French Quarter Museum Night 2026

Storyboard
Written By Ellis Anderson
July 2026

In this first-time event, ten museums in the Quarter’s cultural corridor extended hours and offered special activities, welcoming hundreds of enchanted visitors.

- photos by Ellis Anderson

Special thanks to Cajun Queen Tours for pedicab service to our FQJ team!   
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This feature is underwritten in part by the Mardi Gras Museum of Costumes and Culture

Historic BK House & Garden

The Historic BK House offered 18th century dance lessons for all ages, courtesy Heather Valenzuela of Giddy Up Two Step.

This visiting couple from Texas danced with dogs in hand.

Old Ursuline Convent Museum

1850 House

At 1850 House, period--dressed docents enthralled visitors.

The Presbytére

At the Mardi Gras exhibit in the Presbytére

The Cabildo

Diane Honoré, Big Chief Darryl Montana and Poppy Tooker meet at the Cabildo open house.

New Orleans Pharmacy Museum

The Pharmacy Museum debuted a new exhibit, “License to Practice.”

Music by Alexis and the Sanity had museum visitors swinging.

Nous Foundation

The New Orleans Foundation for Francophone Cultures had a red carpet entrance to their newly redesigned space on Toulouse Street.

Co-founder Scott Bazenet-Tilton (far right)

Hermann-Grima House

In the Hermann-Grima House courtyard, visitored were served food by Educated Palate’s Nora Wetzen, prepared in the museum’s rare open-hearth kitchen.

LGBT+ Archive Project of Louisiana

In the new Burgundy Street space, the LGBT+ Archive Project of Louisiana welcomed many first-time visitors. Read more about the project’s new space here.

Historic New Orleans Collection

Historic New Orleans Collection at 520 Royal Street offered an after-party for the after-hours event, attended by hundreds of culture lovers.

The Pfister Sisters entertained guests in the courtyard.

HNOC’s president and CEO, Daniel Hammer, welcomed guests to the first French Quarter Museum Night.

Crowds taking in the innovative, in-depth exhibit “American Revolution: The Augmented Exhibition.” Read our story about it here!

Lady Columbia, the country’s first national mascot, with museum guests.

Ellis Anderson

Ellis Anderson first came to the French Quarter in 1978 as a young musician and writer.  Eventually, she also became a silversmith and represented local artists as owner of Quarter Moon Gallery, with locations in the Quarter and Bay St. Louis, on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.  

Her book about the Bay's Katrina experience, Under Surge, Under Siege, was published by University Press of Mississippi and won several awards, including the Eudora Welty Book Prize in 2010 and the Mississippi Library Association's Nonfiction Author's Award for 2011.  Under Surge, Under Siege was also short-listed as nonfiction finalist for the 2012 William Saroyan International Book Prize, Stanford University Libraries.

 In 2011, Anderson founded her first digital publication, the Shoofly Magazine and served as publisher from 2011 - 2022.  She established French Quarter Journal in 2019, where she currently serves as publisher and managing editor.

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