Contemporary Art Center New Orleans (CACNO)

This attraction was worth a visit because the museum got a grant and admission was free. If I had paid for admission, I would have been disappointed. Not that there’s anything wrong with the exhibits, there just aren't many of them. There are two floors to visit. The bottom floor had an exhibit of dresser drawers found around New Orleans after Katrina. Plus, there was a little room painted in remembrance of Katrina. I can’t really describe it well, but that was my favorite exhibit. The second floor had a room of photographs. There’s also a small room with children’s art and a few other exhibits.

My companion and I were very disappointed with the CACNO. I knew that it was a center for all form of arts, but had at least expected a decent sized art exhibit or 2 or 3. Especially when a fee of $5 per person was paid. I know $5 is a lot of money compared to the costs of visiting other larger more well known museums housing extensive collections of art, but when a fee is charged then I definitely expect to see something special.. Something that evokes the spirit of the city or town I am visiting. Something that would make me want to come back and see more.. Something...

There was really nothing to see, except a small exhibit of 7 or so pieces in the downstairs gallery (which seemed to be more of an extra amount of space in the lobby to hang some work in) and a enormous gallery room upstairs used to house 4 small pieces of work. There was mentioned of students work on display upstairs but that was a single wall sculpture created during a children's classroom art lesson.

Don't get me wrong the Children's collaborative wall sculpture and a couple of the pieces on display were interesting. The rest of the art was not to my personal liking, but bad art would not have disappointed me enough to write a poor review for an institution that supports the arts. Art is art and to each their own in what is good or not so good. I am sure they have had several fantastic shows in the past and will do so in the future, but the space is not really worth visiting if you are tourist and wanting to see local or regional art. The space was poorly used and felt secondary compared to the rest of the building.

There are more interesting galleries in the museum district and elsewhere in the city to check out. Just walking around we came across a few and though I did not get a chance to visit it due to lack of time, there is a Southern Art museum across the street from the CACNO and a larger Museum of Arts in the Jefferson Parish.

From what I saw I think the CACNO best caters to the local citizens of the New Orleans as there were several moms with children arriving for art camp and kid friendly theatre.