All St. Claude Arts' District Events

A native of Atlanta, Freeman moved to New Orleans in 1958 and enthusiastically embraced the local art scene. Encouraged to pursue her own creativity, Freeman enrolled in art school at Newcomb College in 1970. She painted extensively until 1975, when she put her art career on hold to raise children. She ran Eclectics, a popular ethnic art gallery in the French Quarter.

In 1970, she began a long and influential association with the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation – almost by happenstance. She was tending her gallery when Preservation Hall founder Allan Jaffe walked in and said, “Can you get out for a while? There’s something going at Congo Square I think you’d enjoy.” It was the first Jazz Fest. Freeman joined the board of the fledgling Foundation, serving as president from 1981 to 1984.

In the mid-1990s Freeman returned to Atlanta and resumed painting, amassing a large collection of works – all of which were destroyed in a catastrophic fire in her home studio in 2005. The works in the current exhibit – all acrylic on canvas – represent her output since the fire, and her response to it.

“It’s just a violent reaction to the devastation,” Freeman says of her recent work. “You just can’t get enough paint on the canvas. You have a lot of energy: ‘I’m just not going to let this fire burn me up. I’m not going to let it happen.... You create something, and then you see it vibrate and change and grow and explode and get back together,” she says. “The ‘end of the world’ doesn’t scare you. It’s not going to end. It’s going to keep on going, no matter what anybody does.”

Opening Reception: Saturday, January 14th, 6 - 8pm

Closing Reception: Thursday, March 1, 5 - 8pm

Gallery Hours: 10am - 5pm. Monday - Friday