The R.W. Norton Art Gallery: A Cabinet of Curiosities
This quote by Edgar Degas was the first thing to greet me on the homepage of rwnaf.org, the official website for Shreveport’s own R.W. Norton Art Gallery. Affectionately shortened to just “The Norton” by most, the gallery serves as one of Shreveport’s many illustrious museums. Though the actual exhibits are closed Monday-Wednesday, Thursday to Sunday, you can explore to your heart’s content from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM at no cost. That’s right, you broke college student, you! It is completely free to get into the Norton Art Gallery for both independent and guided tours. You can either venture out alone or fill out the form on their website and get yourself a guided tour of the exhibits free of cost!
Speaking of the exhibits, the Norton has a vast variety of pieces for all ages, from paintings to statues to pottery and a room full of antique porcelain dolls. Although the museum prides itself on its more permanent exhibits – its European and North American collections with artists Jacob van Ruisdael, Meindert Hobbema, Mary Cassatt, Auguste Rodin, Frederic Remington, and Charles Marion Russell – it also cultivates a series of rotating exhibits and community showcases throughout the year. One such recent example is the enthusiastically named nature exhibit, BLOOM! a floral exhibit comprised of 51 paintings from across the country. BLOOM! will remain on display at the Norton until May 8th for all your local wannabe florists with pollen allergies who would like to enjoy the beauty of nature without wanting to expire!
For those slightly more pollen-tolerant members of the community, the Norton also features a lovely botanical garden! From 4:00 PM to sunset on Mondays and Tuesdays, and from sunrise to sunset the rest of the week, you can stroll through forty acres of bridges, pathways, statuaries, and flora and fauna galore! A picturesque place, perfect for any picnic!
Are gardens not your cup of tea? Is art only semi-interesting to you? The Norton is here to entertain and educate all ages. For any younger siblings with no summer plans, we invite you to check out Game Camp (June 7th-10th and June 14th-17th) and Scribes and Scribbles Camp (July 5th-8th and July 12th-15th). And there's always their vastly popular “Twilight Talkies," a family-friendly event that takes place on the first Friday of every month. Families and individuals of all ages can bring lawn chairs, blankets, hammocks, and even those weird inflatable wind chairs to sit out on the grass in front of a projector to watch a variety of movies! The 2022 schedule for this monthly movie session currently features the classic Beauty and the Beast on May 6th, Leap on June 3rd, The Sandlot on July 1st, and more. Come for the films and stay for the local food trucks!
The entertainment (and educational) opportunities do not end when you exit the museum--you can always find playlists curated by patrons of the gallery focused on individual paintings in the permanent collection as a part of their Melodious Masterpiece program. The Norton also runs an ongoing program to honor those who served and were affected by WWII in an ongoing project called the Oral History Project. Since 2003, Norton has been interviewing individuals about their personal and collective experiences during the war and its aftermath. They then provide a copy to the museum and offer one to the families of those individuals. These recordings are added to an extensive library maintained by the Norton, containing a collection of books approximating 15,000 volumes, with a rare double-elephant folio of The Birds of America by James John Audubon.
This museum, a treasure within our community, would not be here without its namesake, Richard W. Norton, an oil magnate and fine art collector in Rodessa, Louisiana. Enabled by family wealth from the oil boom--his wife and son were inspired to establish the R. W. Norton Art Foundation as a posthumous honor. His legacy was created in this community gem so that you can stroll through room upon room of fine art or wander through a meadow of floral finery. Do yourself a favor, honor his legacy, take a drive down to 4747 Creswell Avenue and let the spectacle of it all guide you. (Just don't forget your Zyrtec!)