Creative Residencies
Longue Vue’s Creative Residency Program builds on the legacy of the 1928 Rosenwald Fund, established by Julius Rosenwald to support exceptional individuals with study and travel grants. Over 20 years, the fund awarded 862 grants and supported Rosenwald’s broader philanthropy, including rural Southern schools. Edith and Edgar Stern, owners of Longue Vue, extended this mission by championing art, education, health, music, and voting rights. Today, the residency continues to foster innovative thinkers. For inquiries, contact Curator & Historian Lenora Costa at lcosta@longuevue.com.
Our Artists
Longue Vue’s Creative Residency Program is inspired by the work started in 1928 with then Rosenwald Fund’s program for individuals of Exceptional Promise.
The home of New Orleans philanthropists Edith Rosenwald and Edgar Bloom Stern, Longue Vue was a location of conversation and community engagement. Edith’s father, Julius Rosenwald, was the president and CEO of Sears, Roebuck & Co, and a generous philanthropist in the early 20th century. The Rosenwald Fund had many projects mainly centered on the building of schools in the rural south, but one of the most unique projects gave out grants to individuals for them to study and travel in their field. The Individuals of Exceptional Promise program gave money in varying disciplines from chemistry to music composition. In the 20 years the Fund existed, it distributed grants to 862 individuals. The Sterns followed in Rosenwald’s footsteps with their support of contemporary art, education, health, music, and voting rights. It is through this historic connection of supporting unique thinkers that Longue Vue has created its creative residency program.For questions about this program or inquiries regarding future residency opportunities, please email Curator & Historian Lenora Costa at lcosta@longuevue.com.
Lavonna Varnado Brown (2022-2023)
LaVonna is a multidisciplinary artist and community worker. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Southeastern University Louisiana with a focus in Theatre and Liberal Arts. After studying abroad in London and Paris in the summer of 2009, LaVonna has worked as an installation artist, artist advocate, teaching artist, and tutor in and around New Orleans. LaVonna creates mixed media visual art that is AfroFuturistic in aesthetic with odes to history, the Divine Feminine, and floral daydreams abounding. AfroFuturism is a cultural aesthetic that explores the intersection of art and history with intention to inspire action in the now by healing beyond trauma. In addition to creating multimedia works, LaVonna curates intentional workshops and expos with a focus on healing and raising spatial awareness. Through her work she hopes to uplift the narrative of rest, joy, resistance, and abundance.
LaVonna’s exhibit, Be The Light (Between the Earth & Sky), will be on display through February 25, 2023. Join LaVonna for her exhibit closing event that day from 1 – 3 PM.
Elizabeth Chubbuck Weinstein (2023)
Longue Vue is excited to welcome our newest creative resident, Elizabeth Chubbuck Weinstein! Elizabeth is an independent curator, art historian, museum consultant, and writer based in Baton Rouge. She was Director of Interpretation and Chief Curator of the Louisiana Art & Science Museum for eighteen years. During that time, she curated over one-hundred exhibitions, many of them at the intersection of art and science. She has written about the work of such influential artists as Peter Halley, Sam Gilliam, Howardena Pindell, and Faith Ringgold as well as notable Louisiana artists including Fritz Bultman, Lin Emory, Frank Hayden, and Keith Sonnier. Her experience in the arts includes curatorial, management, and development roles at the New Orleans Museum of Art, Alexandria Museum of Art, and Galerie Simonne Stern. She also oversaw the granting of federal and state funds and conducted a groundbreaking study of museums statewide for the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. She is a past president of the Louisiana Association of Museums and is a former gubernatorial appointee to the Louisiana State Arts Council. She currently is working on a book and a four-year series of exhibitions for the West Baton Rouge Museum interpreting the life and art of Louisiana sculptress Angela Gregory.
Elizabeth’s curated exhibit The Dandelion: A Symbol of Resilience will be on display at Longue Vue March 9 – September 16, 2023. Click here for more information on The Dandelion, and join us for our opening event 4:30 – 6:30 PM, March 9th!
Mélange Dance Company (2020-2021)
Mélange Dance Company’s mission is to make contemporary dance accessible to New Orleanians by creating meaningful, high quality productions, often inspired by history and social justice, that educate, entertain, and inspire positive change. We offer free dance classes and provide performance opportunities for local professional dancers. Mélange Dance Company was founded in 2014 by Artistic Director Monica Ordoñez and Executive Director, Alexa Erck Lambert. We are a New Orleans-based 503c3 nonprofit working to present cutting edge choreography that thoughtfully engages audiences through a careful connection of movement to music and emotion. Mélange presents socially relevant, multi-dimensional, meaningful, and entertaining narratives that are often inspired by history and social justice. We integrate film, elaborate costuming, set design, and other areas of art to ensure a high quality and unique presentation of dance. The company is comprised of a fusion of dancers who are well versed in a variety of training, background and styles of dance. It is part of our mission to create shows that are accessible to a wide range of audiences and are meant, not only to entertain, but to be moving, inspirational, and thought provoking.
Kori Alugas (2021)
My name is Kori Alugas (she/her/hers), founder and CEO of Decluttered Souls, a center designed to empower LGBTQ+ people to express themselves freely and without judgment. Our goals include using Art, Music, and Dance as therapeutic tools for healing, self-discovery, and connection within a compassionate community. The primary aim of our self-care facility is to provide individuals with the resources they need to love themselves and inspire others on their journeys.
Through these creative art forms, clients can express their truths without fear, fostering increased self-esteem, mindfulness, and emotional well-being while reducing everyday stress and anxiety. We also prioritize Diversity and Inclusion training, including pronoun education, to help organizations create inclusive spaces where marginalized identities can thrive.
This program stems from my own struggles as a member of the LGBTQ+ community. For years, I found it hard to accept my identity and felt ashamed, often living to please others instead of myself. Over time, I discovered the importance of self-love and applied it to my life, enabling me to live authentically. My passion now is helping others embrace their truth, know their worth, and thrive as their authentic selves.
Jakilah Mason, Gardener-in-Residence (2020)
We are pleased to introduce Longue Vue’s inaugural Gardener-in-Residence, Jakilah Mason! Kilah developed two gardens here in our Discovery Garden and East Lawn. Their Afro Gardens here served as part of their continuing study of gardening, plant medicine, culinary arts, and African disasporic cultural practices.
Artist Statement: Jakilah Mason is a child of Africa who is learning to find their way back home. A lifelong learner and researcher, the Afro Garden is part of their continuing study of gardening, plant medicine, culinary arts, and African diasporic cultural practices. They received their MLIS degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 2014, and their Bachelor’s degree from New College of Florida in 2012. In addition to the residency at Longue Vue, they also work as a groundskeeper for the NOCCA Institute Press Street Gardens. Jakilah would like to thank their mother, Jacquelyn Mason, who fortunately for them was kind enough to share her gardening and cooking talents with her progeny. To connect with Jakilah over gardening or their other interests (including writing, music making, and genealogy) email them at jakilah.mason@gmail.com.
The Afro Garden’s goals are: to educate the public about African Diaspora culinary and medicinal knowledge, to demonstrate applications of this knowledge through cooking and medicine making, and to emphasize both the wide variety influences on African Diasporic cooking and its prominent influence globally.
Nola.com feature: Herbs and vegetables of the African diaspora grow at Longue Vue, with roots deep in the past