Degas in New Orleans, a lecture by Marilyn Brown

TONIGHT: @NewcombArtDepartment

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 26

Patch Sommerville: Out of Place, MFA Thesis exhibition 

reception, 5:30-7:30pm, artist walkthrough at 6:00pm

Carroll Gallery, Woldenberg Art Center

Catalytic Intelligence and Kiln Transformation in the Making of China

lecture by Jeffrey Moser

5:30pm

Stone Auditorium, 210 Woldenberg Art Center

What is a Copy? A Film Series presents
Exit through the Gift Shop

7:00pm

309 Woldenberg Art Center 

The Art of the Entrepreneur: Tulane's New Wave features Art History alumnus

Birds aren’t the only ones that fly south for winter. Sam Barron and his food truck, the Fat Shallot, also have migrated down to the warmth of New Orleans. 

With its stacked BLTs and other gourmet-style sandwiches, the Fat Shallot has nested in and around the city’s Central Business District, an area that Barron said is “much more enjoyable” to serve in the frigid winter months than Chicago, where both Barron and the food truck call home.

“Food truck life is kind of stressful, but kind of fun in the summer,” Barron said, “But the winter just took all the fun out of it, because the water freezes and the propane freezes.” 

For Barron, a 2005 Tulane University graduate, coming to New Orleans feels like second nature. “I have split my time since I was 18 between New Orleans and Chicago,” he said.

Standing in the ample shade of the truck, immersed in the smells of grilled cheeses and braised pork, Barron reminisced on his time at Tulane.

He was an art history major known as “the cook” among friends, who would grill pork tenderloins instead of frozen burgers at backyard dinner parties. After graduation, Barron attended culinary school and then went on to work for three- and four-star restaurants before partnering with his wife Sarah Weitz in the food truck business.  

While in New Orleans with the Fat Shallot, Barron finds that it’s “great to be a Tulane alumnus” because his customers see him as a part of the local community. With a 60 percent customer return rate, Barron is solidifying his relationship with New Orleans as his kind of home away from home.

“There are a lot of similarities between eaters in Chicago and New Orleans: they’re both heavy-duty, serious-eater cities,” he said. “People aren’t afraid of something hardy and spicy and flavorful.”

story by Samah Ahmed, photo by Ryan Rivet, Tulane New Wave, February 23, 2015

'Exit through the Gift Shop' screening Thursday at 7

Thursday, February 26, 7 pm

Woldenberg Art Center, room 209

What is A Copy? A film series is presented by the Newcomb Art Department and the Tulane University Honors program and supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Congratulations to Derek Burdette, PhD '12

Derek Burdette, a 2012 graduate of the joint PhD program in Art History and Latin American Studies, was awarded the Association for Latin American Art's biennial award for the best dissertation in Latin American art history 2012-2014, for "Miraculous Crucifixes and Colonial Mexican Society: The Artistic, Devotional, and Political Lives of Mexico City's Early-Colonial Cristos."  His dissertation committee was Elizabeth Boone (Art History, chair), Thomas Reese (Art History and Latin American Studies), Susan Schroeder (emeritus History).  Dr. Burdette is currently at Visiting Assistant Professor at Swarthmore College.

Patch Somerville: 'Out of Place' at the Carroll Gallery

The reception for Patch Somerville's MFA Thesis Exhibition will be held Thursday, February 26  from 5:30-7:30pm.

Catalytic Intelligence and Kiln Transformation in the Making of China