I am honored each day to work with the creative, intelligent, insightful group of people who make up the staff of The Collection. The current exhibition, Katrina+5, truly showcases their hard work and dedication. Although it may be painful to revisit the agony and chaos of the hurricane and its aftermath, individuals have been streaming in to witness the extraordinary rescue footage and hear the harrowing stories of those who risked everything to pluck people from rooftops and out of rising water. The exhibition's popularity is testimony to the importance of documenting the event for posterity.

Now we are faced with another unprecedented disaster. The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, like Katrina, will forever change our lives. Along with the journalists and reporters, THNOC staff members are exploring ways to document and preserve information and images for future generations.

The education department has just completed a year of programming in Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes, areas that have been directly impacted by the spill. "In the Slow Blink of an Alligator's Eye" is an oral history and wetlands-awareness project that actively engaged 250 middle-school students and their social studies and science teachers in the 2009–10 school year. The project will continue in the fall, undoubtedly with an even more urgent focus.

The summer has brought reasons to celebrate as well. In June, we hosted a smashing event to launch the autobiography of Harold Battiste, Unfinished Blues: Memories of a New Orleans Music Man, and a delightful symposium on culinary history, Beans + Rice: A Culinary and Cultural Odyssey, cosponsored by Dillard University. Please don't miss the 2010 New Orleans Antiques Forum, August 5–8, and mark your calendar for September 17, when the fall Concerts in the Courtyard series starts up again. Also beginning in September is the much-anticipated exhibition highlighting the extraordinary career of Mignon Faget. We look forward to celebrating our history and our future with you.

—Priscilla Lawrence