WHAT: The New Orleans Botanical Garden will extend its hours to 8 p.m. every Wednesday during the month of October beginning Wednesday, October 2 to celebrate “Evenings with Enrique.” Throughout the year, each Wednesday is free to Louisiana residents, courtesy of The Helis Foundation.
Located inside New Orleans City Park, the New Orleans Botanical Garden is one of the few remaining examples of public garden design from the Works Progress Administration and showcases the Art Deco influences of three renowned talents of the era: architect Richard Koch, landscape architect William Wiedorn, and artist Enrique Alférez. In October 2015, the New Orleans Botanical Garden unveiled The Helis Foundation Enrique Alférez Sculpture Garden, an 8,000 sq. ft. park featuring 15 sculptures by the famed Mexican-American artist set within sweeping footpaths surrounded by lush tropical flowers and shrubs.
Each week, “Evenings with Enrique” will feature prominent musicians playing in the garden while visitors view the sculptures under enhanced lighting and fire baskets suspended from the branches of the live oak trees. Guests are invited to purchase mojitos and Latin food provided by La Cocinita food truck, as well as “Kitchen in the Garden,” a new, permanent kitchen located in the New Orleans Botanical Garden. Additional beverages will be available for purchase, as well.
New Orleans Botanical Garden has partnered with Cynthia Ramirez, artist and professor of fine art at Southern University at New Orleans, to create a Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) altar, which will be on view from October 28-November 1. Day of the Dead altars have typical elements such as artificial skulls and marigold flowers that can be traced all the way back to Aztec times. Pre-Colombian traditions blend with Catholicism to produce the altars we know today, which are decorated with comical skeleton sculptures, skull-shaped candy and other death-defying touches.
WHEN: The New Orleans Botanical Garden will extend its hours every Wednesday during the month of October (October 2, 9, 16, 23 and 30) until 8 p.m.
Free hours: 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Special Programming: 5-8 p.m.
October 2 Leonardo & Zelia
Pianist from Colombia, Vocalist from Guatemala
October 9 Paki Saavedra
Guitarist and Singer from Honduras
October 16 Javier Gutierrez
Guitarist and Singer from Bolivia
October 23 Patrice Fisher & Javier Olondo
Harpist from New Orleans, Guitarist from Cuba
October 30 Geovane Santos Trio
Guitarist and Singer from Brazil
WHERE: 5 Victory Avenue, City Park Enter through the Oscar J. Tolmas Building