includes exceptional strengths in French and American art, photography, Japanese decorative arts, African art, and pre-Columbian art from the Americas. The main building, a Neoclassical structure with columns and a formal approach, was substantially expanded in 1971 and 1993, and the galleries are organized across two stories surrounding a central atrium. Key highlights of the permanent collection include an outstanding group of French Impressionist works, a photography collection of international stature, and one of the most significant holdings of Fabergé objects outside of Russia — a collection donated by the Matilda Geddings Gray Foundation. Directly adjacent to the museum building is the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden, a five-acre outdoor sculpture park featuring more than 90 sculptures by artists including Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Jacques Lipchitz, and Fernando Botero, set among centuries-old oaks, lagoons, and winding paths. The sculpture garden is free to enter and operates independently of the museum building, making it accessible even when the museum is closed. NOMA also hosts rotating temporary exhibitions covering international contemporary art and major thematic surveys. A visit to the museum galleries takes approximately 2 to 3 hours. Adding the sculpture garden extends a visit by 45 minutes to 1.5 hours depending on pace. The museum café provides a convenient break between galleries and garden. NOMA is easily combined with a visit to City Park, which surrounds the property.