The Baton Rouge Gallery’s Annual Surreal Salon Event is encouraging more participation this year through the Goodwood Library. On January 14th, the library hosted a costume making workshop for the Surreal Salon event which will be held on the 28th of January.
The Gallery’s CEO, Jason Andreasen, says the event “We’re partnering with the library to kind of do a workshop event and for people to put their costumes together, crowdsource different pieces for costumes, workshop imagination”.
The Gallery’s event is heavily reliant on costumes and their freedom in expression to make a fuller exhibition.
“One night every year we have an exhibition of 60 plus works that becomes hundreds of works by virtue of all of the costumes.”
Giving the community an opportunity to make the costumes with provided materials has been an excellent way to be inclusive and to get creative by getting inspiration from peers.
This allows people of all ages and backgrounds to come together to make art, get creative and share a smile.
This is some folks’ first dive into the art of surrealism, like Corinne Formeller. Formeller says “My New Year’s Resolution is to make the brain work more and since I retired a couple years ago, you can only exercise so much, and the exercising is good, but I need to do some creative things.”
The different skill levels, unique materials and backgrounds, make for unique pieces all over; letting their creativity overflow the library.
And there were other attendees like Lundqvist who teaches art and is getting inspiration for her new angelic costume piece, but found herself falling in love with the array of items the gallery provided. “It feels like a little treasure trove. There are all of these different things on the tables, it feels like you are just going through and can find these diamonds, or other things, and then you get ideas, and it sparks your creativity. And it’s just a joy.”
It is indeed such a joy to watch Baton Rouge continue to foster the community through creativity and expression.
Be sure to make a costume or attend the event at the Surreal Salon Soiree on January 24, 2026 and the Goodwood Library on January 28, 2026.
