Louisiana Museums & Landmarks

Louisiana Art & Science Museum

With no shortage of things to celebrate, Louisiana museums and landmarks provide a wealth of knowledge and insight to the people and places across this great state and their contributions to the surrounding world. At art museum exhibitions that highlight the state’s past, analyze its present, and speculate about its future, observers enjoy looking at society through an artist’s lens. At the state’s many science and history museums, observers learn about how we’ve arrived where we are today and see first-hand the innovations and moments that changed the world. Plan your trip to an eye-opening exhibit today and experience Louisiana anew.

Featuring a growing collection of Modern and Contemporary Louisiana, Southern, and American art, the Alexandria Museum of Art (AMoA) fosters a culturally rich community by engaging, enlightening, and inspiring individuals through innovative art experiences. On display in the main gallery is the collection exhibition, Connected Visions, Louisiana’s Artistic Lineage. AMoA also presents temporary exhibitions three times a year on varying themes. The current exhibition, Monumental: Colossal Works from the Collection, features a selection of works that are large in scale or that present objects and figures as larger than life, as well as works that invite the viewer into an expanding and endless space.

Beginning in March, AMoA will present the Smith & Wisznia Collection, a recent acquisition of works created in post-Katrina New Orleans and curated by Terrence Sanders-Smith during this period when Louisiana experienced an art renaissance of renewal, rebirth, and rebuilding.

For more information, visit themuseum.org.

Housed in a historic train station on the banks of the Mississippi River in downtown Baton Rouge, the Louisiana Art & Science Museum (LASM) seeks to encourage discovery, inspire creativity, and foster the pursuit of knowledge. Unique to the region, LASM is the only art and science museum in a 600-mile radius and contains the awe-inspiring Irene W. Pennington Planetarium, which is the largest and most technologically-advanced planetarium in Louisiana.

LASM’s interdisciplinary mission is evident through its art and science galleries, containing objects including an authentic ancient Egyptian mummy and a Triceratops skull on loan from Raising Cane’s and the Todd Graves Family. LASM’s Iridescence exhibition, on view until July 2022 and created in partnership with the LSU Department of Entomology, includes paintings, sculptures, and photographs by international artists that explore the fascinating phenomenon of iridescence.

Learn more about LASM at lasm.org and explore the museum online at virtual-lasm.org.

Located in Madisonville, the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Maritime Museum is an educational, non-profit organization “bringing Louisiana’s unique maritime history to life.” The museum is the caretaker of the Tchefuncte River Light Station and associated Lightkeeper’s Cottage, which has been relocated to the museum grounds. Exhibits include dioramas of Louisiana’s lighthouses, the Fresnel lens rescued from the Chandeleur Lighthouse, the lantern room rescued from the Pass Manchac Light, and exhibits and films depicting life on the area’s waterways.

Additionally, the museum features a full-size replica of the Pioneer I—the forerunner of the CSS Hunley, the first submarine to sink a warship—and Razzle Dazzle, an exhibit highlighting the various methods used to camouflage ships during WWI and WWII. The museum’s education programs include Field Trips for students, outreach to schools, adult learning classes such as wooden boat building, and classes taught by the Power Squadron and Coast Guard on water safety, navigation, and more.

The museum’s annual Wooden Boat Festival takes place annually in October and celebrates the art of wooden and classic boats while featuring over 100 boats. For more information, visit lpbmm.org.