West Baton Rouge Museum Podcast

Presented by John Anderson, son of famed artist Walter Anderson and Anderson family curator. The youngest child of Walter and Agnes Anderson, John Anderson grew up in the artistic retreat at Shearwater Pottery in Ocean Springs, MS. For the past several years he has been the curator or co-curator for twelve exhibits of his father’s art. Additionally, he has written about him extensively, and participated in the production of several films on the subject...

Present by Faye Phillips. Anyone with a love for the Tiger Band or football season in south Louisiana will enjoy hearing about the history of LSU’s world renowned marching band that began well over a century ago when two cadets of the Ole War Skule decided to create a brass band for their university, beginning an enduring tradition...

Presented by Claudia Kheel, Southern Regional Art Historian, Art Consultant for Neal Auction Company, and Adjunct Professor at Tulane and Louisiana State Universities. Ms. Kheel will discuss the importance of Lange’s Depression-era work and that of her contemporaries as well as Lange’s collaboration with the New Deal's Farm Security Administration (FSA)...

Presented by local historian and author Cliff LeGrange. Mr. LeGrange says “There is no better way to help preserve Atchafalaya heritage today than to look at the development of the Atchafalaya Basin’s folk life.” LeGrange explains that the spirit of the basin has thrived in the community of Bayou Pigeon since as early as 1806 when travelers explored the Oak Ridge area where there were hundreds of passenger pigeons feeding and roosting, which is how the area got its name...

Presented by Dr. John W. McEwen. "Historical Geography of West Baton Rouge Nightlife and Bars” places the parish in a post-Prohibition context from the 1930s to the 21st Century. The talk reviews how bars are regionalized across the United States in the present and how the parish bar landscape compares to the rest of Louisiana...

Presented by Judith H. Bonner, Senior Curator and Curator of Art at the Historic New Orleans Collection. She is presently writing the foreword for Angela Gregory’s memoir, Sculpting the Future: Angela Gregory in Paris, 1925-1928, soon to be published by the University of South Carolina Press as part of the “Women's Diaries and Letters of the South Series...

Presented by A. P. Tureaud, Jr. and Brenda Billips Square of the Plessy and Ferguson Foundation. Part of the mission of the Plessy and Ferguson Foundation includes working to identify historic sites that have not been significantly recognized by the State of Louisiana and is active in advocating for preservation and or public awareness of these sites including schools as sacred spaces.

Presented by A. P. Tureaud, Jr. and Brenda Billips Square of the Plessy and Ferguson Foundation. Part of the mission of the Plessy and Ferguson Foundation includes working to identify historic sites that have not been significantly recognized by the State of Louisiana and is active in advocating for preservation and or public awareness of these sites including schools as sacred spaces.

Presented by Attorney Alfreda Tillman Bester. This lecture will include reference to the 1954 Supreme Court case Brown Vs. The Board of Education, a victory for the Civil Rights Movement that overturned Plessy Vs. Ferguson deeming “separate but equal” unconstitutional thus paving the way for integration.

Presented by Attorney Alfreda Tillman Bester. This lecture will include reference to the 1954 Supreme Court case Brown Vs. The Board of Education, a victory for the Civil Rights Movement that overturned Plessy Vs. Ferguson deeming “separate but equal” unconstitutional thus paving the way for integration.