Shadows-on-the-Teche's New Exhibits

The Shadows-on-the-Teche will unveil four new exhibits on Sat., July 20, 2024, at 3 p.m. at the Shadows Visitor Center (320 E. Main St., New Iberia). 

For the past year, staff at the Shadows has worked on researching, writing, designing, and producing new exhibits that build on the more inclusive reinterpretation of the site initiated in May 2023. The exhibits:

• Provide an overview of national, state, and local history from the Antebellum to the Jim Crow period.
• Showcase artifacts found onsite during archaeological digs.
• Highlight the men and women who worked for William Weeks Hall, the last private owner of the Shadows.
• Share an inside look of William Weeks Hall as an eccentric artist and gay preservationist.

“These exhibits are transformative in the way in which we now interpret and tell the history of the Shadows," stated John Warner Smith, Executive Director of the Shadows. "They are largely the brainchild of Adam Foreman, our Senior Manager of Interpretation and Education, who conceived the project and oversaw every phase of its development and production."

Sponsored by First Horizon Bank, the opening festivities to celebrate this momentous occasion will include music, onsite catering, and a cash bar featuring the Shadows Old Fashioned along with brief remarks by top executives of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Atchafalaya National Heritage Area.

Funding for the exhibits was provided by a grant from the Atchafalaya National Heritage Area with matching funds from the Marder-Vaughn Center for Interpretation and Education at the National Trust for Historic Preservation and a challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Tickets to attend the opening are $35 and include a year-long membership in the Friends of the Shadows. Tickets can be purchased online.

About the Curators & Designer:

Adam T. Foreman has over 20 years of experience in the museum industry. Foreman was previously employed at the National World War II Museum where, as a member of the Media and Education Center, he produced all student programming and Pritzker Military Museum & Library where he established the Education Department and created the Virtual Learning Studio for monthly webinars for student audiences.

Taylor Suir is currently the Program Coordinator for Digital Collections at the Iberia African American Historical Society Center for Research and Learning. Suir recently received her Master of the Arts in History from the University of Louisiana-Lafayette.

Kate Ferry, who has produced award-winning art direction in print design, television, animation, and illustration for advertising agencies and on a freelance basis, was selected from a competitive field of applicants to design the exhibits. Using her years of experience, eye for color, and creativity, Ferry has expertly crafted four distinct exhibits that seamlessly meld together. 

About Shadows-on-the-Teche:

The Shadows-on-the-Teche, National Trust for Historic Preservation site, opened to the public in 1961 with the mission to preserve the buildings, landscape, collections, and historical integrity of the site; to research and interpret through education programs a 19th century southern Louisiana plantation economy and community and their evolution; and to encourage an appreciation of and interest in historic preservation.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, which owns and operates the Shadows-on-the-Teche, is a private, non-profit organization. The Shadows does not receive funding from federal, state, parish, or city government. The site supports itself through admissions, special programs and events, and donations to the Friends of the Shadows.