New Orleans art museums offer cool news when weather gets hot

Most Louisiana residents don’t wish for temps to soar in August. They’re too busy dreaming of autumn’s arrival. But if the heat index reaches 93 degrees in New Orleans, three city museums will offer free admission to Louisiana residents the following day. The participating museums are the New Orleans Museum of Art, Ogden Museum of Southern Art and the Contemporary Arts Center.

It’s all courtesy of The Helis Foundation. 

But there’s more. Imperial Woodpecker Sno-Balls will offer sno-balls for free on “Art & AC” days at NOMA’s front entrance and Helis will sponsor a raffle at each museum. Visitors should check-in at the front desk and receive one set of two tickets. Fill out the top portion of the ticket and turn it in for a chance to win one of two prints of "NOLA Color Study" by David Armentor. The other can be redeemed for one sno-ball.

To find out if the day’s heat index reaches 93, follow FOX8 in New Orleans with meteorologist David Bernard, along with NOMA’s Facebook page.

Weird, Wacky and Wild South is written by food and travel writer Chere Dastugue Coen.

New Orleans art museums have cool hot deal

It's sweltering in the Deep South right now but all that heat comes with a perk – at least one in New Orleans. If temperatures hit 95 degrees or higher, the Helis Foundation and FOX8 will pay for your chance to visit three cool — literally — museums in New Orleans. Called "Art and A/C," the program does have a few requirements:

1. It must be at or above 95 degrees
2. It's open only to Louisiana residents and residents of Hancock and Pearl counties in Mississippi.
3. You must prove residence of those places with an ID.
4. It's available only at the Odgen Museum of Southern Art, the Contemporary Arts Center and the New Orleans Museum of Art.

To gauge the outside temperature to see if this free tickets to cool museums apply, visit the FOX8 Live weather page or visit the New Orleans Museum of Art's Facebook page.

Chere Coen is a food and travel writer who loves weird and unusual things.