The Bywater sits downriver from the French Quarter, and the industrial buildings that once served the port now carry some of the largest painted work in the American South.
1. Studio BE, 2941 Royal Street
Brandan Odums, who works as BMike, filled a warehouse here with his first solo show as a visual artist. The building runs 35,000 square feet across four structures and up to five stories, and the project took six months with more than 40 collaborating artists. Most of the work uses spray paint and graffiti technique.
The subject is Black American history and resistance. Portraits of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Harriet Tubman, and Muhammad Ali share walls with images of everyday New Orleanians, some rising twelve feet. Coverage describes it as the largest single-site public art exhibition in the American South.
The exterior earns a stop on its own. A mural on the outer wall shows a young Black girl radiating light against bright yellow, accompanied by a poem from New Orleans writer Cleo Wade. Odums painted it in 2016 to lift the neighborhood, and it may be the most photographed wall in the Bywater.
Admission runs $15 general, $10 for students, teachers, seniors, and first responders, and $5 for children 12 and under. Hours show as Wednesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 2 to 6 p.m., closed Monday and Tuesday. Guided and independent tours are both available, and the studio’s own site lists the space at 30,000 square feet rather than 35,000, so figures vary. Call (504) 252-0463.
2. The Press Street murals
A series of murals lines the wall beside the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts on Press Street, where the railroad tracks separate the Marigny from the Bywater. This is not an organized installation with a map. The work accumulated over years and changes as pieces get painted over.
Notable pieces include a graffiti-style mural reading Truth Matters, visible from Press Street near Burgundy, and a work by Jason Wingerter at Press and St. Claude. Protest imagery has appeared on a wall near NOCCA at Dauphine.
Walking the corridor takes twenty minutes and costs nothing. Go during daylight, since several of the best pieces sit along active rail right of way.
3. What Brings You Joy, Louisa and Dauphine
Portland muralist Gary Hirsch worked with students to paint this one on a Bywater corner. The question runs across the wall in capital letters, surrounded by pastel colors and whimsical figures.
Hirsch made the case for this kind of work plainly, saying that noticing what surrounds you on the street can be rewarded with joy. The piece came through the NOLA Mural Project, which has facilitated murals across the city and maintains an interactive map worth pulling up before a walk.
The corner sits a short walk from Studio BE, which makes the two an easy pairing on one afternoon.
4. JAMNOLA, 940 Frenchmen Street
This one requires a correction before anyone drives to the old address. JAMNOLA operated at 2832 Royal Street in the Bywater from August 2020 until April 7, 2025, then reopened four days later in the Binder Bakery building on Frenchmen Street.
The format is different from everything else on this list. Rather than murals, JAMNOLA runs as a room-by-room immersive maze built by more than 100 local artists, with roughly 85 percent of the exhibits made from repurposed and recycled materials. Expect a bust of Big Freedia, a crawfish boil where the crawfish do the cooking, a passage paved in recycled Mardi Gras beads, and a virtual costume closet. Founder Jonny Liss put $750,000 of his own money into the original build.
Hours run Monday and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday and Saturday until 8 p.m., and Sunday to 6 p.m., closed Tuesday and Wednesday. A percentage of proceeds goes to the Trombone Shorty Foundation and Feed the Second Line. Call (504) 233-2206.
