NEW ORLEANS – Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser and the Louisiana State Museum announce a new exhibition opening on Friday, February 2, 2024, at the Presbytère entitled To Be a Star: The Carnival Costume Designs of San Nicholas, to commemorate the centennial anniversary of San Nicholas’s birth.
As a child in New Orleans, San Nicholas showed prodigious artistic skill despite extreme poverty and physical abuse. He became one of the most accomplished carnival costume designers of the twentieth century.
“San,” as he was known to his friends, attended the prestigious John McCrady School of Art on Bourbon Street, then moved to New York to study fashion design. In the 1950s, he returned to New Orleans and came to dominate the world of carnival costume.
From the 1950s to 1990s, San designed thousands of lavish costumes for numerous krewes including Endymion, Orpheus, Thoth, Okeanos, Aquila, Venus, Isis, Rhea, Noblads, Jupiter, Juno, Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club, and Pete Fountain’s Half-Fast Walking Club.
The exhibit will include over one hundred of San’s original watercolor designs, mostly borrowed from the private collection of Rocky Russo, a close friend and collaborator, and his wife Christine Russo. Seven complete original costumes from the period are also included.
“As a child I remember my aunt Aminthe Nungesser who started the Krewe of Venus in the 1940s, the first women’s parade, and her stunning costumes. On both a personal and professional note, I’m delighted to see this well-earned tribute to San,” said Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser.
The day prior to the official opening, San in Concert, excerpts from the musical San, will be presented at the nearby La Petit Theatre on Thursday, February 1. Tickets are available on the exhibit webpage and include the concert and the following private exhibition opening in the Presbytère. Concert attendees will proceed in a second line from Le Petit Theatre to the Presbytère after the concert for the private exhibition opening.
Located in Jackson Square in New Orleans, the Presbytère is a Louisiana State Museum open Tuesday through Sunday from 9 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. Admission is $7 for adults and $6 students with I.D., senior citizens (65+) and members of the military. School groups with reservations and children 6 and under are admitted free. For more information on the Presbytère, visit LouisianaStateMuseum.org.
