COLLAGE ON VIEW

“Come to me, here beside the River”

at the New Orleans Jazz Museum (on the iron fence outside the U.S. Mint) in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
8-22 September 2026

“Come to me, here beside the River” brings together eight International Collage Artists, each of whom offers a unique take on the Mississippi River as a dynamic force of culture. Artists collaged Harold Fisk’s 1944 Mississippi River Meander Belt Maps along with materials found in archives and their personal material collections to make artwork that invites us to consider the role the Mississippi River has played in shaping history and community. The artwork inspires curiosity or wonder; tells stories about the River’s history; speaks to how the River fits into contemporary life; and encourages the viewer to reflect upon the The River as a source of poetry and spirituality. The title of the exhibition is a reference to Maya Angelou’s (1928–2014) invitation in her poem, “On the Pulse of Morning” where she wrote, “Speak to humankind today. Come to me, here beside the River.”

Harold Fisk’s 1944 Mississippi River Meander Belt Maps document “the nature and origin of the Alluvial Valley of the Lower Mississippi River.” A geologist and cartographer working for the US Army Corps of Engineers, Harold Fisk used aerial photography and geological study to make visible the River’s long, shifting history. Public Domain Review wrote, “Created to illustrate a rather dry government report on ‘the nature and origin of the Alluvial Valley of the Lower Mississippi River’, these cartographic marvels give even the untrained a very good sense of what the report calls the ‘stages in the development’ and the present ‘behavior’ of the river system. To put it in plainer English: Fisk dreamed up a captivating, colorful, visually succinct way of representing the Mississippi’s fluctuations through both space and time.”

To make these artworks, artists drew on personal, collective, and historical memories. In Sweetwater Stays Sour, Jeanna Penn (Oakland, California, USA) draws inspiration from the artist’s great-great-great-grandfather, James, who served as a bartender aboard a Mississippi steamboat traveling between Cincinnati and New Orleans in the 1840s. River as Memory by Ukrainian artist Lilya Chavaga (Brussels, Belgium) offers a view of the Mississippi River as a carrier of collective memory. 

Artworks carry stories of the river as a bearer of magic and culture. Illusory Channelization of a God by Anthony D Kelly (Castlebar, County Mayo, Ireland) regards the Mississippi River as a form of powerful living deity with its own mysterious designs and plans. Matzikama by Matthew Hendricks (Cape Town, South Africa) pays homage to one of South Africa’s greatest jazz musicians. In A River That Becomes a Stage by Marta Janik (Warsaw, Poland), the Mississippi becomes a river-theatre.

With these artworks, artists speak to contemporary issues.  In How Do We Build a City That Floats with These Guys Hanging Around?, Ric Kasini Kadour (New Orleans, Louisiana, USA & Montreal, Quebec, Canada) invites us to think about who benefits from the story of New Orleans as a failed place that must be abandoned. Inspired by oral storytelling sessions with Leon Waters, Nana Anoa, Lakeesha Harris, and LaToya Papillion, Memory by LaVonna Varnado Brown (New Orleans, Louisiana, USA) uses the fragility of paper to evoke the fragility of our systems. 

The abstract collage, Accretion, by Allison Spence (Tallahassee, Florida, USA) used historic materials to speak to the natural, organic growth of the river and its importance in culture over time and its contributions to food, industry, travel, destruction, tourism, and community.  

The exhibition is the first activity in Kolaj Institute’s project, “The River Bends and So Must We”. In 2026 and 2027, the Institute is bringing together artists from the International Collage Community to make artwork that imagines and speaks to what lessons the River can teach us about our own humanity. “We will consider the history of the River in New Orleans from primordial times, pre-Columbian civilization, and to the present moment. We will examine how the River is an economic force, a tool of power, a natural wonder, and source of magic.” 

TALKS & PANELS

Project Curator and Kolaj Institute Director Ric Kasini Kadour will lead an Artist and Curator Talk on Saturday, 12 September 2026 along with New Orleans artists who are participating in the project. The event is part of NOLA River Fest, an annual event presented by the New Orleans Jazz Museum that “remember(s) and celebrate(s) the influences of the Mississippi River on New Orleans’ geography, economy, and culture.” On Saturday, 19 September 2026, Kolaj Institute will host a virtual forum, The Art of River, about the project as part of its Kolaj LIVE Online series. RSVP for the virtual form and learn more.

ARTIST LAB

From Wednesday, 9 September to Sunday, 13 September 2026, Kolaj Institute will host an in-person Artist Lab designed to equip artists with tools and strategies for picking up the unfinished work of history and speak to contemporary civic discourse around social, economic, and environmental issues. Artists will explore historical materials about the Mississippi River and work together to make a research archive for the project. While in New Orleans, artists will work side-by-side to make an artwork that will be considered for the “Place as Archive” exhibition at Kolaj Institute Gallery in October 2026 as well as other forms of diffusion.

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INFORMATION

New Orleans Jazz Museum
400 Esplanade Avenue
New Orleans, Louisiana 70116 USA
(504) 568-6993

Hours:
24-hour access (work is on the metal fence outside the museum)

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ABOUT KOLAJ INSTITUTE

The mission of Kolaj Institute is to support artists, curators, and writers who seek to study, document, & disseminate ideas that deepen our understanding of collage as a medium, a genre, a community, and a 21st century movement. We operate a number of initiatives meant to bring together community, investigate critical issues, and raise collage’s standing in the art world. 

Kolaj Institute’s Gallery in New Orleans presents exhibitions and connects Kolaj Institute and the artists we work with to the vibrant St. Claude Arts District. We produce 8-10 exhibitions a year and participate in Second Saturday, the neighborhood’s monthly art walk, putting the collage art, books and exhibitions in front of New Orleanians and visitors. The Gallery is located at 2374 Saint Claude Avenue, Suite 230, at the corner with St. Roch Avenue above the restaurant on the corner. The Gallery is open Thursday-Saturday, Noon-6PM or by appointment. www.kolajinstitute.org

ABOUT NOLA RIVER FEST

Hosted by the New Orleans Jazz Museum, the annual NOLA River Fest remembers and celebrates the cultural, economic, environmental, and inspirational impacts of the Mississippi River and its inhabitants on the Crescent City and the entire Gulf South region. The all-day festival includes live music, presentations and panels, local food vendors, a full bar, and more. The 2026 event takes place on Saturday, 12 September. Learn more at https://www.nolariverfest.org/river-fest.