New Orleans Design Symposium Opens with Environmental Dialogue Featuring Artist and Architect

The 2026 New Orleans Design Symposium commenced last Wednesday with a panel discussion moderated by Jacqueline Terrebonne, Editor in Chief of Galerie. The session featured artist Renee Royale and landscape architect Kate Orff, focusing on the relationship between design and the natural world. Royale, whose multidisciplinary practice incorporates Polaroid photography and ecological materials to examine human impact on the Mississippi delta, has exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans. Orff, recognized as the first landscape architect to receive a MacArthur Foundation genius grant and named to TIME's 100 list in 2023, specializes in urban ecology and regenerative design. The event was held at Longue Vue, a museum that was once the home of pioneering landscape designer Ellen Shipman, who completed over 600 commissions during a period when the field was largely inaccessible to women. The annual symposium honors Shipman's legacy, with proceeds from this year's edition supporting the preservation of her work at the venue. Additional activities included a community design day with a floral arrangement station and a cyanotype workshop led by Royale, whose exhibition 'Shadow Work: Photograms and Other Explorations' is on view at Longue Vue through April 24. The symposium also featured a behind-the-scenes tour of the historic property, a fashion shoot with the New Orleans Fashion Council, and various social gatherings, all catered by Magasin Vietnamese Cafe.