KnowLA is a comprehensive, dynamic online reference guide to the history and culture of Louisiana. The encyclopedia is accessible to anyone with a web-enabled device, free of charge.
Franklin Adams was a prolific artist and teacher active in New Orleans for more than fifty years. His cross-media works spanned painting, sculpture, illustration, design, and architecture. Read »
Albritton, Sarah
Sarah Albritton is an artist and restauranteur and artist in Ruston. Growing up as an African American in rural north Louisiana in the 1930s and 1940s, Albritton learned to express the poverty, abuse, and racism she experienced through a variety of artistic outlets including cooking, prose and poetry, and many types of visual art. Read »
Allen, David
David Allen is a walking stick carver from Homer, Louisiana. His work often includes the heads of men, animals, and snakes combined with elements of popular culture. Read »
Anderson, Matthew IV
For three decades, photographer Matt Anderson has focused his camera on New Orleans' musicians, cultural events, and the performing arts. Read »
Ardoin, Alphonse "Bois Sec"
Alfonse "Bois Sec" Ardoin was an accomplished Zydeco accordion musician. Read »
Audubon Park
Fronting the Mississippi River, Audubon Park is one of New Orleans’s most popular attractions for both tourists and locals. Read »
Azaceta, Luis Cruz
Cuban-born New Orleans artist Luis Cruz Azaceta creates monumental assemblages of barricades and photo constructions of urban blight, representing both hope and decay within American culture. Read »
Barthé, Earl
Earl Barthe was a fifth-generation architectural artisan who created architectural decorative plaster works. Read »
Bartholomew, Dave
A pillar of New Orleans rhythm and blues (R&B) community, Dave Bartholomew is a trumpeter, vocalist, songwriter, arranger, producer, bandleader, and astute businessman. Read »
Benglis, Lynda
Born in Lake Charles, Lynda Benglis is an internationally renowned sculptor who is famous for her innovations in both materials and artistic process. Read »
Birch, Willie
Artist Willie Birch's work emphasizes the continuing relevance of African heritage in New Orleans, the vernacular vitality of its African American community, and the city's dark legacy of racial oppression. Read »
Bishop, Jacqueline
New Orleans painter Jacqueline Bishop has created a body of work that has taken her from Louisiana swamplands to Latin American rainforests. Read »
Blanchard, Jim
Jim Blanchard has created a body of art that records the architectural masterpieces of Louisiana's previous centuries through pieces he calls “architectural archival watercolors.” Read »
Blanco, Kathleen
Kathleen Blanco, Louisiana's first woman governor, served during Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Blanco faced extreme criticism of her handling of the disaster. Read »
Blues Music
Of the 119 musicians inducted into the national Blues Hall of Fame, roughly twenty percent are from Louisiana. Read »
Blum, Harriet
Covington photographer Harriet Blum has created a large body of painterly photographs of Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf Coast landscapes. Read »
Bo, Eddie
Eddie Bo was a songwriter, arranger, producer, vocalist, and pianist, born and raised in New Orleans. Read »
Boggs, Lindy
“Lindy” Boggs was the first woman elected to Congress from Louisiana, and she served from 1973 to 1991. Read »
Bonin, Melissa
Lafayette painter Melissa Bonin paints landscapes, she says, “that permit me to sit on the edge of abstraction and reality.” The painter's interest in abstraction began with her studies at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Read »
Book, Michael
Photographer Michael Book's work ranges in character from observations of the details in everyday life to sweeping landscapes. Read »
