The holidays will come and go, but the LSU Museum of Art has already lined up two exhibitions worth putting on your 2027 calendar. One celebrates a beloved Louisiana painter, and the other turns childhood rhymes into a gallery visit for the whole family.

A Dream about the Real: Art by Edward Pramuk

On view Jan. 28 to April 25, 2027

Edward Pramuk is one of Louisiana's most influential abstract artists and an LSU Professor Emeritus who taught at the university for 35 years. This exhibition surveys a career of more than six decades with paintings, prints and mixed-media pieces from the artist's own collection, many of which have seldom or never been shown in public.

His work grows out of Abstract Expressionism and draws on memory, nature, imagination and music. Jazz fans will want to look for his series honoring legends such as Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington and Bill Evans. He shaped generations of artists, and this show puts the teacher's own work front and center.

Learned by Heart: From Verse to Object

On view Feb. 4 to May 3, 2027

Think back to the first rhymes you ever memorized. This exhibition pairs familiar Western nursery rhymes, lullabies, riddles, tongue twisters and singing games with objects from the museum's permanent collection. One highlight is a 1930s lithographed tin Uncle Wiggily car by toy maker Louis Marx. It is an easy way to introduce kids to a museum, and grown-ups may learn where some of those old verses really came from.

Plan Your Visit

The museum is on the fifth floor of the Shaw Center for the Arts at 100 Lafayette St. downtown. Hours:

Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. (Thursday until 8 p.m.)

Sunday, 1-5 p.m.

Closed Mondays

Admission is $5 for adults. Children 12 and under, students, educators and veterans and their families get in free, and everyone gets in free on the first Sunday of every month.

Two shows, one floor of the Shaw Center, and a good reason to head downtown after the new year.

Photo courtesy of LSU Museum of Art.