“Captive State” Named Museum Exhibition of the Year by Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities
HNOC joins eight other Bright Lights Awards recipients that were recognized for their significant contributions to the understanding of Louisiana’s history and culture in the humanities field.
Captive State: Louisiana and the Making of Mass Incarceration
NEW ORLEANS (January 14, 2026)—In partnership with Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser, the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities (LEH) announced yesterday that the Historic New Orleans Collection’s (HNOC) Captive State: Louisiana and the Making of Mass Incarceration exhibition has been selected as the 2026 Museum Exhibition of the Year.
Part of LEH’s Bright Lights Awards that recognizes those who make significant contributions to the understanding of Louisiana’s history and culture, the Museum Exhibition of the Year award recognizes an exhibition that brings new insights to understanding the state, its artists and/or its history.
Using historical objects, textual interpretation, multimedia content and data visualization, Captive State traced the 300-year connection between slavery and mass incarceration. The free exhibition investigated mass incarceration through a historical lens and drew more than 25,000 visitors to HNOC’s French Quarter museum from July 19, 2024, through Feb. 16, 2025.
“Receiving this award from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities and Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser as we celebrate our 60th anniversary is a profound honor,” said HNOC President and CEO Daniel Hammer. “For six decades, our mission has been to use history as a lens to better understand our present. Captive State is a testament to that enduring relevance—it was the result of years of collaboration and research intended to spark vital dialogue on the history that continues to shape our society today.”
In addition to the 2026 Museum Exhibition of the Year, Captive State also received a Gold Exhibition Award, Gold Technology Award and Silver Technology Award from the 2025 Southeastern Museums Conference as well as the John Thompson Award for Courage & Justice from Innocence & Justice Louisiana.
HNOC will be recognized at LEH’s Bright Lights Awards presentation at the Capitol Park Museum in Baton Rouge Tuesday, March 24. To learn more about Captive State and HNOC’s newest publication of the same name, visit www.hnoc.org.
Learn more about this announcement from the Louisiana Department of Humanities, and view their other 2026 honorees below.
Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities
Related Pages
“Captive State” Book: Upcoming Local and Regional Literary Events
Reflecting on “Captive State”: How to Take Action
Related Exhibitions
Captive State: Louisiana and the Making of Mass Incarceration
Learn how the institutions of slavery and mass incarceration are historically linked, and how these connections have made Louisiana the world leader in incarceration today.
Related Books
Captive State: Louisiana and the Making of Mass Incarceration
by Eric Seiferth, Katherine Jolliff Dunn, and Kevin T. Harrell (curators) and Nick Weldon (editor)
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