Smithsonian Art Exhibit in Oil City

Last week, I went to Oil City with some friends, to the New Harmonies Exhibit by the Smithsonian Institute. It was at the Louisiana State Oil and Gas Museum. The exhibit was pretty interesting, and I did learn a little bit...like the fact that Leadbelly had been in Angola and sang his way into a pardon from the Governor (what a great state I live in). Also, I never knew that during the Great Awakening, white farmers and black slaves created churches together, and after Sunday services the slaves would stay for hours singing spirituals, while the farmers would stay to listen. Now, that's my kind of church....like the gospel tent and Jazz Fest! This is a poster and photo of the Jubilee Singers, but don't get them confused with the current Jubilee Singers from Fisk University.

And then just this beautiful photograph. It's actually only part of the photograph. I haven't adjusted the quality yet, but I would like to see if I can improve the image and print it and frame it. I just love it.

Here is Shannon as Mahalia Jackson. Her daughter, Riley, was the one to come up with this idea, and Shannon has the rest of the pictures on her camera. So very funny!

There were a few interactive parts, like getting to play the washboard. For some reason I can't upload the picture of Riley playing washboard:

Anyway, it's a good exhibit. Those of you in the Ark-La-Tex have a week left to go. I highly recommend it for music lovers.

After the museum, we took a drive in downtown Oil City, where we saw this nativity scene with a drunk and passed out wise man:

And, before going home, we stopped at Caddo Lake, or as I like to call it, The Lake With All the Trees In It. It was beautiful.

Just in case anyone gets any hairbrained ideas, they posted these:










These were some strange plants floating on the water:



And, another nativity scene, this time the shepards were triplets, and there were four wise men! Who knew?


Overall, it was a pretty nice day in Oil City, a city that's on the ball!