Lauren Ashlee Messina (2025)

Lauren Ashlee Messina, M.F.A., (she/her) is an award-winning choreographer, community builder, and founder of Skool Dance, an innovative online space connecting dancers of all backgrounds worldwide.

Lauren’s work bridges the gap between artistry and community, empowering dancers of all experience levels to rediscover the joy of movement. Based in the Greater New Orleans area, she has collaborated with renowned organizations such as the Marigny Opera Ballet, KM Dance Project, New Orleans Opera, and CAC New Orleans as a 2022 Performing Artist-in-Residence.

Her choreography has graced stages including the New York Jazz Choreography Project, 92nd Street Y, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, and the Mississippi Museum of Art. Lauren is a recipient of the Ailey School’s Oprah Winfrey Foundation Scholarship, a participant in Gibney Dance Moving Toward Justice Open Workshop, and a ’22-’23 Platforms Fund Grant Recipient.

Recently, Lauren completed a one-year artist-in-residence position in the New Orleans Museum of Art’s Creative Assembly (2023–2024), where her work explored the intersections of dance and community for all.

Lavonna Varnado Brown (2022-2023)

LaVonna is a multidisciplinary artist and community worker. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Southeastern University Louisiana with a focus in theater and liberal arts. After studying abroad in London and Paris in the summer of 2009, LaVonna has worked as an installation artist, artist advocate, teaching artist, and tutor in and around New Orleans. LaVonna creates mixed media visual art that is AfroFuturistic in aesthetic with odes to history, the Divine Feminine, and floral daydreams abounding. AfroFuturism is a cultural aesthetic that explores the intersection of art and history with intention to inspire action in the now by healing beyond trauma. In addition to creating multimedia works, LaVonna curates intentional workshops and expos with a focus on healing and raising spatial awareness. Through her work she hopes to uplift the narrative of rest, joy, resistance, and abundance.

LaVonna’s exhibit, Be The Light (Between the Earth & Sky), will be on display through February 25, 2023. Join LaVonna for her exhibit closing event that day from 1:00 to 3:00PM.

Elizabeth Chubbuck Weinstein (2023)

Longue Vue is excited to welcome our newest creative resident, Elizabeth Chubbuck Weinstein! Elizabeth is an independent curator, art historian, museum consultant, and writer based in Baton Rouge. She was Director of Interpretation and Chief Curator of the Louisiana Art & Science Museum for 18 years. During that time, she curated over 100 exhibitions, many of them at the intersection of art and science. She has written about the work of such influential artists as Peter Halley, Sam Gilliam, Howardena Pindell, and Faith Ringgold as well as notable Louisiana artists including Fritz Bultman, Lin Emory, Frank Hayden, and Keith Sonnier. Her experience in the arts includes curatorial, management, and development roles at the New Orleans Museum of Art, Alexandria Museum of Art, and Galerie Simonne Stern. She also oversaw the granting of federal and state funds and conducted a groundbreaking study of museums statewide for the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. She is a past president of the Louisiana Association of Museums and is a former gubernatorial appointee to the Louisiana State Arts Council. She currently is working on a book and a four-year series of exhibitions for the West Baton Rouge Museum interpreting the life and art of Louisiana sculptress Angela Gregory.

Elizabeth’s curated exhibit The Dandelion: A Symbol of Resilience will be on display at Longue Vue March 9 to September 16, 2023. Click here for more information on The Dandelion, and join us for our opening event 4:30–6:30PM, March 9!

Mélange Dance Company (2020-2021)

Mélange Dance Company’s mission is to make contemporary dance accessible to New Orleanians by creating meaningful, high quality productions, often inspired by history and social justice, that educate, entertain, and inspire positive change. We offer free dance classes and provide performance opportunities for local professional dancers. Mélange Dance Company was founded in 2014 by Artistic Director Monica Ordoñez and Executive Director Alexa Erck Lambert. We are a New Orleans-based 503c3 nonprofit working to present cutting edge choreography that thoughtfully engages audiences through a careful connection of movement to music and emotion. Mélange presents socially relevant, multi-dimensional, meaningful, and entertaining narratives that are often inspired by history and social justice. We integrate film, elaborate costuming, set design, and other areas of art to ensure a high quality and unique presentation of dance. The company is comprised of a fusion of dancers who are well-versed in a variety of training, background and styles of dance. It is part of our mission to create shows that are accessible to a wide range of audiences and are meant, not only to entertain, but to be moving, inspirational, and thought-provoking.

Kori Alugas (2021)

My name is Kori Alugas (she/her/hers), founder and CEO of Decluttered Souls, a center designed to empower LGBTQ+ people to express themselves freely and without judgment. Our goals include using art, music, and dance as therapeutic tools for healing, self-discovery, and connection within a compassionate community. The primary aim of our self-care facility is to provide individuals with the resources they need to love themselves and inspire others on their journeys.

