Wednesday evening’s opening reception in Longue Vue’s Portico Garden and Terrace
Photo: Courtesy Longue Vue/Diego Bernal
The 2026 New Orleans Design Symposium kicked off last Wednesday night with a panel session led by Galerie Editor in Chief Jacqueline Terrebonne. The opening talk featured landscape architect Kate Orff and artist Renee Royale in conversation with Terrebonne on the theme of “Design and the Natural Environment.”
Royale’s multidisciplinary work frequently incorporates Polaroid images and ecological elements, including plants, water, and stone, to delineate environmental and human impact on the Mississippi deltaic plain. Her artwork has previously been displayed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans. Fellow panelist Orff is the first landscape architect to receive a MacArthur Foundation genius grant and was listed in the TIME 100 in 2023. She focuses on urban ecology, regenerative design, and living infrastructure.
Photo: Courtesy Longue Vue/Diego Bernal
“Although from completely different fields, Kate Orff and Renee Royale made connections to creativity, inspiration, and important causes around their work centered on the environment,” says Terrebonne. “While Orff is very focused on the macro with extremely large-scale environmental projects, Royale has a much more intimate approach with her Polaroids. Yet, there was so much overlap and shared vision that came through in the dialogue.”
During the Tuesday, March 24, opening reception of her exhibit “Shadow Work: Photograms and Other Explorations,” Longue Vue’s artist-in-residence Renee Royale (third from left) showcases work created on site.
Photo: Courtesy Longue Vue/Diego Bernal
The Longue Vue venue was the home of pioneering Louisiana landscape designer Ellen Shipman, and is now a museum. Shipman designed gardens and other landscape elements for over 600 commissions at a time when the field was unfriendly to women. The annual Design Symposium is dedicated to preserving her legacy. Proceeds from 2026 will go towards preserving Shipman’s signature at Longue Vue. This year’s event reached out to the community with a guided interactive bloom bar for all ages and a cyanotype learning session with Royale, whose “Shadow Work” exhibit is on view at Longue Vue through April 24.
Galerie’s Jacqueline Terrebonne leads a behind-the-scenes tour of Longue Vue’s historic home on Wednesday, March 25.
Photo: Courtesy Longue Vue/Diego Bernal
“It’s such an honor to speak at Longue Vue,” says Terrebonne. “The house holds a special place for me as a native New Orleanian, and it’s such a beautiful example of exterior gardens and interior spaces so beautifully complementing one another.”
Thursday’s activities included a behind-the-scenes fashion shoot with The New Orleans Fashion Council. Models, dressed in designs by Debra Ales, Gwen Hawkins, and Dr. Veleriá Stevens, posed in the gardens for photographers Sergio Cabrera Bobby Lee, and Sean Vincent Walker.
Photo: Courtesy Longue Vue/Diego Bernal
While seated next to Marilee Hovet, Longue Vue board president, Friday presenter Barrie Benson, interior designer and founder of Barrie Benson Interior Design, asks a question during Wednesday’s conversation.
Photo: Courtesy Longue Vue/Diego Bernal
Longue Vue’s free Community Design Day, sponsored by The Erin and Jean Paul Hymel Family Foundation, featured designed-related activities for all ages, including a guided interactive bloom bar. Participants fashioned their own floral arrangements using materials from the gardens.
Photo: Courtesy Longue Vue/Diego Bernal
Thursday’s Setting the Stage: Design and the Theatrical Arts brought the fields of theater and fashion into Symposium’s discussion of design. Pictured here (left to right) are photographer Sean Vincent Walker; Rosaly Tambini, production assistant for Vivyd Magazine; Bobby Lee, editor-in-chief of Vivyd Magazine; DeAndre Beverly, Fashion Council president and CEO; and Kate Fusilier, founder of Cosmic Collective designs.
Photo: Courtesy Longue Vue/Diego Bernal
Floral arrangement and vegan dessert bites courtesy of Magasin Vietnamese Cafe, who catered all events Wednesday through Friday.
Photo: Courtesy Longue Vue/Diego Bernal
Galerie’s Jacqueline Terrebonne leads her behind-the-scenes tour into the modern art gallery in Longue Vue’s historic home.
Photo: Courtesy Longue Vue/Diego Bernal
Dancer, choreographer, and ceramicist Rebecca Allen of RA|Studio and DeAndre Beverly, president and CEO of The Fashion Council of New Orleans.
Photo: Courtesy Longue Vue/Diego Bernal
Guests mingle during Wednesday evening’s opening reception in the Portico Garden and Terrace.
Photo: Courtesy Longue Vue/Diego Bernal
A special behind-the-scenes tour, led by Galerie’s Jacqueline Terrebonne, brings guests into the historic home’s modern art gallery.
Photo: Courtesy Longue Vue/Diego Bernal
Longue Vue’s artist-in-residence Renee Royale and DeAndre Beverly, president of The Fashion Council of New Orleans.
Photo: Courtesy Longue Vue/Diego Bernal
