Elysium: A Gathering of Souls
by Sandra Russell Clark
Sponsored in part by
Summersett Funeral Home
image: Gates of Prayer II 1997 Sandra Russell Clark
Elysium: A Gathering of Souls displays hauntingly beautiful black-and-white photographs of the historic cemeteries of New Orleans taken by award-winning photographer and curator Sandra Russell Clark. It is the first exhibit to document the visual, aesthetic, and atmospheric dimensions of New Orleans’ unique aboveground cemeteries. These black and white images reflect over 200 years of the city’s distinctive religious and cultural history.
Visiting the cemeteries is a stroll through the city’s past and present. For many natives, cleaning and placing flowers on family tombs on All Saint’s Day is still a hallowed tradition. A walk through Elysium: A Gathering of Souls illustrates the pain of losing children, the course of devastating epidemics, the waves of immigration, the nuances of social status, comparative degrees of wealth or poverty, and a hundred other details of life – and death – in the South.
Elysium: A Gathering of Souls is a recent addition to Southern Visions: The Folk Arts & Southern Culture Traveling Exhibits Program, a program of the Southern Arts Federation that features work that celebrates the South’s rich cultural heritage and traditional arts. This program provides Southern communities with access to artistically excellent traveling exhibits.
The Southern Arts Federation (SAF), in partnership with nine state arts agencies, builds on the South’s unique heritage by promoting and supporting arts in the South; enhancing the artistic excellence and professionalism of Southern arts organizations and artists; and serving the diverse population of the South. The programs and services of the Southern Arts Federation are supported through funding and programming partnerships with the National Endowment for the Arts, state arts agencies, foundations, corporations, and individuals. SAF partners include the state arts agencies of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Elysium: A Gathering of Souls is sponsored in part by Summersett Funeral Home.
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