- NOW SHOWING -

The History & Culture of Abita Springs

Ten displays on the following subjects: Timber, Water, Music, Tourism, Festivals, the Choctaw, the Arts, Our Town, Abita Brewing, and Hotels.

- PREVIOUS EXHIBITIONS -

En Plein Air 2024

Ray Buuck Retrospective

It has been said that Ray Buuck’s paintings enter straight into your eyes and go directly into your soul like a silent storm.

Ray was born in New Orleans. He moved to Abita Springs in 1977 painting local iconic images as well as landscapes from across the country. Join us for a retrospective of one of Abita’s most beloved artists.

OPENING RECEPTION - Friday, October 6, 2023 6–8pm

EXHIBITING - Friday, October 6 & 13 10am - 4pm

Saturday, October 7 & 14 10am – 4pm

Sunday, October 8 & 15 11am – 3pm

All events are free and open to the public.

EN PLEIN AIR 2023
Fine Art Louisiana Landscape Paintings Exhibition

29 Artists + 98 paintings and 34 of them sold - our best year ever.
With major support from:

THE QUILT SHOW
Ozone Layers Quilt Guild
March 10-12, 2023 at Town Hall

May 20 - June 5, 2022
The Dale Hauck Retrospective

Dale Hauck; Visionary and Naturalist

From the artist . . .

“I have always loved the wilderness.  I began drawing when I was very young.  At 19, I entered a monastery and became a monk.  During that time, my love of nature increased.  My religious life led me to a deeper awareness of the wholeness of pristine nature.  Eventually, I became more harmonious with trees than I did with the trappings of organized religion.

So, after six years, I left the monastery and attended college.  I was “taught” how to draw and to paint.  With the knowledge of how to engineer a painting, I turned “professional” and painted hundreds of works.  I sold and exhibited my paintings in various galleries and juried shows and won several awards.

The paintings are less engineered now, more mysterious and uncertain, full of tension and are, therefore, more vigorous.

In our mechanized society, which seeks detailed explanations for everything, perhaps it’s becoming more difficult to experience joy in the unknown.  But I have come to see that painting is one of those creative endeavors of man which helps to keep this joy in the unknown  alive.”

In 1974, when Dale and his family moved to Abita Springs, he was already a successful artist showing at the prestigious Nahan Gallery in New Orleans’ French Quarter.  His depictions of nature were conservative, beautiful, and elegant.  Eventually, Dale, and his wife Kate Dessommes, opened the Abita Springs Gallery and Frame Shop.  Dale sold his work and those of other artists.  Theirs was the first solid emergence of an artists colony in Abita Springs.  The construction of a roundabout later unfortunately took the building. 

Dale’s work changed dramatically in the 1970s after meeting artist and professor Ben Ploger.  He went from expressing nature in his realistic and conservative style to a deeply inspired liberation of color and form.  Dale has over 50 years of experience in painting and sculpting, winning awards in galleries and juried shows.  He has created many works held in private and public collections.

In 1994 he met Jennifer Riisness, who became his muse and partner.  At his Firetower Road home near Abita Springs, they hosted the much loved annual Christmas “Artist Studio” shows of Dale’s work that helped to support him for many years.  Most of the works in this current exhibition came from those shows and are owned by residents of Abita Springs.

- PREVIOUS EXHIBITIONS -

En Plein Air 2022

APRIL 29 - MAY 1

Participating artists included JoAnn Adams, Ben Bensen III, David Blackwell, Al Champagne, Muriel Dauterive, Josh Duncan, Claude Ellender, Oksana Fogg, Christina Goodman, Carol Hallock, Peggy Hesse, Diego Larguia, Renee Mitchell, Mary Monk, Louis Morales, Judy Newman, Auseklis Ozols, Anne Pappas, John Preble, Julie Hughes Rubin, Al Rufty Jr., Phil Sandusky, Peg Usner, Helen Valenti, and Hal Wilke with major sponsorship from CLECO.

The Archaeology of Abita Springs and the Florida Parishes

A presentation by Francis P. Broussard on the Native American artifacts found in Abita Springs and the surrounding parishes. Mr. Broussard is responsible for the collection of arrowheads currently on display at the Trailhead Museum.

The presentation begins at 4pm on Sunday, February 20, 2022 and is followed by a reception. Attendees are invited to bring any artifacts they may have found in the area.

En Plein Air 2021

November 12-14

Participating artists included JoAnn Adams, Ben Bensen III, David Blackwell, Muriel Dauterive, Claude Ellender, Oksana Fogg, Carol Hallock, Peggy Hesse, Diego Larguia, Mary Monk, Louis Morales, Judy Newman, Auseklis Ozols, John Preble, Julia Hughes Rubin, Phil Sandusky, Peg Usner, and Hal Wilke with major sponsorship from CLECO.

Elise Roome Retrospective
A Memorial Exhibit of a Long-time Abita Springs Artist

November 22-24 & November 29-December 1, 2019

It’s a retrospective spanning decades of pioneering en Plein Air paintings by long-time Abita artist Elise Gleason Roome. Elise was a well-respected character around Abita Springs.  She could often be seen heading out on her next painting excursion, with canvas and paints, driving her now-famous, dusty, little red Toyota.  Elise was still painting until a couple of years before her death in December of 1999, at the age of 86. She told her son, Doug, only the death of her husband Francis dampened her call to paint.  Most of her paintings are of the Northshore, Saint Joseph Abbey in Covington, and New Orleans. 

Art critic and historian John Kemp wrote “Being in the fields gave her senses a chance to express themselves.  Her brush strokes are broad and free yet the finished painting is balanced and controlled.” 

A retrospective show for Abita Springs artist/illustrator Roy Robinson was held at the Abita Springs Trailhead Museum December 8-9 and 14-16, 2018. The opening reception was 6-9pm on Saturday, December 8.

Roy passed away at age 97 in January of this year. He was still producing cartoons in collaboration with Maurice Le Gardeur, a.k.a. The Bard of Boston Street, that still regularly appear in the St. Tammany Farmer. His cartoons are known for their quick, lean lines and fluid watercolor technique. Roy and Maurice have won 30 national awards for their “Mona” book series.

Roy began his career as a cartoonist in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II.  He first studied art at the University of Iowa Art School and later, on the GI Bill, at the Art Student’s League in New York City. After moving to New Orleans, he worked 25 years for Mouton design firm, where he designed the city’s logo. He also taught graphics at Newcomb art school.

April 2018

Landscape Art Show & Sale

An exquisite display and enchanting opening reception highlighted the 2018 show.

APRIL 2017

En Plein Air - Inside the Museum for the First Time

We moved from the 1884 Pavilion to the newly renovated museum to rave reviews.  

November 19, 2016 - January 1, 2017

Hometown Teams: How Sports Shape America

The Smithsonian Institution has produced an exceptional, interactive exhibit that we are excited to offer during this Holiday Season, brought to Abita Springs by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities and with the support of the National Endowment for the Arts.

As a Museum on Main Street exhibit, Hometown Teams captures the stories that unfold on the neighborhood fields and courts, and the underdog heroics, larger-than-life legends, fierce rivalries, and gut wrenching defeats.

Learn much more about this Museum on Main Street exhibit here.  Download the press release here.

Here's what our museum looked like before the renovation in late 2016.