Through these creative art forms, clients can express their truths without fear, fostering increased self-esteem, mindfulness, and emotional well-being while reducing everyday stress and anxiety. We also prioritize diversity and inclusion training, including pronoun education, to help organizations create inclusive spaces where marginalized identities can thrive.

This program stems from my own struggles as a member of the LGBTQ+ community. For years, I found it hard to accept my identity and felt ashamed, often living to please others instead of myself. Over time, I discovered the importance of self-love and applied it to my life, enabling me to live authentically. My passion now is helping others embrace their truth, know their worth, and thrive as their authentic selves.

Jakilah Mason, Gardener-in-Residence (2020)

We are pleased to introduce Longue Vue’s inaugural Gardener-in-Residence, Jakilah Mason! Kilah developed two gardens here in our Discovery Garden and East Lawn. Their Afro Gardens here served as part of their continuing study of gardening, plant medicine, culinary arts, and African disasporic cultural practices.

Artist Statement: Jakilah Mason is a child of Africa who is learning to find their way back home. A lifelong learner and researcher, the Afro Garden is part of their continuing study of gardening, plant medicine, culinary arts, and African diasporic cultural practices. They received their MLIS degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 2014, and their bachelor’s degree from New College of Florida in 2012. In addition to the residency at Longue Vue, they also work as a groundskeeper for the NOCCA Institute Press Street Gardens. Jakilah would like to thank their mother, Jacquelyn Mason, who fortunately for them was kind enough to share her gardening and cooking talents with her progeny. To connect with Jakilah over gardening or their other interests (including writing, music making, and genealogy) email them at jakilah.mason@gmail.com.

The Afro Garden’s goals are: to educate the public about African Diaspora culinary and medicinal knowledge, to demonstrate applications of this knowledge through cooking and medicine making, and to emphasize both the wide variety influences on African Diasporic cooking and its prominent influence globally.

Nola.com feature: Herbs and vegetables of the African diaspora grow at Longue Vue, with roots deep in the past

Deidre Hall, Culinary Artist-in-Residence (2021)

Visit Edith & Edgar’s Museum Cafe in the Gate House for hibiscus rose iced tea (garnished with petals from the Longue Vue gardens), lavender vanilla iced coffee, specialty handcrafted baked goods, and much more. Edith & Edgar’s has added a fresh, culinary element to the Longue Vue House and Gardens experience. With seating overlooking the beautiful Oak Lawn, our on-site refreshments have taken on a garden theme under the direction of past Culinary Artist-in-Residence Deidre Hall. Guests can view featured menu items, as well as current operating hours, at the Edith & Edgar’s Garden Cafe web page.

Hannah Chalew, Artist-in-Residence (2019)

As an artist who uses plants as part of her work, Longue Vue was a natural location for Chalew to explore. Most visible during her time on site was a solar cart that produced the power needed for her papermaking that makes up the majority of her artist practice. Chalew led multiple workshops on papermaking and ink made from oak galls, a centuries-old practice that uses growths from the gall wasp as the pigment for ink. Her residency concluded with a group exhibition entitled Overgrowth that included the work of local artists Zarouhie Abdalian, Claire Beauchamp, Hannah Chalew, Ana Hernandez, and Cora Lautze.

Visit Hannah’s website here: hannahchalew.com

Jamar Pierre, Artist-in-Residence (2018)

In honor of the city of New Orleans’ 300^th anniversary, artist Jamar Pierre was chosen for a year-long residency of workshops and exhibitions. With a studio on site that he used daily, JP was a constant presence at Longue Vue, sketching and talking with visitors. The first exhibit in May of 2018 called CITIZEN OF THE WORLD, SON OF NEW ORLEANS featured his work throughout the world and connected it to New Orleans. The residency concluded with A Longer Vue in October 2018 about the work created on site at Longue Vue.

Artist Statement: “My goal as a visual artist is to educate, inspire, and ensure the preservation of the rich cultures and historic and natural landmarks of the world through art. I believe visual artists have the power to universally induce emotional response through each brush stroke, choreographing vital colors and shapes both intuitive and multifaceted.“– Jamar Pierre

Visit Jamar’s website here: artbyjpierre.com

Peg Usner, Artist-in-Residence (2015-2018)

Local artist Peg Usner came to Longue Vue in 2014 for a plein-air class and never left, continuing to paint and teach through all weathers. Her residency concluded with exhibition Impressions: New Orleans, Northshore and Beyond in September of 2018 and showcased her work from Longue Vue’s Spanish Court and the Tchefuncte River to the Smokey Mountains and Jefferson Island. Usner’s control of light brings breath to the canvases as it glistens off the edge of a pool of water. Her technique is equally controlled in her architecturally driven city ’scapes and buoyant nature of spoonbills as they fly into the air. You can find Peg Usner at Longue Vue throughout the year, teaching one of her Plein Heir classes.

Visit Peg’s website here: pegusner.com